While Henry Cavill‘s transformation into Geralt of Rivia for Netflix’s The Witcher clearly involved the actor sculpting his body into prime physical shape, he also pushed himself to extreme limits when it came to the costume department.
In a lengthy interview with Vanity Fair, Cavill opened up about his dedication to not only crafting a version of Geralt that satisfied fans of both the book and video game series, but one that also let the actor put his own unique stamp on the character. Part of that dedication involved finding just the right look for Geralt’s almost cat-like eyes, which Cavill wanted to be simultaneously “terrifying” and “enthralling.”
“He’s a mutant who goes around killing monsters, and there’s stories of him killing bunches of the people in villages,” Cavill told Vanity Fair‘s Joanna Robinson. “I wanted him to have that fear factor as well as that ‘but I can’t look away’ factor.”
However, Cavill’s obsession with making Geralt’s eyes a dichotomous focal point almost caused the actor to lose his vision. During one particular day of shooting in the Canary Islands, Cavill noticed his eyes were getting more and more sore as the day went on, but instead of saying something, he just convinced himself he needed to toughen up. Fortunately, the on-set eye technician noticed there was a problem when Cavill kept retreating to the shade, but the actor refused to remove the contacts without a fight:
“No I can’t look different off-camera or when the other actors are looking at me. It’s going to be more difficult for them. They’re accustomed [to] this look, and it’s all part of the design of the character so they have something to react to.” She said, “I don’t care. I’m taking the contacts out because you’re going to damage your eyes. I’m doing it. Otherwise I’m stopping shooting.” I was like, “Okay, okay, okay.” Took the contacts out. When we went back to Budapest, she took me in to have my eyes checked. It turned out that whatever the dust was, volcanic, it ended up scratching my eye, because it got behind the contacts and was just rubbing there for however long.
Luckily, the actor’s eyes healed over just shy of a month. You’d think he’d be more cautious after nearly going blind from volcanic ash, but nope, the contacts went right back in once he got the all clear. Henry Cavill loves those mutant eyes.
(Via Vanity Fair)
