Henry Cavill is best known for his portrayal of the DCEU’s incarnation of Superman from Man of Steel, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League, which was also where most people took notice of him. However, in the years prior to this, there were two roles he was up for that might have introduced him to general audiences a lot sooner, and by quirk of coincidence, he lost out on both of them to Robert Pattinson.
The first was for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, where Pattinson played the small yet significant part of Cedric Diggory, one of Harry’s opponents in the Triwizard Tournament. The character’s main purpose was at the film’s climax to be summarily killed prior to Voldemort’s resurrection to establish the overlord’s callous attitude towards human life, in case the Nazi allegory of the Death Eaters was too subtle for you.
The second was exactly what you’re already suspecting it was, that of Edward Cullen in Twilight. Stephanie Meyer is on the record as stating that Cavill had been her dream choice for the role many years previously, possibly due to his brooding and pouty performance as Albert Mondego in The Count of Monte Cristo or the awkward romantic Stephen Colley in I Capture the Castle, but by the time the YA vampire saga was being brought to life, he was too physically mature to convince as an eternal seventeen-year-old.
Cavill’s route to stardom went by the way of minor roles in the likes of fantasy adaptation Stardust and abysmal slasher Hellraiser: Hellworld, before landing a major part in historical drama The Tudors and starring as the protagonist of Immortals, a demented but forgettable action movie inspired by Greek mythology and loosely based on the legends of Theseus.
It’s no secret that the world of acting is a highly competitive one, with the number of roles available only able to accommodate a fraction of the performers auditioning for them. As such, there’s bound to be this kind of overlap in actors’ pasts, but it’s always interesting to look back on it, as it lets you wonder just how differently things might have turned out.
