To be honest, fans of Netflix’s hit The Witcher couldn’t have asked for a better casting choice than Henry Cavill for the role of Geralt of Rivia. However, prior to the premiere of season 1 last month, there was quite a bit of uproar over the streaming giant’s choice of actor to lead their show.
Maybe it was just down to the poor choice of preview images or perhaps an unconvincing wig, but there was something about Cavill’s interpretation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s character that put a lot of fans off. Those concerns, while fair at first, ultimately turned out to be unfounded, as almost everyone is in agreement now that the Man of Steel star knocked it out of the park and fans can’t wait to see more of him.
Indeed, Cavill brought Geralt to life wonderfully across The Witcher‘s first season, and much of that was thanks to his dedication to the job. We already know that he did a lot of his own stunts and even dehydrated himself to look good for those bathtub scenes, and now it’s been revealed that he could’ve blinded himself as well if he hadn’t listened to his eye-technician.
In an interview with Metro, the actor explained the following in regards to the contacts he needed to wear while shooting:
“I was only allowed to keep them in for three hours at a time, well I supposed to only keep them in three hours at a time. Drying out isn’t the problem, it’s that part of your eye, it’s the only part of your body that receives oxygen from the air rather than blood. And so if you’re covering it up, you’re not getting any oxygen to it, and over a long period of time, you will do damage to your eyes. It’s just not worth it. My eye-technician was always pushing me to say like, ‘No, I don’t care. I don’t care what you need to shoot, take, take the bloody contacts out, because you will start to go blind after a while’.”
“I was sure she was probably selling a slightly more dramatic version of the truth, because I do tend to be a bit stubborn like that,” Cavill joked. “And I’d say, no, it’s alright we can shoot couple more hours will be fine. And she said, we won’t be fine. You’ve got to take them out now.”
“There’s also a lot of volcanic rock in the Canary Island, and when it picks up a lot and it’s all this stuff, which becomes very, very light and dusty,” Cavill said. “It got in behind the contacts, so my eyes ended up being scratched. I didn’t realise it was scratching so we went back to Budapest after our trip to Canary Islands. But it got to the point where I couldn’t really keep my eyes open, my eyes were watering, had to try and wash everything out. Very, very stingy, very painful, but I just thought it’s just because I’m tired and not getting much sleep and I just need to muscle through it.”
“It got to the point where my technician found me hiding in the shadows of my eyes closed because it was was very bright,” Cavill said. “She said take them out. And I said, No, No, I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m fine. Just give me some things to dab my eyes before a scene will be good. She put her foot down and said, ‘No, I’m stopping shooting until you take them out.'”
Thankfully, Cavill didn’t end up with any lasting damage and with any luck, the producers will find a better way to make use of these contacts when the actor returns for season 2. But even if not, we’re sure that Henry will be ready to dive right back into the show and ensure that fans get more of what they loved the first time around.
Of course, it also helps that Cavill’s a big fan of The Witcher in his own right, having sunk more hours than most into The Witcher 3, as he’s completed it multiple times. And with Netflix already hard at work planning out season 2, and reportedly season 3 of the show now, it hopefully won’t be too much longer before we see the former Superman actor back on our screens again as Geralt.
