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Henry Cavill Reveals Whether His Witcher Costume Is As Uncomfortable As It Looks

When news broke that Henry Cavill was going to lead Netflix's The Witcher, fans of the novels and the highly acclaimed video game adaptations had doubts about whether the Man of Steel could pull this off. 

The Witcher

When news broke that Henry Cavill was going to lead Netflix’s The Witcher, fans of the novels and the highly acclaimed video game adaptations had doubts about whether the Man of Steel could pull it off.

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Flash forward to late last year and audiences around the world got to see a version of Geralt of Rivia that essentially embodied everything they loved about the character in the story’s different incarnations across mediums. Cavill’s brooding and stoic White Wolf, while at times aptly emotionless and non-human, shines from the first moment we see him on screen and he carries it through the entire first season, all the way up to his last moments with Ciri in the woods. But being a Witcher requires more than just acting chops. This is especially true about Geralt, whose distinguished appearance always makes him stand out among the rest of the crowd. And of course, by that, we’re mainly referring to his white locks.

It seems, though, that the character’s costume is not as uncomfortable as it appears. Or so says Cavill.

“It honestly wasn’t that bad. My hairdresser Jackie Rathore is absolutely fantastic. She didn’t have the opportunity to actually build the wig herself, so when she received it, she started doing work on it. She worked, and worked, and worked it; it was quite a difficult process. There’s three of them, so she would take them home every night and be changing individual hairs. She sent them back to get a finer lace, so it’s less visible, and she just worked and worked and worked that thing. She was having nightmares about the wigs.”

Since the Justice League star is a huge fan of The Witcher books and video games, he was deeply involved with the process of designing the outfit. As he revealed, the costume looked a bit off at first, but fortunately, the team went through several iterations until they came up with the perfect set.

“Eventually, the costume evolved, the wig evolved, the makeup evolved. Once we had it nailed, the experience in the morning – the two hours of hair and makeup and getting into costume – was transformative,” He continued. “It was something which by the time I was out of hair and makeup, my body language changed. I was moving differently. I was talking differently, obviously, but not just the voice, which Geralt has, but the intonation changed. My interaction with my dog even changed. He still saw me 100% as me. He didn’t freak out at all, or anything, but just the way I started interacting with the world changed a lot.”

Well, considering all the effort he’s gone through to bring the perfect Geralt of Rivia to live-action, we’re more than glad to toss a coin to our favorite monster-hunter. And despite the COVID-19 pandemic, we may get the chance soon enough, as Netflix has announced that the cast and crew of The Witcher will resume filming the second season in August.