Henry Cavill, actor of The Witcher, is claimed to be so good at conducting his own stunts that he’s ‘completely certified’ to be a stuntman himself, and was practically the’second combat coordinator’ on season 3.
We’re not shocked, given how skilled he is in the action sequences of the Netflix TV series.
The third season of the fantasy drama, based on the novels that inspired a massively famous video game franchise, marks Henry’s final appearance as Geralt of Rivia before being replaced by Liam Hemsworth, with season 3 volume 1 released last week.
Metro.co.uk talked with many members of the team who worked on the project behind the scenes, including stunt coordinator Wolfgang Stegemann, who returned after a brief stay on season one, and VFX supervisor Tim Crosbie, before to his departure.
Tim described working with Henry, 40, as a “dream” and characterised him as “such a lovely man,” emphasising how professional he was on set and how talented he was at executing his own stunts.
‘He was always on time or early, hit his marks, knew his actions, knew his choreography. I remember chatting with Wolfgang, the stunt coordinator, saying if Henry wanted to be a stuntman he could be, because he’s fully qualified now basically,’ the visual effects supervisor said.
‘Says he’s one of the best in the business. I couldn’t hope to work with a better actor for doing what we do as well because he really knows his body so he knew where to put himself to interact with these monsters and things that didn’t exist yet, which is kind of cool.’
Wolfgang expressed his excitement to return to The Witcher for season three, having previously collaborated with Henry on the 2018 film Mission: Impossible – Fallout.
‘We know exactly how we work together. We know exactly how we think and approach those excellent action scenes. Coming back on season three was amazing because we had already a rhythm and we knew how to approach [it],’ he continued.
‘Having Henry massively involved in designing those fight scenes – he’s basically my second fight coordinator. He’s choreographing, shot designing and we find the right angles and then he’s creating this action scene and fight scene for himself to create as his own skin.’
Despite the numerous action scenes with Henry and the other cast members, Wolfgang highlighted that there were “no injuries” and “everything was really well rehearsed,” adding that Henry “performed like 200% of the stunts and fights by himself” and did not use a stunt double.
When directed action scenes, the stunt specialist stressed how “wonderful” it was to have an actor “who can execute all the stunts by himself.”
‘I have absolute freedom on how to stylise the fight or the action scene, combined with the particular camera technology and camera style. So I don’t need to hide anything,’ he said.
‘To have an actor like Henry, it’s just incredible. You can explore even different worlds of action because you can focus right on the character. It’s amazing.’
With Hunger Games star Liam poised to take over from Henry in season four, The Witcher armourer Nick Jeffries said that there is “work” being done with the actor, although it is “very early days.”
The Witcher season 3 volume 1 is available to stream on Netflix, with volume 2 due to drop on Thursday July 27.
Source My Celebrity Life.