To imagine Russell Crowe giving paternal advice to a young Henry Cavill isn’t that difficult, given that’s exactly what he did in the 2013 movie Man of Steel. The Superman origin story saw Cavill’s Kal-El scour the globe in search of purpose, only to rediscover his family’s Kryptonian scout ship in the Arctic. Inside the ship, Kal-El is faced with an A.I. modeled after his father Jor-El (Crowe) who tells him about his origins and that his purpose is to guide and protect the people of Earth. It might come as a surprise, therefore, that 12 years prior, the Australian Cinderella Man actor met the young Brit when Cavill was only 16 years old, and gave him a piece of advice that helped him become the famed actor he is today.

While promoting Man of Steel together in 2013, Russell Crowe and Henry Cavill were joined by co-star Amy Adams on The Graham Norton Show. The conversation began with a discussion of Cavill’s nickname in school, “Fat Cavill”. The actor called it “a very apt nickname considering my name was indeed Cavill and I was indeed fat.” He went on to describe how his father noticed that from age 13 to 25, Cavill’s weight stayed the same, he just got taller. Things took a surprise turn, however, when Russell Crowe revealed, “He definitely wasn’t Fat Cavill when I met him, at 16.”

An alien child is evacuated from his dying world and sent to Earth to live among humans. His peace is threatened when other survivors of his home planet invade Earth.

When Did Russell Crowe First Meet Henry Cavill?

In the year 2000, Russell Crowe had been shooting the opening sequence of his thriller Proof of Life in Buckinghamshire’s Stowe Boarding School. The film was largely forgotten over the years, overshadowed by Crowe’s alleged affair with co-star Meg Ryan that led to her divorce from Dennis Quaid. In the film, Crowe’s character’s son is played by Merlin Hanbury-Tenison, a Stowe pupil for whom Proof of Life remains his only acting credit, but has since gone on to retire from the British Army and establish the Thousand Year Trust conservation organization. Since then, Hanbury-Tenison has served as a Military Advisor on the movies War Machine, Darkest Hour, and Marvel’s Black Widow.

During the production, Crowe also took a shine to another Stowe pupil he met there. He recalled spotting a Rugby Union game happening near the production, in which, “one kid who was fluid and in control actually caught my eye.” That kid was none other than a 16-year-old Henry Cavill. During a production break, Cavill approached Crowe and asked him questions about acting. “There was a smile in his eyes but there was something dead serious behind that smile,” Crowe told Graham Norton. “So instead of not answering the questions or whatever – because you get asked these questions a hundred thousand times – I told him the truth.”

Russell Crowe’s Advice For Henry Cavill Was Blunt But Necessary

The year 2000 was a momentous time for Russell Crowe. In Proof of Life, he played Terry Thorne, a hostage negotiator hired to save the husband of Meg Ryan‘s Alice Bowman, who was kidnapped by guerrilla forces. It was also the year of Gladiator, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2001 and led to another Russell Crowe film, A Beautiful Mind, winning Best Picture the following year. Not only was Russell Crowe a renowned actor at the time, he was an international success story, so it stands to reason that the advice he gave Henry Cavill was a factor in Cavill’s similar success story.

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“It’s a challenge that’s up to [you]. Nobody’s going to give it to you.” Those were the words of advice Crowe opted to share with the 16-year-old Cavill, but their bond didn’t end there. Later, as Crowe was preparing to leave Stowe and continue with the production, he was assembling a package for Merlin Hanbury-Tenison, as a parting gift for his onscreen son. “Because I figured the greatest thing if you’re at boarding school is unexpected mail.” He also thought to create one for Cavill, who had not only made a positive first impression but ensured that Crowe remembered his name. His actual name, that is, – not “Fat Cavill”!

Russell Crowe’s Parting Gift For Henry Cavill Was More Advice

While Russell Crowe was preparing packages for both Cavill and Merlin Hanbury-Tenison, he found two identical photographs of his character from Gladiator, which he signed for them. On Hanbury-Tenison’s, he wrote a line from the movie, “You come from a long line of Generals”, which Crowe now sees as serendipitous in light of the young man’s three tours in Afghanistan that followed. On Cavill’s, he wrote, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,“ a saying originating from a Chinese proverb by Laozi. “Basically,” explains Crowe, “if you want it, go and get it.”

Needless to say, Henry Cavill’s career has gone on to reach stellar heights, beginning with Vendetta a mere year after Crowe gave him that advice. From there he appeared in The Count of Monte Cristo, Trystan + Isolde, and the 2007 Neil Gaiman adaptation Stardust. To further prove his chops in the worlds of swords and sandals, Cavill rose to prominence in the historical series The Tudors later as Theseus in Immortals. It’s remarkable to think just how similar Cavill’s early roles are to those that made Russell Crowe a star in the first place, drawing further parallels between the two careers.

Henry Cavill’s career has become particularly interesting for the roles he hasn’t played, just as much as for those he has. The actor was almost cast as James Bond in Casino Royale but lost out to Daniel Craig, he was almost Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire but lost to Robert Pattinson, and even lost the role of Edward Cullen in Twilight to Pattinson too – something that author Stephanie Meyer called her greatest regret about the adaptation. Regardless, the actor used Russell Crowe’s advice to power through the rejections and has gone on to claim a fantastic roster of characters for himself over the years. These include Napoleon Solo in The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Sherlock Holmes in Enola Holmes, and of course, Superman. The fact that Henry Cavill’s big break happens to be as the son of Russell Crowe seems the most poetic outcome the actor could have hoped for, and it’s nice the two men were given the chance to share the experience after so long.

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