For Henry Cavill, there’s no quitting, bub.
Cavill, 41, is one of several surprise cameos in Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine, playing an alternative version of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, but his sole day on set took its toll.
Director Shawn Levy revealed in an interview with The New York Times published on Monday, August 5, that the former Superman actor got sick from inhaling cigar smoke for so long.
Levy said Cavill “kept that cigar lit and in his mouth for the entirety of the shoot day,” adding, “I remember hearing the next day that Henry was sick to his stomach because he had been inhaling cigar smoke for eight hours straight, but never once did he waver.”
Levy also praised Cavill’s commitment to the role in an interview on Monday’s episode of the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, saying, “He was a trooper, and he was fabulous.”
Cavill’s cameo came to fruition after he was officially dropped as Superman in Marvel rival DC Studios’ own superhero universe in late 2022. (David Corenswet will play Clark Kent in 2025’s Superman.)
“In the case of Henry, it was not long after everything went down with DC and word came that Henry was being replaced as Superman,” Levy explained to The New York Times. “Given that Deadpool is in constant conversation with culture, it felt like a great opportunity to first of all cast Henry Cavill in a part that he would kick ass at, but also to poke fun at that other comic-book-founded movie studio and play with some self-awareness there.”
Cavill recently addressed his Deadpool & Wolverine cameo with a joke about his oft-discussed facial hair. Warner Bros. famously had to use CGI to remove the actor’s mustache in some scenes in 2017’s Justice League, though the results weren’t entirely convincing.
“To be safe, I shaved the mustache off for this one. Just the mustache,” Cavill captioned a photo of himself via Instagram as Cavillerine on Monday.
Cavill is just one of the big-name cameos in Deadpool & Wolverine. Other stars include Blake Lively, Chris Evans, Jennifer Garner, Wesley Snipes and Channing Tatum.
One person who was never in talks for a cameo, despite much internet speculation, is Taylor Swift.
“I definitely had moments where I was worried I would disappoint people when they realized Taylor as Dazzler was not in the movie, but there’s no controlling the internet, and rumors spread like wildfire,” Levy told Entertainment Weekly in an interview published on Monday.
“It was never a conversation. It was never even a seed of a discussion. Obviously, Ryan and Blake, and myself, to a far lesser extent, have our own relationships in real life with Taylor,” he added. “But, yeah, those rumors were loud and slightly baffling, but nothing I said or did was going to make them quiet down until this movie came out.”
