Henry Cavill: Man of Steel is modern

Henry Cavill says Man of Steel is "a Superman for a modern age".

The British actor plays Clark Kent/Superman in the fantasy movie, which will be released later this year.

Henry says his character wrestles with universal questions about his purpose in life. He believes that by showing the human aspects of Superman, the audience will relate to him and become more engaged in the story.

"This is a Superman for a modern age. It's not betraying anything that Superman is, but it is grounding everything in reality," Henry explained to Total Film magazine. "It's the story of this incredible being who can do incredible things, but whom we can associate with. Because he's gone through troubling stuff and had to make tough choices."

The star screen-tested for the role dressed in legendary Superman actor Christopher Reeve's old costume.
He admits he didn't have a surplus of knowledge about the history of Superman when he auditioned for the part.

"Having gone to boarding school, I didn't have a comic book store nearby. But as soon as was cast in the movie, that's when I got my full, real introduction to Superman," Henry explained.

To prepare, Henry watched the box sets, read the comics and made note of the similarities and differences as he went. However, Henry says despite his background research, Man of Steel isn't a mish-mash of other versions of Superman.

"I managed to piece together this character, maintaining that bass-line and having all the differences and nuances that our script adds," he continued.

"[But] this is our own thing. Stand-alone. It's about Superman, but we're not copying from any one comic in particular. And that's a good thing, because it's an original story."