Henry Cavill is all set to collaborate again with director Guy Ritchie on the historic action film The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Based on the real-life special forces team assembled by Winston Churchill, the film has an ensemble cast along with Cavill, including Eiza González, Alan Ritchson, Henry Golding, and Carry Elwes.
The action-heavy film has two heavy hitters in the form of Cavill and Ritchson. However, Cavill mentioned that he was glad that the Reacher star took away his burden of doing a lot of action sequences. Cavill mentioned that Ritchson took the bulk of the action sequences while he could concentrate on his acting.
Henry Cavill Credits Alan Ritchson For Taking Away His Burden
Henry Cavill rejoins his The Man From U.N.C.L.E. director Guy Ritchie on the upcoming spy action comedy The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. The filmmaker seems to have kept himself busy over the past few years and has churned out multiple films such as The Gentlemen, Wrath of Man, Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, and The Covenant.
The action comedy is based on a real event during the Second World War where the Special Operations Executive, a team formed by Winston Churchill to handle irregular warfare. The film deals with the first mission of the executive, which involved dealing with Nazi U-Boats. Cavill plays the role of Gus March-Philips.
While Henry Cavil is no stranger to action roles as he has been Superman and has worked on films such as Mission Impossible: Fallout and the Netflix fantasy series The Witcher, he reportedly left much of the grunt work to co-star Alan Ritchson. Ritchson, who plays Anders Lassen in the film, reportedly did the bulk of the action much to the relief of Cavill.
Henry Cavill spoke about working with the Reacher star on The Rich Eisen Show,
“What I did enjoy in particular about working with Alan [Ritchson]…is that I got to hand off all of the action to him. I didn’t really have to do any complicated choreographed action. It was a wonderful break for me. I enjoyed that enormously.”
Cavill mentioned that Alan Ritchson offered him a couple of more stunts sometimes but when the Superman star said that they were all his, he would be relieved and would take them. Cavill said that he was happy to concentrate on the acting bit and take a breather from the action.
Henry Cavill Was An Unofficial Stunt Coordinator On The Witcher
Though Henry Cavill phoned in much of the action in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, he has gone above and beyond in his other projects. The actor is known to have performed his own stunts as Superman and as August Walker in Mission Impossible: Fallout, the latter in which he had to compete with action star Tom Cruise.
However, the actor reportedly took the bulk of the action in his Netflix fantasy series The Witcher. He confirmed during Comic Con in 2019 that he had performed most of the stunts on the show and that when fans see Geralt on screen, they would see him doing the stunts as well as the acting (via Cinema Blend).
The Argylle star reportedly took even more responsibility for the action sequences in the third season (after which he exited the series). Stunt Coordinator Wolfgang Stegemann mentioned that he would sit with Henry Cavill and plan the action sequences. He said to Unilad,
“Henry [was] like basically my second fight coordinator. So he’s coordinating and choreographing with me together, he is deeply involved in the whole process…What many people don’t know, they think the stunt team comes together and we start choreographing something and show it to him. It’s not like that. He’s, from the beginning, there and giving all his input.”
The actor was also reportedly injured after the second season but still managed to perform his own stunts on The Witcher. Cavill also mentioned on The Rich Eisen Show that he would be getting back to the action bits in his upcoming film Highlander.
