The thing I felt was just that, when I found out that Nick was going to play the par t, I just sor t of breathed a sigh of relief and thought, ‘This is a really good thing to happen to this movie.’ And the rest was just marvelling at him – I’m being too sincere now! [laughs]
NICHOLAS HOULT: Oh stop! I threw up in my mouth! [laughs]
Nick, you have talked before about the comic book ‘man of steel’ Lex Luthor inspiring your performance – what did you take most from that?
NICHOLAS HOULT: Yeah, I found that comic really
wonder ful for Lex in terms of interpreting for this scr ipt, and just getting to under stand him a little bit. It was heartbreak ing, that story, f rom Lex ’s per spective a little bit, I felt. And there’s one page where one of the images is Lex k ind of ref lected in Superman’s chest, you could kind of see his image reflected off of the ‘S’ symbol. And it speak s so much about how he views himself and how he views Superman and the wor ld around him.
How did you decide how Lex speaks??
NICHOLAS HOULT: I t was playing around, because initially there was a conversation where I was like, ‘Oh he doesn’t have to be Amer ican’ and then I was like, the history of how we feel
in this story, it felt r ight that they were f rom 18
Metropolis and that would be an Amer ican city. So f irstly that. And then just figur ing out the intellect. I t’s k ind of like a feeling thing, I don’t k now how to descr ibe it completely. It’s not like I went out and found one voice and was like, ‘Oh that’s what I’m going to mimic or do.’ I t’s just a thing where you try a few things out and I’d send James little voice recordings occasionally. And then it’s like an energy behind that, I suppose, that hopefully work s.
There’s has been some debate as to whether superman grew up in a privileged background on a family with land but this film portrays him more as working class – is that right?
NICHOLAS HOULT: Yeah I feel like, I don’t k now what I’m allowed to say, but
I remember James talk ing about. .
I think he wanted Ma and Pa Kent to feel less like movie star s interpreting them in a movie, as to feel like real, I don’t like using this term but
real people who are struggling and mak ing ends meet.
DAVID CORENSWET: Well, I think the thing that’s impor tant about it is that he represents the average person. And the thing I loved about the f irst image of our Superman that James put out, is that he’s putting on his boots to go to work . And there’s an iconography there of the work er who has to put on their uniform…
NICHOLAS HOULT: Putting on his boots – and lifts! [laughs] To go to work .
DAVID CORENSWET: And I think that representing the common person and the work ing person, even as he is this ultimately powered superhuman – that’s an impor tant dynamic for the character.
So finally, we gather there was some discussion about
LIVE24-SEVEN.COM ‘salt of the ear th’ –
Superman’s costume for this, about whether he should wear the trunks or not?
DAVID CORENSWET: The one thought that I had about Superman, before I made my audition tape, that I felt very strongly about, and I discovered later that Grant Mor r ison had already made this discovery and that was sor t of the origin of ‘All Star Superman’ the comic, was that the things that people think make Superman uninteresting – the fact that he’s essentially all-power ful, he’s very highly-powered and he doesn’t really have emotional angst. He really is a good per son, with a good upbringing; he doesn’t have some
crazy internal weak nesses; interesting character.
He never feels burdened by his responsibilities. He loves what he gets
to do. The trunk s were the same idea.
The problem with the trunk s is that they look k ind of silly. And you can argue against, you could try and make them not silly, I think James was very pro-trunk s in theory but was struggling to f ind a way to not make them look silly. His fir st tactic was his general tactic, which is to try and f ind a reason for them, a utility for them. But he struck out there. And so my contr ibution, I think , was to say, ‘What if the point is that they look a little silly.’ And the reason that Superman wants to look a little silly is that he doesn’t need to look cool; he doesn’t want to look cool. He wants to be Clark Kent.
There’s a piece of that with Superman as well, which is like, ‘You’ve seen me catch falling buildings and blow up whatever with my laser vision and f ight these amazing superpowered foes – I don’t want you to think I ’m not approachable. I don’t want you to think you couldn’t come up to me and ask for directions or ask for help.’ Or for a kid, ask for help with his homework , or ‘My cat’s stuck in the tree.’ And the trunk s are just a way of saying, ‘ I’m not too cool, I don’t take myself too ser iously. I might be very power ful but come say hi, come laugh at me, who cares, I can take it.’
Thank You. struggle. Those are not his those are actually what make him an
INTERVIEW DAV ID CO R E NS WE T A ND NI CH OL A S H O U LT
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