Henry Cavill preferred ‘U.N.C.L.E.’ suits to ‘Superman’ tights

LONDON — When it came to wardrobe, Henry Cavill said there was no competition between the costumes he had to wear for “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” and his previous outing as Superman in “Man of Steel,” a role he’s reprising in the upcoming “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.”

“The tights and all that goes with playing Superman, but I must prefer the Savile Row suits Napoleon Solo gets to wear,” said the actor. “Of course, there were a lot of instances during filming [”U.N.C.L.E.’] when doing complicated action shots in a well-fitting dress suit was not the easiest thing to pull off.”

Cavill loved playing the debonair Solo but made it clear he did not first watch Robert Vaughn’s portrayal of the character in the 1960s TV shows — made roughly two decades before the English actor was born. “No, I never watch performances of other actors in previous productions of projects I’m then going to do. I think doing that can kind of skew your take on the role, and I don’t want to subconsciously copy other actors’ performances. I want my performance to be a unique collaboration between my director and the other actors I’m working with at the time.”

Cavill said he really hit it off with one of those actors, Armie Hammer, who plays Kuryakin to his Solo.

“We had the best time. Actually we all did. But working with Armie was very special. We clicked as people and as actors. His accent as Kuryakin was superb — and he pulled it off flawlessly. We had a ball doing all our scenes together.”