Zack Snyder, director of Man of Steel, and, shall we say, Dawn of the Dead fame, spoke in an interview with Art Center College of Design about Henry’s “awesome” Superman audition. He speaks of Henry donning the original Christopher Reeve superman suit and how hard it is to pull off.

Snyder says:

Zack Snyder, Man of Steel director

On casting Man of Steel’s Superman: We had about 500 guys initially. We did this massive auditioning madness. It got down to the usual suspects in a pretty quick order. Henry Cavill was actually the first one we physically tested on film. We actually tested him in the Christopher Reeves Superman suit. And that was a big deal. That’s a hard suit to pull off. Trust me. If you’re just standing there in that suit, it’s dodgy. It felt like we just bought it a costume shop. Plus, there’s no mask. I’ve been around a few superhero costumes, and it’s weird because when you’re in the Superman costume it’s just you from the neck up. And somebody just combed your hair. But Henry came out of the trailer when we were shooting a test and everybody thought Okay, that’s Superman. He was awesome and did a great job.

In this interview except, Henry talks about wearing the Superman suit and realising just how cool it is to play the legendary role: