10 Actors Who Prepared Totally WRONG For A Role

When you think "everyman," you probably don't imagine Henry Cavill, an actor who for the last decade has mostly portrayed impossibly buff, larger-than-life heroes like Superman and Geralt of Rivia.

All the same, Cavill wasn't quite so known for being a beefcake back in 2011, when he was hired to star in the action-thriller The Cold Light of Day as a regular bloke who is forced to take action when his family is kidnapped.

However, Cavill had recently finished shooting the fantasy action film Immortals, where he played the extremely ripped Greek mythic hero Theseus, and so when he made it to set to shoot his new movie, he still retained much of that chiselled physique.

Director Mabrouk El Mechri soundly informed Cavill that his look was entirely wrong for a character who was intended to be an everyman, and he needed to shed as much of his muscle tone as possible in the days before filming was to start.

Cavill apparently achieved this by eating and drinking whatever he wanted and doing no exercise whatsoever. The end result ultimately isn't very convincing - Cavill still looks like a supremely physically capable dude - but then nothing in this movie is, so he shouldn't feel too bad.