In 24 hours Will Shaw’s family will be dead. Armed with a gun, but no information, distraught, confused and alone in an unfamiliar city, Will (Henry Cavill) is forced to piece together the puzzle of his missing family. Unwittingly embroiled in a Government conspiracy with agents from all sides hot on his tail, an unrelenting chase across the streets of Madrid intensifies and Will is forced to question everything he has ever known in order to stay alive long enough to rescue his family… but is there anyone left he can trust? Starring Henry Cavill (Immortals, Man of Steel) alongside Hollywood action legends Bruce Willis and Sigourney Weaver, ‘The Cold Light of Day’ is an adrenaline fuelled action thriller from director Mabrouk El Mechri. The film is released September 7th in the US, while it sees its Blu-Ray and DVD release in the UK on September 10th.
You filmed ‘The Cold Light of Day’ just after ‘Immortals,’ a film you trained extensively for to get your characters physique and fighting abilities on point. With this, you’re playing an average man, with no particular skills. What was the experience like preparing for this role?
Henry Cavill: The preparation for this role was different, indeed (laughs). I came off ‘Immortals’ where I had to be super fit, and sort of the killer of men. This one was quite the opposite because I was told that I wasn’t allowed to do a single push-up or sit-up, I had to eat and drink as much as possible and be as average and normal as I possibly could be - within the short space of preparation time given, because ‘The Cold Light of Day’ was literally filmed off the back of ‘Immortals.’ The idea of the preparation was: be less competent and walk with less balance. For example, in a high stress situation, Theseus was very much someone who would react perfectly. In ‘The Cold Light of Day,’ Will doesn’t act that way at all (laughs). He runs or he fires blindly and tries to survive. The preparation was different. It was difficult to do prep for that. You kind of have to just feel it in the moment and run with it. But the most difficult thing was I suppose getting out of shape, it was trying to be as out of shape as possible so that it’s more believable in the story.
As the story progresses, with all the madness that’s going on around Will, with him feeling lost and alone in a city he‘s unfamiliar with. His father revealing his true identity comes as an enormous shock to him….
Henry Cavill: Oh yeah. Will is desperately trying to find his family, and his father pops out of nowhere, saves him from being nabbed by the police - which he initially went to for help. Then he has to reveal these closely held secrets in this moment of absolute horror and panic….as far as your average human being in concerned. He reveals to Will that he’s been working with the CIA. It’s incredibly difficult for Will to accept, number one, because his fathers never been there for him - he‘s never been a supportive person. And two, because he’s lived a lie as far as Will’s concerned his entire life. I think Will wants any reason to hate his Dad, no matter the situation (laughs), he just needs another reason to say, “F you.“ And sure enough, this is another situation. It hurts even more, as his families gone, he feels alone, he’s with one member of his family, and he’s forgotten all of the past stuff because it’s like, “Ok, let’s get the family back.†And then that family member, his Dad, makes him feel even more alone by revealing he’s not the person Will thinks he is.
