Henry Cavill Was Almost Edward Cullen?

Sometimes you have to love the person in charge of casting as they can make or break a movie. Sometimes the choices are bold and right on the mark while others just make you scratch your head in confusion. Not too long ago Tom Hiddleston disclosed that he was up for the role of Thor before being cast as his malicious brother Loki. Now Henry Cavill has revealed some of his casting close calls.

Cavill was able to take a short break from filming ‘Man of Steel’ to appear on last night’s ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno’ to talk about his new film ‘The Immortals’. Cavill plays the role of Theseus, a mortal man chosen by Zeus to lead the fight against the ruthless King Hyperion, who is on a rampage across Greece to obtain a weapon that can destroy humanity. During the interview, he mentioned that he was almost cast as James Bond and Edward Cullen.

In 2005, producers were looking for a new Bond actor to take over the role from Pierce Brosnan for the remake of ‘Casino Royale.’ It ultimately came down to two actors: Cavill and Daniel Craig. Apparently the producers thought Cavill was too young for the role and went with the blond haired Craig.

As for the role of Edward in the ‘Twilight’ franchise, author Stephanie Geyer was keen on having Cavill play the part saying, ”He had such a perfect, symmetrical face.” By the time casting started, however, Cavill was 24 and was considered too old to play the 600 year old vampire for a 3 movie deal.

Around the same time all this was happening, Cavill also auditioned for the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman in Christopher Nolan’s ‘Batman Begins’ (which went to Christian Bale) as well as Clark Kent/Superman in ‘Superman Returns’ (but the role was given to Brandon Routh). Luckily for us, he was chosen to play the Man of Steel in Zack Snyder’s ‘Man of Steel’ as things could have been different.

You can watch the segment where Cavill talks about his close call with the ‘Bond’ and ‘Twilight’ movies below. And if you need some 3D imagery of Cavill shirtless, don’t forget his movie ‘The Immortals’ hits theaters this Friday.