Henry Cavill recently opened up about his reaction to discovering that “Twilight” author, Stephanie Meyer, thought he would have made the “perfect Edward” in the live-action film.
Speaking on a recent episode of the ”Happy Sad Confused” podcast, the “Superman” actor admitted he wasn’t initially aware he was Meyer’s top pick to star as the high school vampire until after the first “Twilight” movie was made in 2008.
“I didn’t know about the movie,” the 39-year-old said in the interview, which aired on Oct. 26. “I didn’t know about them wanting to cast me, and the internet wasn’t quite the tool that it is now, and so I only found out afterward.”
In a blog post in 2007, Stephenie shared that she was saddened to find out that 24-year-old Cavill wasn’t the right age for the glitter-skinned lead vampire. She wrote: “The most disappointing thing for me is losing my perfect Edward. Henry Cavill is now 24 years old.”
Meyer revealed that she also had her eye on Tom Sturridge and Logan Lerman to play Edward, who she noted in her blog was “indisputably the most difficult character to cast.”
Ultimately, then 21-year-old Robert Pattinson went on to score the iconic role in the romantic fantasy film alongside Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan.
When asked if he was envious of Pattinson, who ended up beating him out for the role in the franchise, Cavill responded, “Not at all because I didn’t know about the movie. I didn’t know about them wanting to cast me...”
He added, upon hearing the news, “I was like, ‘Oh okay, that would have been cool.’”
Based on Meyer’s best-selling book series, the “Twilight” film follows Swan, who moves to a small town in the Pacific Northwest. She falls into a tumultuous romance with Edward Cullen, a mysterious classmate who turns out to be a 108-year-old vampire.
Cavill revealed that portraying Edward wasn’t the only opportunity he lost to Pattinson due to his age.
The British actor noted during the podcast that though he didn’t formally fight against Pattinson for the “Twilight” role, he eventually wound up battling him for the role of Cedric Diggory in “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.”
“Yes, I remember that,” Cavill recalled. “I definitely auditioned for that one and did not get it.”
He admitted the role “wasn’t right” for him because of his age at the time. “I think I was probably 19 or 20, and that makes a big difference when you’re playing a kid in high school,” Cavill said, joking, “Well, it used to, anyway.”
Although he lost out on previous roles over his age, Cavill later starred in franchises such as “Mission: Impossible” and the DC Universe as Superman.
You can catch Cavill in Netflix’s upcoming “Enola Holmes 2” alongside Millie Bobby Brown, dropping on Nov. 4.