Highlights
- David Corenswet has been cast as Superman in the upcoming film Superman: Legacy, following Henry Cavill's portrayal of the superhero.
- Corenswet's upbringing around actors and his early acting experiences have influenced his career and passion for the craft.
- Corenswet has expressed his ambition to play Superman in the past and has a vision for a bright and optimistic take on the iconic character.
David Corenswet has been cast as the Man of Steel in the upcoming film Superman: Legacy. He is next in line after Henry Cavill played the iconic superhero in several films. Corenswet has been making a name for himself in the industry for some time now.
Corenswet is best known for his role in the Ryan Murphy miniseries The Politician. He also starred in Murphy's other miniseries Hollywood. The show portrayed a fictionalized, ideal version of Hollywood's Golden Age filled with diversity and inclusivity.
Corenswet's latest role as Superman was actually an ambition for the actor, as he revealed in a past interview. In another interview, Corenswet reacted when he was told he looked like the famous superhero years before he was cast.
David Grew Up Around Actors And Started Acting At A Very Young Age
Although he has only recently experienced breakthrough success, Corenswet has been acting since he was a child. In a 2020 interview with MTV, Corenswet revealed his parents were major factors in his early influences.
"On the one hand, my mom and dad raised us watching a bunch of old movies," he recalled. "So we grew up watching the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies, Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn, and Singin' in the Rain dozens of times. We liked comedies. That was all we watched."
"We didn't have cable, we weren't allowed to watch television, but we could watch those movies just about as much as we wanted to," Corenswet continued. "It really narrowed the pool of other eight- and nine-year-olds who I could relate to on that level, because how many eight- or nine-year-olds were watching the Marx Brothers?"
Corenswet's late father, John Corenswet was a stage actor in New York City. Corenswet's sister also appeared in a community theater production of Fiddler on the Roof. After seeing his sister's performance, Corenswet asked his parents if he could do something similar.
Related: Who Is David Corenswet, DC's New Superman, And Does He 'Have The Look'?
This led to Corenswet landing his first paying acting job when he was nine. He played the little boy in Arthur Miller's All My Sons at Philadelphia's Arden Theatre.
"I had a very full-on introduction to the craft, doing two scenes in Act One of one of the greatest American plays ever written," he told Entertainment Weekly. "Then going home before intermission so I could get to bed early and wake up for school the next morning."
David Was A Very Big 'Star Wars' Fan Growing Up
As a child, Corenswet had quite an active imagination that would eventually influence his acting. Corenswet revealed that he was a big fan of Star Wars growing up and he would act out different scenes from the movie by himself.
"I have a memory of renting the VHS tapes at Blockbuster," Corenswet recalled. "It was rent one, get one free for a week, and I rented Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. I would watch them back-to-back, and then when I got to the end, I would feel so emotionally connected to the characters and the world, and I would have such a feeling of wanting to live in that world, that I would go back and start the movies over again right then."
He continued, "And that really connected with my imaginary use of play, especially as a young kid. I spent a lot of time by myself in my basement pretending to be a Jedi. That really drew me. I started acting orthogonally to that."
Related: There's One Specific Reason David Corenswet Is A Better Superman Than Henry Cavill
Corenswet further shared his love of Star Warsin a Netflix interview.
"My first love of space was the opening of Star Wars," he said. "You know, when Luke walks out of his house after his Uncle says, 'You gotta stay on another season,' and he goes up to the dune and he looks out over the two suns and John Williams comes in. [starts humming the score] I just remember being like, 'Yeah, let's do it! Come on!'"
Before He Was Cast, David Said That His Ambition Was To Play Superman
In 2019, Corenswet appeared alongside Ben Platt in the Netflix series The Politician. In the Ryan Murphy miniseries, Corenswet played River Barkley, who is running against Ben Platt's Payton Hobart for student body president.
During that time, Corenswet was being interviewed with his cast mates by Manny the Movie Guy. Corenswet was asked what made him interested in doing the show.
"If you're invited to audition for a Ryan Murphy show, you're interested," Corenswet said. "I actually auditioned for a different character. I auditioned for Ricardo, which was never gonna happen. Once you see Benjamin [Barrett's] performance, I can't imagine it any other way."
He continued, "River was kind of calling to me. He was much more me and as an actor, you're always hoping that you're gonna get something that will stretch you or something like that. Of course, River ended up stretching me in all the most interesting directions."
Manny then mentioned to Corenswet that he and his character looked a lot like Superman.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Corenswet said sarcastically.
Corenswet may have played coy, but he revealed to Entertainment Weekly that playing the Man of Steel was a "pie-in-the-sky ambition" for him.
"It came to my attention before the internet got a hold of me," he said of online chatter that he looked like Henry Cavill. "But my pie-in-the-sky ambition is definitely to play Superman."
Related: How New Superman, David Corenswet Was Destined For This DC Role
Corenswet even had his own idea of what his take on the Superman character would look like.
"I would love to see somebody do an upbeat, throwback [take on Superman]. I love the Henry Cavill dark and gritty take, but I would love to see the next one be very bright and optimistic."
Will Corenswet's vision of Superman come to life? It looks like we'll have to wait until Superman: Legacy comes out.
