Henry Cavill teases his 'new way' of doing fight scenes in Argylle — and his new haircut

Now that he’s said goodbye to Superman and Geralt of Rivia, Henry Cavill is ready to be a spy again. 

The star of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and Mission: Impossible — Fallout plays the title character in Argylle, the star-studded new spy film from Matthew Vaughn (Kingsman: The Secret Service). The only problem is, Agent Argylle isn’t exactly real. He’s a fictional character created by author Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard) as the protagonist of her successful series of spy novels. When actual spies start targeting Elly for the confidential information apparently hidden in her books, she imagines her hero Argylle saving her — even though her actual protector is the decidedly shabbier Aiden Wilde (Sam Rockwell). 

The film’s first bravura action sequence is a long fight aboard a train. As Wilde fights off Elly’s attackers, she keeps seeing Argylle in his place. That meant that every beat of the scene had to be filmed with both Cavill and Rockwell, so that Vaughn and the film editors could coherently intercut the footage. It wasn’t an easy task to pull off! 

“Sam and I were watching each other and just trying to make sure that we had a similarity of movements,” Cavill tells EW in his first interview about the film. “Certain movements worked better for him, so I would mimic those, and then different movements in other places worked better for me, so he would copy those. Fight scenes are tricky and complex, especially in a cramped space like that with lots of hard edges.” 

Though this innovative approach meant that both Cavill and Rockwell had to work harder than if they had just been doing the scene by themselves, they also got to share the burden. 

“It’s quite nice doing these things when you have someone doing the exact same work as you,” Cavill said. “So I do my bit, or Sam does his thing, and the other one gets to rest. The camera moves on, and we get to have a nice break. It was definitely a new way of doing things, but I enjoyed it. It was a good challenge.” 

Although Cavill and Rockwell's movements had to be perfectly aligned, their appearances certainly aren't. While Wilde sports long hair and a shaggy beard, Argylle wears a green velvet suit and rocks a flat top haircut. It wasn't Cavill's choice, but he says he appreciated the change from his typical onscreen looks.

"That was actually Matthew's pitch, his signature style," Cavill says. "I wanted to have fun with it. Matthew said, 'Look, this guy's going to have a particular look and you've got to trust me.' And I did! That's the kind of thing I was looking for. I'm glad I did it."

There are still more mysteries to be unraveled from Argylle. The Apple Original Film will be released in theaters worldwide, in partnership with Universal Pictures, this Feb. 2, before streaming globally on Apple TV+.

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