The Shady Side Of Henry Cavill

Just because Henry Cavill makes a dashing Clark Kent doesn't mean he's always Superman in real life. In fact, he can, at times, have a downright Lex Luthor-like side to him, both in his public and private lives.

The handsome British actor has a tendency to be better seen than heard because, when he starts speaking, well, his charming demeanor tends to fall apart pretty quickly. Whether he's giving his two cents about race relations or the sexual misconduct scandals in Hollywood, bragging about his wealth, spilling way too much about his sex life (both onscreen and off), or even just or seemingly making a habit of dating really young women, there are a lot of unsavory things about the Man Of Steel star when you scratch past the debonair surface. Seriously, can somebody get this hunk some media training STAT? Because it really seems as if his own mouth is his real-life kryptonite.

In late 2015 and early 2016, Cavill dated college student Tara King. At the time, the cute blonde was just 19 years old, meaning she couldn't even legally drink stateside! What was he thinking?

When asked about his barely legal love in February 2016, he explained to Elle (via People), "People say age is just a number. It's actually real and true sign of someone's maturity. But in this case, she's fantastic. When I met my girlfriend, I was super intimidated. I wanted to impress her." He added, "I was thinking, 'Don't mess this up, man.'"  Oh, calm down, Cavill. 

He's a movie star. She's a college student. The only risk of immaturity may have been Cavill's own — you know those weird 20-somethings who hang out in high school parking lots? Yeah, think along those lines. (Also, you know who else said age was nothing but a number? R. Kelly. So, be careful there, Cavill.)

When Cavill and King split, he reportedly broke her heart. A source told The Sun (via the Daily Mail), "Henry said the two of them could remain friends and he even invited her to his recent birthday party, which she went to, but the relationship is over. ... It has been very difficult for Tara, who has been saying he was the love of her life."

In December 2014, before dating Tara King, Cavill was linked with avid hunter Marisa Gonzalo, who didn't seem like a match for the actor at all. Why? Because Cavill is a self-proclaimed and well-documented animal lover, and the then-21-year-old Gonzalo, well, liked to pose with animals she killed for photos and tweeted about her love of killing squirrels (via Celebrity Dirty Laundry).

Soon, the site speculated that Gonzalo, who reportedly met the actor at a gym, was using Cavill for fame and deliberately leaking photos of them together from various outings and vacations, including a Thanksgiving dinner, in hopes of boosting her own profile. Sources told Celebrity Dirty Laundry that Gonzalo carefully orchestrated every aspect of her relationship with Cavill but that it took Cavill months to come to his senses and figure out, at which point he reportedly kicked her to the curb.

Until she had a very public, very speedy marriage to Ryan Sweeting (followed by a divorce and another marriage — this time to Karl Cook), Kaley Cuoco was very private about her dating life. (Seriously, remember when she and Johnny Galecki dated for years, then broke up without anyone knowing until much later?)

That is, until she started dating Cavill in summer 2013, with whom she was constantly photographed, even on simple trips to the supermarket ... and from whom she split after just 12 days that seemed like an eternity because their photos were plastered everywhere. Cuoco admitted she wasn't used to that sort of attention, dishing to Cosmopolitan in April 2014, "I had no one following me until I met Superman. I've been in this business for 20 years, and my whole life, I could go anywhere, do anything. There had not been one paparazzi photo of me until like several months ago. The recognition was crazy."

Considering paparazzi never caught her with anyone else, you have to wonder if Cavill was behind, or at least complicit in, their seemingly impromptu photo ops.

Despite Cavill's propensity to date much younger women, he previously gushed about wanting to date a woman close to his own age who had her own life and career. What gives, bro?

Cavill told Playboy (via a very dedicated fan site that preserved the text), "It's tough for anyone to be in a relationship with someone like me. It's a tough lifestyle. If I want someone who's a professional they've got their own s**t going on. So unless I meet someone who's very, very young who hasn't yet started trying a career like that, you can then go, 'Okay, I'm going to travel with you and do some stuff, maybe I'll write or whatever; I'll entertain myself or build my own kind of travelling career.' I'm looking for someone who's my own age and will have a career. If they haven't then maybe I should be worried. It's easier said than done."

In an interview with typically squeaky-clean Jimmy Fallon in August 2015, Cavill was asked about his workout regimen to get in shape to play Superman. Responding to the question, Cavill shared, "For cardio ... I ... run? That's the savory answer."

We all know what he actually meant, especially when he looked around suspiciously and said, "It burns a lot of calories." That same month, he told The Guardian that playing Superman is "like shagging someone for the first time." He elaborated, "Sometimes it turns out to be amazing. Mostly you're trying to get each other's rhythm going. It's on the next go that you start to expand."

When ShortList asked Cavill whether he wears swimming shorts or "budgie smugglers" (Speedos, for the uncultured), he replied, "Definitely, definitely swimming shorts. More like a parrot smugglers. A Macaw or something. Perhaps a large bird of prey. Bald eagle. There you go."

Cavill also admitted that, when filming a racy scene for The Tudors, things got too real. "A girl had to be on top of me, she had spectacular breasts and I hadn't rearranged my stuff into a harmless position. She's basically rubbing herself all over me and, um, it got a bit hard," he confessed to The Independent. Adding that he immediately "apologized profusely," he continued, "It's not great when you're in a professional acting environment and somebody gets a b***r is it?"

Henry Cavill must love the taste of shoe leather because he has a habit of putting his foot in his mouth. For instance, his take on catcalling, which is a form of sexual harassment that many women find extremely threatening, is, well, all about how it affects him. He feels like he's a victim and lives in fear, despite being jacked and not a member of a class that's often abused and discriminated against.

"I do think there's a bit of a double standard, you know," he lamented to The Sunday Times (via The Telegraph). "I mean, if a girl shouts something like 'Oi, love, fancy a shag?' to me as I walk past I do sometimes wonder how she'd feel if a builder said that to her. Although, of course, I wouldn't feel physically threatened, as she might." Yes, Henry, that's sort of the exact reason women hate being catcalled. Glad you're finally catching on.

Piggybacking off his misunderstanding of catcalling was Cavill's unfortunate interpretation of the #MeToo movement. In summer 2018, he told GQ Australia how he finds it hard to date these days, saying, "It's very difficult to do that if there are certain rules in place. Because then it's like: 'Well, I don't want to go up and talk to her, because I'm going to be called a rapist or something.'" He then added that it's "way safer" for him to date someone from his past than potentially cast himself "into the fires of hell" by publicly flirting with another woman. 

After facing quite a bit of backlash, the Batman V. Superman star told Page Six in a statement, "Having seen the reaction to an article in particular about my feelings on dating and the #metoo movement, I just wanted to apologize for any confusion and misunderstanding that this may have created." Claiming that he didn't mean to be insensitive, he continued, "In light of this I would just like to clarify and confirm to all that I have always and will continue to hold women in the highest of regard, no matter the type of relationship, whether it be friendship, professional, or a significant other. Never would I intend to disrespect in any way, shape or form."

He then lamented that his quote was taken out of context with "editorial liberties," but there's really no excuse for such pigheaded remarks.

When asked about the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, Cavill was initially smart, telling Man Of The World (via Perez Hilton), "I honestly believe that every year there are people passed over who should have been nominated, and that there are people who shouldn't have been nominated who are. And I don't think anything has ever changed in that respect ... But, that said, this year in particular, there seems to be a serious lack of black guys and girls being nominated."

He could (and should) have stopped there ... but he didn't, and his words went from being thoughtful, considerate, and sensitive to dense and ignorant pretty quickly.

"Maybe the solution is to have more diversity in the members," he quipped. Fair enough, but he then mused, "But does that mean we are saying that to have more black academy members would result in more black nominations? Is that not racist itself?" No, not quite.

Henry Cavill openly admitted to Man Of The World (via Just Jared) that he doesn't care as much about art as he does about his bottom line. That's fine, but it's the sort of sentiment that's much better left unsaid, especially when you're promoting projects.

"I'm slightly wary of saying this, because it can be frowned upon, certainly by members of my community and people outside my community, but I'm not just doing this for the art. The money's fantastic and that's something which I deem — and again, it is frowned upon — very important," he said. He added, "People will be calling me a c**k as they're reading this, but travel's great as long as you're going first class. I mean, traveling to New Zealand in economy, it sucks. Especially if you're over six feet. But first class? I'm not going to ever pretend to be coy about that. I love it." Sure, he's a tall guy, but can't he at least pretend to respect his craft as much as he does his checking account?

However, despite loving the cashflow that comes with being a marquee name, Cavill's a bit hypocritical in terms of people acting specifically to become famous. "Do you want to be famous? Then you shouldn't be an actor," he grunted to DuJour. "If you're trying to be famous, you've lost before you've even begun. You might as well apply for Big Brother." Huh?