The Witcher' star Henry Cavill talks about video game inspiration for Geralt's voice

Henry Cavill revealed that he took inspiration from the "The Witcher" video games on Geralt of Rivia's appearance and how he voiced the character in the Netflix series.

In the show, the monster hunter Geralt is non-conversational. He does not talk much and when he does, the words weigh heavily. He is clearly unlike Jaskier (Joey Batey), who does not run out of words to say. He is "nonstop jibber jabber."

Cavill said he chose to characterise Geralt as the quiet type because he "decided that less is more." He wanted to show Geralt's "perceptiveness, his intelligence, his old age, his wisdom, because he's an old man, essentially, as far as we're concerned."

"That, for me, was hopefully going to give the audience—it's almost like they're trying to crack a cipher when it comes to Geralt. So when he does say something, it means something. He's not shouting from the rooftops, and yet he is as large as a house of a character," Cavill explained in an interview with Vanity Fair.

The English star added that he adopted a different speaking voice for Geralt in "The Witcher" to align with the "idea of the character saying little." He revealed that he took inspiration from Doug Cockle, who voices Geralt in the video games, whom he said voiced the monster hunter in an American accent and with a "slightly more whisper tone" than his.

"But mine, I tried to make it as different as possible, so I'm not just copying him. A lot of my inspiration came from there, but I didn't work with any voice coaches. I just found it as I went along," Cavill revealed.

In "The Witcher" video games, Geralt has long grey hair which he often ties back. In the Netflix show, Cavill wore a wig with the same hairstyle and colour because it was "just on point." He did not try to distinguish the hair apart from the video games because it fits the character well even on camera.

"By the end of the show, by episode one reshoots, fortunately, the wig was just on point. For me, for the character, it was important to have that white wig. It's grey more than anything else now, because white on camera, in those lights, ends up shining like the moon and it looked, frankly, ridiculous," the 37-year-old Superman star explained.

Cavill reprises Geralt of Rivia in "The Witcher" Season 2 and filming for the instalment will resume on Aug. 17 in parts of the U.K. The new season is expected to arrive on Netflix in 2021.