Entertainment Weekly
“What I wanted to do was mimic more what it was like to shoot jet fighters,” says the writer/director of this summer’s event film.
David Corenswet remembers the first time he flew as Superman. It was underwhelming.
“It was really just a test,” the newly minted Man of Steel recalls to Entertainment Weekly. “It was in the screen test, actually. We did some wire work just to test our aptitude there, see how we felt up in the air.”
The first time he flew in his full hero costume for Superman, however, was a moment featured heavily in the trailer: his Kal-El/Clark Kent shouts, “Hey, buddy! Eyes up here,” at a kaiju attacking Metropolis before rocketing upward into the sky.
“They built the facade of the building, and then they burnt it out with flamethrowers, which we did practically for real,” Corenswet, 31, explains, alluding to the kaiju’s fire-breathing.
“Then they brought me back in and I got to do that little piece where I’m flying in front of the building, which is one of the cooler things to get to do practically. Getting to float there in the air and then, on a cue, rocket straight up into the sky is just about as pure a feeling of flying as you can get.”
Writer/director James Gunn, who’s also the co-head of DC Studios with Peter Safran, shares how he wrote a 20-page document for the stunt team that detailed what he calls “a philosophy of action and how we were going to shoot it.” For the flying, specifically, “What I wanted to do was mimic more what it was like to shoot jet fighters,” Gunn, 58, says. “I was more inspired by Top Gun: Maverick than I was by other superhero movies.”
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