Isolation, Leaps of Faith: 'Man of Steel' Cast on Similarities to Superman (Video)

"The whole fact that I even started acting to begin with was a leap of faith," says Michael Shannon, who plays General Zod. "Most people struggle with it, and there's very few people who actually get to be in a Superman movie."

One is the loneliest number, even for Superman.



In Man of Steel, Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) spends a lot of time in isolation, taking odd jobs and living alone in hopes of hiding his superhuman strength from the rest of the world.
It turns out that a sense of isolation is something that Cavill and many of the stars of the film could relate to as actors. Sure, they're watched by millions of people on the big screen and attend glamorous premieres, but much of their time as working actors is spent alone.
"As an actor it's a very lonely existence. You meet these people who you work with, and you spend months with them, and they become family, and then you leave them behind," Cavill tells

In Zack Snyder's Man of Steel, Cavill, who starred in TV's The Tudors and 2011's Immortals, takes on the role of the iconic superhero, who has to choose to expose his powers to the people of Earth after they're threatened by the menacing General Zod (Michael Shannon), who has traveled from Krypton to find Kal-El.
"I've definitely had a strong sense of isolation in my career," adds Cavill, "and I got to play it in this."
Amy Adams, who plays Lois Lane in Warner Bros. and Legendary's superhero film, also tells THR that she dealt with isolation as a child.
"I didn't necessarily fit in in high school. I felt very awkward," she says. "I still feel completely awkward and weird in my body sometimes. I'm hoping that's going to go away, but I've just embraced it as reality."
In the film, Lois Lane travels to the ends of the Earth to find Clark Kent after he rescues her in Antarctica. Adams spoke to THR about leaps of faith she's had to take in her own life.
"Moving out to L.A. for me was a leap of faith," she says. "I was very secure in my dinner theater world, I loved it, and I was just like, 'I think there's something else out there for me and I just have to go for it.'"

Russell Crowe, who plays Clark Kent's Kryptonian father, Jor-El, also spoke candidly about working as an actor, which he says requires a leap of faith whenever he signs on to a film.
"Making movies is some version of alchemy. You can have all the right elements in place, and all the money that the director needs, and then the movie still turns out to be s--t," he says.
The Oscar-winning actor adds: "Sometimes the pedigree of somebody doesn't necessarily tell you had bad they can be, or how good they can be. Being honest, Zack's pedigree to this point didn't tell me that he could make a movie like this."
Snyder, who helmed Watchmen and 300, adds that he takes a leap of faith every time he makes a film "because you're really exposing yourself in a lot of ways to a very large amount of people."
As for Shannon, his journey from growing up in Kentucky and Illinois to becoming a critically acclaimed actor in both film and TV was a risk from the very start.
"The whole fact that I even started acting to begin with was a leap of faith," he says. "There's not a very high success ratio in the field. Most people struggle with it, and there's very few people who actually get to be in a Superman movie."
Man of Steel opens in theaters June 14.
Watch THR's interview above.