Among the latest 2024 movies to hit theaters this weekend is The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, which once again pairs Henry Cavill with filmmaker Guy Ritchie after they previously made The Man From U.N.C.L.E. together back in 2015. When CinemaBlend spoke to Cavill about the making of the new release, he revealed the process behind improvising on set.
When our own Sean O’Connell spoke with Henry Cavill about the new action comedy, the actor talked about Guy Ritchie’s style on the set of the movie. In his words:
It actually becomes a really fun process to just work with other actors, and see how much you can crank it. And sometimes you crank it too far, and Guy says, ‘I don’t know what you're doing, but stop doing that. That's terrible.’ And other times, he's going, ‘Oh my God, that's brilliant. Keep on doing that.’ Because it amplifies the joke, or whatever it might be. And so, yeah, in short, a lot of fun. It didn't require that much patience.
Hey, not every idea is going to stick! It sounds like Guy Ritchie and Henry Cavill had a great rapport on set, with the director not being afraid to call out his lead if he didn’t stick the landing on a joke, or conversely giving him all the praise when it worked for the scene.
As Cavill also explained, while the director has the bones of every scene laid out before they arrive on set, they would all work together to figure out the specifics. Cavill said even the crew was pitching in on ideas for dialogue! Cavill enjoyed the “fun exploration” that came with the set’s specific energy, even though, as he shared, there would be hits and misses as they improvised.
Elsewhere in our interview, Henry Cavill talked about the process of getting his “twirly, worrly” mustache just right for the role. If it wasn’t done just right, he hilariously said he’d end up with a “droopy one.”
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is loosely based on Operation Postmaster, which was a special British operation against the Nazis that took place on the Spanish island of Fernando Po during World War II. Henry Cavill leads The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare cast, which is packed full of talent including Alan Ritchson, Eiza González, Alex Pettyfer, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Henry Golding and Cary Elwes.
The new movie has been met with mixed reviews from critics, with some commentary saying, for example, that it “lacks any real tension” and is “lacking in crackle” for a war film, while others gave it a pass for being a “fun” time. In CinemaBlend’s review of The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, our own Mike Reyes gave the movie a 3.5 out of five stars. Reyes said the movie is “so unapologetic in its fun that you can’t help but smile along with the bloodshed and destruction.” You can catch The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare in theaters now.
