How Henry Cavill came up with Geralt’s raspy voice on The Witcher

When Henry Cavill signed on to play Geralt of Rivia in the Netflix series The Witcher, he was told he would be using his normal speaking voice when delivering the gritty hero’s lines. Kotaku reports that the actor used a raspy version of his voice to deliver the lines, and it made his portrayal of the character so much better.

Cavill talked about his path to becoming Geralt during a presentation at WitcherCon, an online fan convention. After returning from Christmas break, Cavill changed his voice without realizing it and after careful review decided that it “made a lot of things sit better when it came to delivery of certain lines, and delivery of certain dialogue.”

Cavill worried that the raspy voice was too close to that of Doug Cockle’s version of Geralt from The Witcher video games. “I don’t want to seem like I’m plagiarizing another professional’s extraordinary work. I had a look at it, had a listen to it, and I thought, ‘actually they are different enough.’”

Geralt’s voice in The Witcher was unintentionally “inspired” by the games

It’s hard to imagine Cavill’s normal speaking voice for Geralt given how gritty and dark the character is. The raspy voice definitely makes the character, and there’s no question that the added grit helps sell some lines that could come across as cheesy if not for the rasp and the glower (and the slightly glowing eyes) of the man delivering them.

The Witcher producers agreed that Geralt needed that extra something, too, so Cavill worked on the sound he wanted and once everyone was satisfied they proceeded with filming. There were some scenes that needed to be shot again so that Cavill could use his new voice, which means that somewhere out there is footage of non-raspy voice Geralt and that would be fun to see.

The Witcher season 2: Less grunting, no bathtub scenes, “plenty of man-flesh”

Geralt may have a little less rasp in season 2. During his sit-down interview at WitcherCon, he talked about Geralt propensity to stay taciturn and grunt through his scenes, and how that might be changing. “I wanted him to be more verbose, more of an intellectual—more representative of a man who’s lived 70 years, and has a philosophical lean, and, and yeah, can be mopey at times but also… he’s wise, he’s been around,” Cavill said. “And he’s a nice guy, despite the fact he has moments of unpleasantness and is very capable of doing extraordinary violence.”

"There’s a comedy aspect [to Geralt being a ‘grumpy snowman’], and I wanted to lean away from that. I played the season one way deliberately, which was him in the wilds and without the opportunity for vast swaths of dialogue. I thought best, ‘be the man who is speaking less because that seems like he’s thinking more’—that was the intention with that."

But since season 2 will find Geralt in the company of his fellow witchers at Kaer Morhen, the witchers’ keep, he’ll open up more. “I was of the opinion that [with Geralt at ‘home’ in Kaer Morhen] you had to let him be verbose, and be philosophical, and speak more—and be intellectual,” Cavill said. “Because that’s what he is, he’s not just a big old white-haired brute.”

There are other changes coming to season 2. For instance, Cavill says we won’t be getting anymore scenes of Geralt bathing, a reference to a widely memed moment from the Witcher video games. “Geralt only showers from now on,” Cavill joked. “He invented the shower for this very reason. Myself, personally, there’s no bathtub scenes, but people will not be disappointed, there’s plenty of man-flesh to be observed.”

The Witcher season 2 is due to arrive on Netflix on December 17.

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h/t Io9