The new Superman, David Corenswet, resides not in Metropolis but a suburb of Philadelphia. He’s close enough to the downtown train station that his commute to Manhattan, he claims, feels shorter than when he lived in Brooklyn as a struggling actor. We meet at the kind of diner with syrup and hot sauce on every table, on a quaint main street that ends, inevitably, at a Wawa convenience store.
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It’s an unusual home base for an actor on the precipice of a major breakthrough. Corenswet, 31, will play the lead in Superman, which hits theaters on July 11, the latest film to take on the most popular superhero of all time. He moved to Pennsylvania to be near family, and he’s now raising a 1-year-old daughter there with his actor wife. Since movies now tend to shoot in Toronto or Atlanta or London or anywhere else besides New York or L.A., he doesn’t feel the pull of those cities. Actors, he says, can “get away with being anywhere as long as you have a nice self-tape setup for auditions.”
He’s easy to spot as he walks in. Corenswet looks like, well, Superman. He stands at an imposing height, and a curling lock of hair falls in the middle of his forehead. Clad in a blue sweater and leather jacket with sunglasses tucked neatly into the collar, he asks the hostess if we can sit by the window, the first time in my years of interviewing celebrities that an actor hasn’t requested a dark corner.
He’s refreshingly neurotic, picking at his nails as he admits that, as a student at Juilliard, he sparred with professors. “Some teachers would say that I was difficult because I love a good argument,” he says, promising it wasn’t born from stubbornness. “I’m happy to be wrong. I just want to be convinced.” Despite being told he was “too intellectual” and “too analytical” for Hollywood, he was swept into the Ryan Murphy universe, starring in the 2019 series The Politician and in 2020’s Hollywood before leveling up to feature films: he played the bad guy in Twisters last year. Before the shoot for that movie wrapped, director James Gunn called Corenswet to tell him he’d won the role as the Man of Steel.
Entering the superhero industrial complex isn’t necessarily the career boon it used to be. The genre is struggling, and Warner Bros. for its part has placed its hopes on Gunn’s Superman reboot. There’s a chance that this character will never let go of Corenswet. Actors like Chris Evans and Hugh Jackman are still fighting to peel off the spandex of the superheroes that made them famous. Corenswet knows Superman will lead his IMDb page, his Wikipedia entry, his obituary. “Would this be worth doing if this was the only thing I do as an actor for the rest of my life?” he asks as he adds milk to his coffee. “I think the answer is yes.”
The knock on Superman is that he can be boring. He was raised by loving adoptive parents, has a smart and beautiful girlfriend, and can beat (almost) anyone in a fight. “Compared to Batman and Spider-Man, he isn’t depicted as having great inner turmoil. If he’s invincible, what’s at stake?” Corenswet answers his own question, citing famed Superman writer Grant Morrison: “All the important stuff. You can be the most well-adjusted, well-intentioned person, but people will still die. You can’t save everyone forever.”
A few years ago, Warner Bros. brought in Gunn and Peter Safran as co-chairs and co-CEOs of the newly formed DC Studios to launch a series of films, beginning with Superman. Gunn is best known for writing and directing Marvel’s three strange yet successful Guardians of the Galaxy movies. He arrived at DC aiming to largely shed the ethos of the somber Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder films, and pitched the flagship property in particular as lighter and brighter. The success of this approach will determine the future of DC films.
Gunn offered Corenswet the role on one condition. He noted his experiences with Chris Pratt and John Cena, saying, “They treated everyone with kindness and respect.” It was non-negotiable that Corenswet do the same. “I’ve seen sets that cater to an actor or director’s ego and that’s just not something that would happen with David,” Gunn says in an email. “He is Superman, even in his nerdiness. He listens to old jazz standards. Like that’s what he listens to, just as normal procedure. Like Superman, he’s a simple man in complicated times.”
Corenswet does not share the goofiness for which Pratt became famous on Parks and Recreation or John Cena’s affinity for outlandish gags. He exudes a self-seriousness appropriate to the Boy Scout superhero. I ask if his penchant for questions extends to directors on ultra-expensive productions that involve choreographing flying actors, a CGI kaiju monster, and filming in the Arctic Circle. “I thought for sure the biggest moviemaking machine is where those conversations are not going to be had,” he says. “And it turned out it was the inverse.”
That was due to Gunn’s patience. “David’s a pain in the ass because he asks a ton of questions about every single little moment,” says the director. “But I honestly think my favorite moments were when I would get irritated by his endless questions and indulge him anyway, and then I’d see him turn those questions into something magical in his performance.”
Corenswet still has calluses from all his time in a harness. He estimates that he spent at least half of his shooting days in midair fight or flight. Who was he battling up there? Who knows. Corenswet and I are in the unusual position of discussing a film neither of us has seen. Gunn is still editing. When I joke that Superman’s billionaire nemesis Lex Luthor, played by Nicholas Hoult, obviously isn’t airborne, Corenswet widens his eyes and shrugs.
Gunn sheds a little light on the superhero-slash-journalist’s state of mind. “He is starting to become successful (at both jobs) in the big glitzy city so far away from home,” he says. “He’s madly in love with a woman who isn’t so sure about him. And he’s made a few superhuman friends who like him but think of him as naive. All these new elements in his life have unbalanced him a bit and as he’s tottering we’re going to see where he lands in terms of his values and choices.”
As for that woman: Gunn says the chemistry between Corenswet and Lois Lane actor Rachel Brosnahan was palpable from day one. Or, more specifically, days one and two: “We shot the 12-minute interview scene with Lois and Clark. That was 10 percent of the movie in two days. And to see the energy and magic between him and Rachel was awesome, not to mention how incredibly prepared they both were. It was a huge relief.”
And Corenswet does tell me about Krypto, Superman’s fluffy, caped dog whose trailer debut marked the arrival of a warmer, fuzzier DC. A dog named Jolene stood in for the superpet. She always trotted onto set to the tune of Dolly Parton’s iconic song. The final version will be largely CGI—the trailer features Krypto dragging Superman across a frozen tundra, a feat that even Jolene couldn’t pull off. When I press for further plot details Corenswet is genuinely apologetic: he has no idea what will appear in the final cut.
Nor does he seem to feel particularly anxious about it. While Gunn told journalists who visited set that the pressure was making him “miserable,” Corenswet didn’t sweat it. “What’s the pressure? Pressure to be good? I definitely want to be good,” he says. “But I’m not directing the movie. I give James puzzle pieces, and he gets to pick which one goes in which place. I can’t take on the responsibility that James took on of delivering a Superman film to the masses. But James is the right person to do it.”
Corenswet is remarkably sanguine about a film that has been the subject of immense scrutiny. The trailer is the most watched in the history of either DC or Warner Bros. Though he may not want the burden of Superman’s success or failure on his, yes, broad shoulders, it will land there anyway.
The actor does seem to have some sense that his life is about to explode, though the homebody has no plans to leave the Philly suburbs. “Luckily I don’t like going out much,” he says. He has taken aside co-stars like Hoult, who starred in franchises like X-Men and Mad Max, to ask what his life is like. “He’s very unassuming. I feel very fondly towards him,” Corenswet says. “But he doesn’t have anything particularly figured out. When I hear from someone who says they have it figured out, I think, you’re sure now, but I wonder in two years if you’ll feel you did the right thing.”
Corenswet said in interviews, years ago, that Superman was his dream role. Even if he’s not a career planner, he has manifested this opportunity for millions of people to see his work. “There is an amazing, solemn responsibility to be the person to play this character. And there’s no guarantee that I would have had a more interesting career if I hadn’t,” he says. “I know a lot of fantastic actors, better than I am, who may never be seen by more than an audience of 50 or 100 people at a regional theater.”
And no matter how long he tries to remain incognito, he cannot escape that he looks like Clark Kent: “A few people who are famous have told me, ‘I deal with this, but nothing like what you’re going to.’ And I don’t know whether that’s true, but Superman is a uniquely recognizable character.”
In 2023, Corenswet’s friend and Twisters co-star Glen Powell crashed at his home while attending the lacrosse national championships. As they strolled through the stadium together, fans yelled out “Hangman,” Powell’s nickname from Top Gun: Maverick. Corenswet remained blissfully anonymous, but can imagine something similar in his future. “With a name like David Corenswet, it could be years before people would be able to shout that out in the street.” He offers a knowing grin. “But ‘Superman!’ gives you a shortcut.”