Superman is a hero who has always been accompanied by a certain inconsistency. The talk is about Clark Kent’s glasses and the fact that no one recognizes Superman underneath. Henry Cavill, who played him in several movies, even put it to the test.
When Superman is not saving the world, he leads his everyday life as a journalist at the Daily Planet under the name Clark Kent.
The idea of disguising oneself as an ordinary person seems strange: As Clark Kent, he wears ordinary clothes and glasses meant to conceal Superman’s identity.
This has always seemed somewhat unbelievable. Just because Superman wears glasses, shouldn’t he be recognized anymore? Henry Cavill, who has portrayed the famous DC character in the past, wanted to find out.
The actor, who is also an avid gamer, wondered whether Superman would be recognized on the street – whether with or without glasses. To this end, he conducted an experiment.
In broad daylight in New York City
What did the test look like? Cavill recounted in the Graham Norton Show how he and a friend questioned whether a pair of glasses would really be enough to disguise Superman.
They took the experiment to the extreme: Cavill put on a Superman shirt and stood in broad daylight in Times Square in New York. At that time, Batman V Superman was showing in theaters. Times Square was covered with advertisements for the film. How it ranks in the MeinMMO ranking can be found here.
Cavill positioned himself in a good spot and had pictures taken of him. He tells Graham Norton that none of the passersby recognized him – even though he was wearing a Superman shirt and the actor’s face was looking down at the crowd from the screens above.
“I was only stopped twice. Once to be asked for directions to the subway exit and once to be told to stop taking photos in a bar,” Cavill describes his experience.
Images of that day are circulating on reddit. Indeed, Cavill was on site and posed for photos. It’s astonishing that he was hardly approached, despite his face being visible everywhere.
Some users on reddit argue that New York is just special. No one would look around, but only look down to avoid being shoved around, writes ademonsvoice023.
The user Holl4backPostr, on the other hand, thinks that Henry Cavill looks like a “regular, tall white guy”. So it would not be surprising if one did not recognize him.
What is the conclusion? At least the test at Times Square has clearly shown that Superman could walk around New York without a care. Not even a pair of glasses would be necessary. Whether this would also work with close friends and colleagues in the long run would need another test to prove. You might also be interested in: Expert on sword fighting explains how good Henry Cavill actually fights as a Witcher
