Superman star David Corenswet did almost all his own stunts – stunt double breaks down iconic scenes

But Davenport wasn't just a straightforward stunt double for Corenswet – partly because the actor actually did the vast majority of his own stunts and action sequences.

"He did a lot," Davenport tells RadioTimes.com. "I wouldn't be able to fill up one hand [counting] the amount of times that a double had to step in and do, like, a gnarly crash.

"There were some times where we would be setting up stuff, and we'd get in there on the day and they're like, 'Oh no, David's going to do this.' I'm like, 'Rock on, dude!'... He would rehearse it once or twice, and then just be like, 'Cool, let's do it,' and he'd nail it. He'd fit in with the stunt team just as much as we fit in with each other."

He added: "A lot of the stuff - most of all of the stuff where you see him flying and stuff, and even going up and spinning and twisting and going around and stuff like, that's David in a flying rig doing that."

Davenport also had the unique job of being Corenswet's action double - which becomes hugely important when it's revealed that Corenswet has a dual role in the movie: playing Superman, but also Ultraman, Lex Luthor's cloned version of the Man of Steel.

"So when Superman's on screen, like when he's getting arrested, David couldn't be in the Ultraman costume, so that would be me arresting him and walking him away and throwing him into the portal on the beach and all of that stuff," Davenport explains. "But especially then when the helmets wore off and we had to do [fight] sequences."

To put it simply, Davenport was the Ultraman to Corenswet's Superman and vice versa. He stood in for the actor in both roles, performing opposite him so as the action could be filmed, before the pair swapped around and filmed the same scene again the next day, hitting all the same beats. So, whenever you see Corenswet playing either Superman or Ultraman, it's Davenport in the other role.

"That's what the coolest thing for me was - getting to stand opposite him and have this whole stand-off and fight Superman," Davenport grins.

As for how that actually worked? For one thing, it meant that Davenport and Corenswet had to be unbelievably in sync.

"We'd shoot 10/12 hour days, and then we come in the next day and it's like, 'Hey, you guys, remember exactly what you did yesterday?!' We're like, '...Yeah, sure!' We would go around to the monitor, and they would show us a few times on the monitor - James keeps a huge big screen TV as his monitor in video village, which is super helpful, and it helps him totally get into it," Davenport recalls.

"They would show us what we did the day before and then David would watch my motion, but it was mainly for me watching, to make sure I match him as best as possible, so when VFX could do their thing, they could use him for everything."

Incredibly, it also meant part of the filming the blockbuster sounds suspiciously like the process of playing the 2009 Nintendo Wii game Just Dance.

"There was some [moments] where you'd watch playback and you can see the live shot, and they overlay the other shot on there - so it was me doing it, but you could see the ghost of David as Superman, and how close I was to matching it," Davenport remembers.

"There were a couple times where James came around the corner and he was like, 'Oh, it's great, you even spit at the same time! Sweet!'"

That epic Ultraman reveal culminates in a huge battle sequence set in a sewer, which saw Davenport facing off against Corenswet, again playing one role one day and the other the next. Again, Corenswet wanted to do every bit of that fight himself.

"From standing there and staring at each other and all the dialogue that [Corenswet] has going on, and then swapping and doing the other side. And then the laser blast and flying through and doing the whole sequence where we're going through the sewer and we have that fight - we're getting flipped upside down, and then spun back around and they hit into the sewer grate. That was me and David switching back and forth.

"David did that entire stunt sequence - smashing into the grate, and then the fight on the grate, and then tackling me out of screen. David did it all, and he did both sides. It was super awesome to just be able to [perform with him] because normally, when you get into the heavy lifting, so to speak, you're doing the fight with the doubles...

"[But] it was just not unexpected that that David's doing this. That was kind of the the whole thing around it. It was more of a surprise when it was like, 'Oh, this isn't going to be David?!' That didn't happen often."

He adds: "It's a testament to David as well, because every time you see Superman and Ultraman - especially Ultraman with his helmet off - David also had to do that side of all of the action and the fights. He had to learn both sides of these fights. From an actor's standpoint, being able to come in as one character, and then you're going to do the complete opposite as the other character, and you have to learn the reverse of a fight.

"The reactions are different, the whole mentality of that character is completely different. So it was really cool to to stand across and watch him as Superman and then get to see him the next day, when he's a completely different character. That was definitely the coolest part of it."

One of the other iconic moments, which was spoken about at length before the movie came out, was the scene of Superman getting arrested by a masked man - who turns out to be Ultraman.

"I slam David down, and then yoke him up, and then walk into the helicopter, and he's getting arrested by Rick Flag Senior. When that shot came out, and they were showing that sequence in the trailer, that was such a huge talking point on social media.

"It was like, 'Who is it? Who's it going to be?' [Some people] were like, 'Oh, it's Henry Cavill!'. There was so much speculation on who it was. And I'm like, 'Yeah, that's me.' I thought that was hilarious. So, yeah, when you see Ultraman arresting Superman, that's actually, that's actually me as Ultraman."

As you would imagine, there had to be a lot of attention to detail to the character behind the scenes - including Superman's physique, which formed an important conversation for Corenswet and Davenport after the actor gained 40 pounds for the role.

"I asked him, I was like, 'How do you want our physiques to be? Do you want, like, Hollywood Superman, ripped and shredded kind of a thing?' And he was like, 'No, he's a farm boy. He grew up on the farm. I want him dense, more linebacker, less Hollywood superhero.'

"So he did want that size and that physique, but he also just needs to be a bigger human, kind of more like the animated series," Davenport points out.

"Any time that we were doing costume fittings or talking about the sequences that James would be like, 'Here's what I want from this fight,' and the stunt team would go at it, it was always known that it would be like, 'think more the animated series of Superman.'"

But amid all the smaller details, the big picture certainly isn't lost on Davenport - that he's just been a part of the newest era of one of the most iconic characters of all time.

Speaking about the atmosphere on set while filming, he recalls: "It was definitely one of those things where we knew, like, a lot's riding on this. But the whole vibe on set, I don't think that there was much doubt in terms of what they were doing. Everything that they were doing just just felt right."

He adds: "It's because it's 100 per cent completely different than any take on the character that's been done before... seeing everybody's reaction, they're all talking about it as they leave the theatre.

"Normally, when you leave the theatre, everyone's a critic and everybody starts talking about what they didn't like, [whereas the reaction to Superman has been] 'Oh man, how they did this, and how they did this.' And I'm like, 'Okay this is different.'

"And seeing the little kids run around with all their Superman stuff on, and the dads are dressing up as Superman with their kids. This is why it's special. This is why it's important."

Superman is in cinemas now.

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