Henry Cavill 'pushing body to limit' for 'Superman'

Henry Cavill has revealed that he is consuming 5,000 calories a day in order to get into shape to play Superman.

The 28-year-old Tudors actor, who will star as Clark Kent in director Zack Snyder's Man of Steel, said that he is pushing his body "beyond its normal limits" for the part.

"I'm on 5,000 calories a day... You've got to eat protein first, then a little bit of carbs... you've gotta keep your hunger levels going," he told Total Film. "I'm training two-and-a-half hours a day, pushing my body beyond its normal limits, putting on a lot of muscle mass and just making myself look like Superman."

Cavil admitted that his first reaction when putting on the Superman costume was to "guffaw and laugh".

"I thought 'Okay, holy hell, this is real, it's not a joke anymore. This is it... you're doing it, you're right in the middle of it'," he explained.

On being the latest British actor to star as an American superhero after Christian Bale's Batman and Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man, Cavill added: "I'm very proud to be British and playing an iconic American superhero… it means I'm doing something right somewhere."

Man of Steel, also starring Amy Adams, Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane and Laurence Fishburne, will open in cinemas on June 14, 2013.

> 'Superman: Man of Steel' full coverage

Watch Henry Cavill in the trailer for his new movie Immortals below: