Because of wearing contact lenses for a long time and being exposed to a dusty environment, Henry Cavill scratched his eyes without knowing it, and could lead to permanent blindness if this condition persists.
Breaking all previous doubts of fans, Henry Cavill has excellently portrayed the image of the monster hunter Geralt in The Witcher, which was just released on Netflix on December 20, 2019. It would not be an exaggeration to say that this series has achieved great success as it is today, largely thanks to the British actor’s perfect acting ability.
Henry loves The Witcher so much that he does not use any stuntmen, taking on all the dangerous action scenes himself. From thrilling sword fights at high speed to scenes of rolling around with monsters, Henry performs them all well.
However, because of his enthusiasm and dedication to this role, Henry has encountered many health problems. Not only was he tired and exhausted from too much physical activity, the actor also faced the risk of damaging his eyes from wearing contact lenses for too long.
To get Geralt’s super impressive eyes, Henry had to wear contact lenses for a long time and almost ruined his eyes.
Sharing with Metro.co.uk, Henry explained that Geralt’s yellow eyes (black when taking enhancement pills) were due to him using contact lenses, not through any special effects. These glasses would be fine if worn for a short time. But perhaps because of his subjectivity, Henry almost used them throughout the long filming process, only taking them off when he got home.
“I’m supposed to wear contact lenses for about three hours, then take them out to rest my eyes for a while before putting them back in,” the actor said. “I’m not worried about dry eyes, but the problem is that the eyes are the only part of the human body that receives oxygen directly from the air, instead of from the blood. So when you seal them (with contact lenses), they can’t circulate air. If this continues, it will cause certain damage to your eyes.”
“My eye specialist always nags me: ‘I don’t care what your character is like, what your scene is like. But you have to take those contact lenses off immediately or you’ll go blind forever.’ At first, I thought she was overreacting, so I refused, believing that I could just film for a few more hours. However, she insisted that I take them off.”
Instead of wearing contact lenses for 3 hours, Henry wore them all day during filming, despite the advice of his doctor.
In addition to contact lenses, Henry’s eyes were also negatively affected by the filming environment, especially in the Canary Islands, Spain. He said: “This island is all volcanic rock, causing a lot of dust in the air, especially on windy days. This type of dust is both thin and light, so it is easy to get inside the contact lenses and get stuck there, causing my eyes to be scratched without me even knowing it.”
“After returning to Budapest (Hungary), I was in a state where I couldn’t open my eyes, and tears kept flowing out. Immediately after that, I had to use clean water to wash all the dirt out, the pain was excruciating, as if someone was stabbing a needle into your eye. However, I stubbornly thought that it was probably just my body being tired after many days of continuous filming and that there was no big problem.”
“However, things got so bad that I had to keep my eyes closed, because every time I opened them, I felt glare from the surrounding environment. I told my optician that I was fine, just needed to help me soothe my eyes before the next scene. But she told me to take off my contact lenses immediately, because my condition would become extremely serious, possibly leading to permanent blindness if it continued like this.”
Because of wearing contact lenses for too long and encountering dust, Henry could not open his eyes.
Fortunately, Henry finally listened to the doctor and let his eyes rest a bit before continuing filming. He also jokingly said: “On screen, Geralt looks cool, but in reality, it’s because he wears contact lenses. And it’s not comfortable at all.”
