Superman’s David Corenswet reveals one thing about him James Gunn found “difficult”

Superman marks the start of a beautiful collaboration between star David Corenswet and director James Gunn, but that doesn’t mean it was all sunshine and rainbows. Corenswet is the first to admit he has one trait that can, at times, grind Gunn’s gears. 

Development on a new Superman (separate from Zack Snyder’s DCEU) first started back in 2022, a few months before Gunn and Peter Safran took the reins at the superhero studio. But casting the Man of Steel is no small feat. 

He needs to be a symbol of hope, of warmth, of quiet strength, not just a chiseled jawline in red pants. For Gunn, Corenswet stood out not just because he looked the part, but because he understood it. 

Still, creative alignment doesn’t always mean silence on set. Just this week, Gunn admitted he wasn’t shy about telling his lead to “shut the f**k up” – not out of frustration, but because Corenswet, ever the perfectionist, wanted to dig into every detail.

David Corenswet asked James Gunn a lot of questions on Superman set

DC Studios

Corenswet understands this fully. In a new interview with Hollywood Authentic, the actor explained that he would ask a lot of questions in a bid to better understand his character, and sometimes this would result in a back-and-forth between the pair. 

Providing a metaphor, if he was told to jump off a cliff, Corenswet would want to know why. “What you want to be able to do is say; why this cliff? Why now? And where are we hoping I’m going to land? I just like to get clear on that,” he told the outlet. 

“If you talk to James [Gunn] that’s the one area where I’m difficult. And very quickly, that can start to sound like an argument. It can sound argumentative to people. 

“He gave me a note that was very much not what I thought was appropriate for the scene. And so I started going back and forth with him a little bit. To anyone watching, it would look like an argument. It looked like I didn’t want to do things the way he wanted them done. 

“And there was one sentence that he said in the heat of it all – you know, face to face. He said one sentence, and I went, ‘Stop. Great. I know exactly what you mean’. I walked back off, and did the thing. And it was what he wanted. 

“I just wanted that moment where I knew what you were talking about.”

Even though his confidence grew throughout the course of the new movie, he admitted having to “fake some” of it when walking onto set on the first day, saying, “I didn’t know James that well by that point. 

“But you go through the fear of people looking at the suit or looking at your hair… I just thought for this I should probably muster up some confidence, even if it was faux-courage, and just try to be as Superman-y as I could.”

Superman is in cinemas now. You can also check out our breakdown of every upcoming DCU and Elseworlds project, and find out where Superman will be streaming, how long it is, and details about its post-credits scenes.