The meteoric rise of David Corenswet, the actor who gave up his quiet life to become Superman

Today’s film industry is already used to reviving movies, characters, and remaking past hits to turn them into new box office successes. And with this return to the past, those who grew up loving these films now have the chance to bring their iconic characters to life.

The most recent example is Jonathan Bailey — “I saw the original Jurassic Park with my family, aged six, at the cinema. It was the first time we all went together to something like that,” he told The Guardian.

But he’s not the only one. On Friday, July 11, the new version of Superman premieres, with David Corenswet, 31, playing Clark Kent. A role that fulfills the dream of an actor who has been working quietly for years to make it happen.

“My pie-in-the-sky ambition is definitely to play Superman,” he said in 2019 in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “I would love to see somebody do an upbeat, throwback [take on Superman]. I love the Henry Cavill dark and gritty take, but I would love to see the next one be very bright and optimistic.”

He thought that moment would never come. “I thought it was impossible that I’d ever get to play Superman because it’s impossible that anybody would get to play Superman,” he admitted six years later to the U.S. magazine People, after landing the superhero role. Now his life has taken a 180º turn, and he’s become one of the season’s most talked-about stars.

Like many actors, his connection to performing began when he was a child participating in a local theater in Philadelphia. His first professional role came at age nine in Arthur Miller’s All My Sons. His inspiration was his father, “a theater actor in New York who never really made his living doing it particularly, but just had a great love of the traditions”: “He was trying to make a career of it, but he didn’t find enough success for it to be able to sustain a family. And so, when he wanted to have a family, he decided to do the sensible thing and become a lawyer,” Corenswet said in a recent interview with GQ.

At 18, he realized it was time to explore other fields and enrolled in psychology. That educational path didn’t last long: acting was his true calling, and he entered the Juilliard School. “Some teachers would say that I was difficult because I love a good argument. I’m happy to be wrong. I just want to be convinced,” he explained to Time magazine.

Despite attending this prestigious arts conservatory, Corenswet’s rise has been gradual and discreet, with the actor taking on secondary roles and working in smaller productions that have allowed him to reach where he is today. Many told him he was “too intellectual” and “too analytical” for Hollywood. They were wrong.

He immersed himself in Ryan Murphy’s universe, starring in The Politician in 2019 and Hollywood in 2020. Soon, other projects came his way, helping him steadily climb the ladder. He played the villain in Twisters in 2024, and while filming the movie, the news he’d been waiting for arrived: he had landed the role of the Man of Steel. He won it in a secret audition, beating out other big names like Patrick Schwarzenegger and Nicholas Hoult, who was cast as his nemesis, Lex Luthor. He knows that from now on, he will always be Superman, and most of the time, his efforts to shed that label will be in vain.

“Would this be worth doing if this was the only thing I do as an actor for the rest of my life? I think the answer is yes,” he told Time.

And he also knows that landing this role doesn’t mean he’s above anyone else: “There is an amazing, solemn responsibility to be the person to play this character. And there’s no guarantee that I would have had a more interesting career if I hadn’t. I know a lot of fantastic actors, better than I am, who may never be seen by more than an audience of 50 or 100 people at a regional theater.”

It’s no easy challenge, especially when the future of the DC Comics cinematic universe depends on you. So far, the first international reviews of Superman have called the movie a “fantastic start.”

“There are some people who wouldn’t want that role and who would, if given the opportunity, say no. I am obviously not one of those people. But I certainly tried to think of reasons not to,” he told GQ.

They say comparisons are a curse, and that why he’s had to find his own voice and set aside the portrayals of those who played Clark Kent before him.

This transformation also marks a shift in his public image: from now on, he’ll be leaving behind his quiet, mostly anonymous life in a suburban neighborhood outside Philadelphia — far from the typical glamour of Hollywood. “I don’t know whether there’s something wrong with me, but I don’t really feel the pressure — which is not to say that I feel like I know what’s going to happen,” he told GQ. He added: “Most great things in life come with tradeoffs, even if it’s just something like having a lot of trouble [dealing with] being recognizable in public [...] Maybe nobody will recognize me.”

Since his teenage years, he’s been in a relationship with actress Julia Best Warner, whom he met during a summer theater program in Pennsylvania. They married in 2023, and in early 2024 welcomed their first child. The birth coincided with the start of filming for Superman. “Two big unknown things at the same time. And they were both great things,” he said in the People interview. “I feel like I’ve been a dad for a long time, and just waiting for a kid to prove it [...] I liked being a camp counselor, and I have terrible jokes that nobody laughs at.”

In addition to his wife and son, his family includes his dog Ira, who accompanied him through the long days of filming — and who even appears in promotional photos dressed as the iconic superhero.

It’s now, during the promotional interviews ahead of Superman’s release, that Corenswet is revealing a side of himself the public hadn’t seen before. He admits to enjoying off-camera projects that involve home improvement. “I like learning about those things, and electrics and plumbing and drywalling. Mostly it’s changing, I don’t know, light fixtures or something, simple stuff. But it’s fun to work with your hands, especially as an actor where so much of what you do is talking to other people,” he told the U.S. magazine.

Another little-known passion of his is aviation. As he revealed in People, he has a flight simulator at home and enjoys practicing maneuvers and recreating flight paths.

Corenswet is now Superman — but he’s also a family man who has found strength in staying out of the spotlight. With him begins a new era of superheroes who grew up in the shadow of the originals and are now ready to make their own mark.

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