This is a conversation that I’m sure has played out countless times across kitchens and living rooms around the world as children, friends and partners patiently try and explain the difference between a video game universe and a tabletop wargaming universe. I just don’t know if it’s ever been done so smoothly.
Via PC Gamer, below is a segment from a recent episode of the Graham Norton Show, a British TV program that gets celebrity guests on, interviews them, and then has them chat with each other as the night goes on. Pretty standard late night TV stuff, which is why Henry Cavill was there: he’s got a new series of The Witcher to promote.
The highlight of his appearance had nothing to do with The Witcher, though; it came when Norton started up a conversation about Cavill’s love of Warhammer, and in particular how he is all in when it comes to stuff like painting the miniatures.
“You paint...is it War...World of Warcraft?”, Norton asks, beaming with not just confusion, but a little smugness as well.
Cavill’s reply is like hearing molten gold poured down a slide. The rest of the segment plays out quite awkwardly, as the host is clearly setting this up as some kind of gag, like, “Haha look at this big hunk he’s actually an enormous dork, what kind of loser plays tabletop wargames.” In reality, Norton comes off looking like a bit of a prick, a result only reinforced by the end of this segment when one of his fellow guests—believe it or not that’s Spider-Man’s Tom Holland—practically begs Cavill to come over to his house, saying, “That sounds amazing”.
A night of Warhammer at Henry Cavill’s house, as the big man hosts while Tom Holland stumbles through his first game like a tabletop Peter Parker, really does sound amazing.