Christopher Reeve Didn't Believe Superman Would Work; Here's What It Took to Convince Him
When talking about the movies that shaped superhero cinema as we know it, people usually start with 2008's Iron Man, which kicked off the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Some go back further to the era of X-Men and Spider-Man in the early 2000s, or maybe 1989's Batman – which completely shifted how studios handle marketing their product.
But really, one has to go all the way back to 1978's Superman – the first superhero blockbuster – starring Christopher Reeve.
Given that the idea of comic book movies was so new, Reeve almost passed on the role – potentially robbing fans of its most iconic Man of Steel.
Reeve, who was the third live-action Superman after Kirk Alyn and George Reeves, revealed in his 1999 memoir about the time he realized a blockbuster comic book movie could actually work.
Still Me details Reeve's career, including the life-changing horse riding injury that robbed him of the second half of his career.
The 1995 injury left him paralyzed from the neck down. In his autobiography, Reeve talked about several roles he passed on, specifically in the action genre.
These included American Gigolo, Romancing the Stone, Lethal Weapon, and almost Superman.
He knew Hollywood producers desperately wanted him to be an action star but found that "most of the scripts of the genre [were] poorly constructed."
He eventually accepted the role of Clark Kent/Superman after seeing that the script took the subject matter seriously. The slim Reeve beefed up for the role, adding about 30 pounds of muscle.
Even after he started shooting, he was still convinced the movie would flop. It took thousands of screaming fans to persuade him otherwise.
In Still Me, Reeve detailed a scene of Superman in which he catches a criminal and flies him to the street.
Filming in New York City, Reeve saw an empty city street as he approached the filming location. With the streets completely devoid of fans, Reeve was convinced that no one wanted to see the movie.
He was sure it would flop. He walked down the empty street, eventually arriving where the cast and crew had set up.
As he rounded a corner, he was met with thousands of fans, pushing each other to get as close as possible to the cast of the beloved Superman.
"When the crowd spotted me in the Superman costume, a huge cheer went up," Reeve said in Still Me.
To film the flying scene, he was lifted into the air with a harness. As they saw Superman "fly" above them, fans roared in applause. That's when he knew the movie was about to be something special.