Henry Cavill's Mustache Almost Became A $3 Million Problem For Mission: Impossible

There's a secret history of controversial facial hair in Hollywood that is as interesting as it is ridiculous. Since there have been films, there have been behind-the-scenes fights about beards and mustaches on leading men, and that remains the case today.

Back in the late '40s, a Fox executive tried to pay $25k to shave Gregory Peck's face for "The Gunfighter", owing to the fact that he thought a hirsute leading man would put off more conservative moviegoers at the time. Then, in 1978, Richard Donner managed to dupe Gene Hackman into shaving his mustache for "Superman," simply to ensure the actor's portrayal of Jor-El was not undermined by people staring at his upper lip.

Controversy surrounding facial hair continued into the '90s, when Kurt Russell went over-the-top with his "Tombstone" mustache, and the film's director George P. Cosmatos had to talk to his star about what would have been a historically-accurate facial mane. Then, of course, we come to the modern day, in which no mustache has become more beloved and infamous than Henry Cavill's in "Mission: Impossible — Fallout."

Propelled by that infinitely-memed clip of Cavill reloading his arms as duplicitous CIA agent August Walker in "Fallout," and the fact that the actor just looked pretty good with facial hair, the 'tache in question became world famous. But it also stirred what might have been the biggest facial hair controversy in Hollywood history, almost costing "Fallout" $3 million in the process.

To give you a sense of the cultural impact Henry Cavill's "Mission: Impossible — Fallout" mustache had, it was given its own obituary on this site back in 2018, following the actor posting a dramatic shaving video on his Instagram. All of this might seem a little silly (because it is), but the demise of this particular facial adornment — which, according to The Hollywood Reporter, had been all the actor's idea — was notable for the sheer amount of trouble it had caused during its short lifespan.

Put simply, while shooting "Fallout," Cavill was called back to do reshoots on "Justice League," in which he played Superman. Already a significantly controversial film in its own right, owing to the fact Joss Whedon had taken over from original director Zack Snyder and was overseeing hefty reshoots for the superhero team-up, "Justice League" would prove to become a major issue for "Fallout," its director Christopher McQuarrie, and the studio behind the film, Paramount.

Speaking to the Empire Podcast (via Polygon), McQuarrie explained how Warner Bros. — the studio behind "Justice League" — suggested that Cavill shave his mustache and start growing it back after reshoots, with the studio even offering to pay to "digitally fill in" the facial hair in the interim. It seems "Fallout" producer Jake Myers then tallied up the cost of having to digitally replace Cavill's mustache, which would have totaled $3 million had McQuarrie and Paramount agreed to Warner's offer. However, the Paramount execs were not about to cave to their rival studio's demands.

After Paramount refused to budge on shaving Henry Cavill's mustache, Warner Bros. were left with no choice but to use CGI to smooth over the actor's top lip in his reshot "Justice League" scenes, leading to one of the most infamous VFX cock-ups in all of Hollywood history and yet another way in which Warners botched Cavill's Superman. As detailed by Vanity Fair, it seems a VFX artist on "Justice League" actually took to Reddit to detail the whole debacle in a series of now-deleted comments where they expressed their opinion that Paramount "should've shaved him and stuck a fake one on for 'MI6," calling the refusal a "ridiculously petty" move. According to the mystery VFX artist, the "Justice League" team did tests to show that adding a beard to Superman was far easier than trying to cover up an existing mustache, but Paramount still didn't budge.

Meanwhile, Christopher McQuarrie claimed during his Empire podcast appearance that DC producer Charles Roven contacted him directly to ask whether Cavill would shave. According to the filmmaker, he was actually willing to take Warner Bros.' $3 million and stop production on "Fallout" to allow the "Justice League" reshoots to happen, even though he admitted that, "Like it or not, a fake mustache in close-up on a 75mm lens is never going to look like anything but a fake mustache." Alas, Paramount executives outright refused. McQuarrie continued:

"Somebody from Paramount Pictures said, 'What is going on? What are you people even talking about?' They're like, 'There's no way we're going to do that.' We were just like, 'Okay.' That was the best plan that we could come up with."

So, the result was one of the shoddiest CGI jobs in history to cover up Cavill's top lip in "Justice League," the reshoots for which reportedly cost $25 million. Still, in hindsight, Cavill's majestic mustache probably did a lot more for "Fallout" than his bald upper lip would have done for "Justice League," so this might be one of those times the studio suits were right.