Before he became ‘Superman,’ David Corenswet was ‘just David,’ a curious Philly theater kid who never stopped asking questions

Superman star David Corenswet was traveling across Asia promoting the new movie when he heard from his former theater teacher from the youth theater program Upper Darby Summer Stage, Marcus Stevens.

It had been a few years since they last spoke and Corenswet was rather busy, thanks to the buzzy reboot of an enduringly popular comic book franchise.

But he texted Stevens back right away.

“He was like, ‘I’m flying all over the world, I don’t ever know what time zone I’m going to be in, but just send me a voice memo and I’ll respond to you,’” said Stevens, also a Summer Stage alum who directed Corenswet in the summer 2012 production of Hairspray. “It’s so special that [Summer Stage] meant enough to him that he responded to his old teacher.”

Corenswet was also quick to offer his support for the organization’s 50th anniversary gala this year when Stevens asked, sending autographed Superman merch as a contribution to the auction. It’s the kind of generosity that feels fitting for the actor playing a new version of Superman — one that is sincerely open-hearted, brimming with love for his hometown, and someone who would rush to help his old friends and educators.

Long before his face was plastered across Times Square, Corenswet was a Philly theater kid with a boundless curiosity lighting up local stages from Old City’s Arden Theatre to Malvern’s People’s Light in productions like Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, Our Town, Macbeth, and Forgiving Harvest.

Corenswet, who grew up in Center City and then Merion Park and still calls the region home, was nine when he performed the role of Bert in All My Sons, his first professional production. His bio listed his passions: “David Corenswet (Bert) is a fourth-grader who is a big fan of the Marx Brothers, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Bill Irwin, and of course, Star Wars. He also loves building with Legos.”

That bio still holds up, 23 years later, as Corenswet has expressed his inner theater nerd in interviews and even admitted that his wife, Julia Best Warner — whom he met as a teen at Upper Darby Summer Stage — gifted him the LEGO Millennium Falcon after he finished filming Superman.

His former teachers say that Corenswet today is very much the same person that they once saw bouncing around backstage or studying lines during lunch. The hardworking young actor stood out to educators like Arden artistic director Terry Nolen, who were impressed by his engagement, commitment, and comfort onstage.

Nolen recalls directing Our Town in 2008, when a 14-year-old Corenswet played two brothers who were paperboys. The show’s second act was held in Christ Church Neighborhood House, where a historical relic stood cordoned off. It was a 17th century English baptismal font in which William Penn was baptized.

Thinking about how he could best utilize the space, Corenswet asked Nolen questions about incorporating the font: Could they pretend it was a horse? Could he jump over it? Maybe it could be a street fountain?

“It was a good idea because [the font] was in the middle of the aisle of the church and he did have to walk by it and around it,” said Nolen, chuckling. “Then he was trying to show me how he would lean on it without really putting his weight on it. I was like, ‘No!’”

Thankfully, the actor left the relic alone, but that urge to keep asking stayed with him, from his high school theater program at Bryn Mawr’s Shipley School to his time training at Juilliard. (Superman director James Gunn had a similar experience with the actor who occasionally asked one too many questions.)

As a teen actor at Summer Stage — which counts Tina Fey as another notable alum — Corenswet made lifelong friends. Artistic and managing director Chris Luner was his peer, and recalls his talent and hunger for improving his craft.

“David was always a leader amongst our friends. He would work to make sure kids were included and no one felt left out,” said Luner. “The last time I saw him was two years ago [for] a Summer Stage event. This was after he had done he had done Hollywood and The Politician, and a decent number of very large projects with very big names, and I felt like I was talking to David from 2009 or 2012 — it was just David. It was so wonderful to see someone who I knew as a kid be so successful, and it felt like I was talking to that same kid at the end of the day.”

After being cast as Superman, Corenswet did have a question, this time for his high school theater teacher, Phillip Brown.

“He was one of the people who I wanted to tell the most and he would not pick up the f—ing phone,” Corenswet recalled in an MTV interview. Brown had been in an interview himself at the time and called Corenswet back when he could.

Corenswet’s question?

“Did they ask you what it feels like to have your high school theater student playing the next Superman?”