Alexander Skarsgård recalls his exciting journey to get in shape for the revenge epic The Northman. The True Blood star signed onto Robert Eggers' brutal, violent Viking film several years ago as the Prince Amleth of Scandinavian legend, who seeks to avenge his murdered father and rescue his mother from the clutches of his uncle. It is Eggers's third film following The Witch and The Lighthouse, both intricate and strange period horror films made with careful attention to detail, and the first time Skarsgård and the director have worked on a project together.
Promotion for the film, including interviews with various cast members, has hammered home its period-faithful production design and Eggers' obsessive filmmaking style that put actors into the thick of the Icelandic elements. Skarsgård himself recounted the grueling work on set, from battles atop mountains to being bound and dragged through the mud. For such a demanding, months-long filming schedule, the cast had to mentally and physically prepare to stand a chance at capturing the director's particular vision.
Speaking to Empire about the film, Skarsgård details the intensive workout and diet regimen he had to undertake to prepare for the role of Amleth. First, he clarifies that he rarely trains or diets for his roles, only ever doing so for Tarzan and now The Northman. Regency Enterprises spoiled him with a top-of-the-line trainer and nutritionist and stated that his first day of training was the real beginning of his pre-production on the project. To achieve the bearlike posture of Amleth's "Bjorn Ulfur" during the berserker raid at the beginning of the film, Skarsgård had to put on weight. Read the full quote below:
When you're an actor, you're spoiled. You have a lot of help. The studio will get you the best trainer and the best nutritionist and the best plan. They organize everything. So you don't really have to do much. They tell you what to do and when to do it. Of course, you've got to put in some work yourself. But for The Northman, I was very excited about finally making the movie after years of pre-production, and planning, and talking to Rob about the character and the story. There's so many months and years of just hypothetically talking about the character in loose terms. But then when you start training, that's the first day when you go into real pre-production, at least for me as an actor. And it becomes very real that you're actually getting ready to do it.
I was incredibly excited and motivated to actually start that journey, putting on some weight. It felt important. My character's name, when he's a berserker at the beginning of movie, is ‘Bjorn Ulfur’, which means Bear Wolf. There's a scene at the beginning of the movie in which he transforms – he sheds his human shape and becomes this spirit animal, a hybrid of a wolf and a bear. I'm a bit too lean for that character, so it was important to have a bit more bulk and be slightly more bearlike in my posture and size.
The tidbit about seldom restricting himself with a personal trainer or diet is interesting enough given the perception that actors constantly train their bodies for roles. It indicates that Skarsgård had to take the part of Prince Amleth seriously if he wanted to push through Eggers's rigorous production and likely achieve a look agreeable with the historical accuracy that the director consistently seeks. And while the Swedish actor channeled the ferocity of another Viking prince in True Blood, he had to undergo a slightly different transformation for The Northman, with some early reviews calling Skarsgård an animal and a beast.
Whatever mental and physical training he went through to become that bear-wolf hybrid seems to have worked, as critics are praising the actor's performance ahead of the movie's official U.S. premiere. Many actors have transformed for roles before, Christian Bale chief among them, but Skarsgård's physically imposing stature as the vengeful Viking could be a metamorphosis worth remembering. And assuming The Northman is as compelling as people say, Skarsgård's dedication to his craft could even push him into more high-profile Hollywood roles.
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Source: Empire
