“I will avenge you, father.
I will save you, mother.
I will kill you, Fjolnir.”
Alexander Skarsgard as Amleth in ‘The Northman’.Aidan Monaghan/Focus Features
With his mother, Queen Gudrun (Nicole Kidman), captured, Amleth flees his native land.
We’ve told it in our own way," Eggers says.
That was meant, he says, “to get my frustration out.”
Ethan Hawke as King Aurvandil in ‘The Northman’.Aidan Monaghan/Focus Features
The man even looked like a Viking.
He was so tall."
The writer-director already had a Viking story in mind, the concept that would becomeThe Northman.
Nicole Kidman as Queen Gudrun in ‘The Northman’.Aidan Monaghan/Focus Features
WithThe Witch, I wanted to say, ‘Actually, let me show you what witches are for real.
‘“The Northmanis the same idea.
“People think that they know Vikings.
Alexander Skarsgård as Amleth and Anya Taylor-Joy as Olga in ‘The Northman’.Aidan Monaghan/Focus Features
They think of the Kirk Douglas Viking movie [1958’sThe Vikings].
They think cartoon guys with horn helmets or certain TV shows where Vikings dress like science-fiction rock stars.
This is something very different.”
‘The Northman’ poster featuring Alexander Skarsgard as Amleth.Focus Features
He had met Sjon previously through, wait for it…Bjork.
The internationally renowned singer introduced them at a dinner party, thinking they’d get along.
“She was right,” Eggers adds.
That’s alsohow Bjork landed a part inThe Northman.
Both Eggers and Sjon couldn’t think of anyone else to fill the role of Seeress.
(“Remember for whom you shed your last teardrop,” the character utters in the trailer.)
“Your strength breaks men’s bones.
I have the cunning to break their minds,” Olga tells Amleth.
Cryptically, Eggers mentions, “Anya is a good witch in art and in life.”
Dafoe, another of Eggers’ former actors, appears as Heimir The Fool.
But of all the faces among the cast, it is Skarsgard who carries the film.
“Alex totally transformed his body,” Eggers says.
“He’s bigger than he is inTarzan, and that’s no small feat.
He completely became this character.
To my taste and understanding, he is like a saga hero.
There are moments where his rage is as powerful as anything I can think of in cinema.
I’m not trying to toot my horn, but it’s intense.
I feel ridiculous saying something like that, but it is intense.”
The Northmanis scheduled to open next year on April 22.
