1 00:00:01,334 --> 00:00:07,757 Hello, I 'm Michael Hirst, the creator, writer, showrunner of Vikings. 2 00:00:07,841 --> 00:00:09,843 It's great to be here. Welcome to the show. 3 00:00:09,926 --> 00:00:15,265 Hello, I 'm Jessalyn Gilsig, and I play Siggy Haraldson in Vikings. 4 00:00:15,348 --> 00:00:17,434 And I'm really excited to be here. 5 00:00:17,517 --> 00:00:19,102 It's pretty special, I get to sit beside Michael 6 00:00:19,185 --> 00:00:21,021 and watch the show with him. 7 00:00:21,104 --> 00:00:24,274 The opening sequence is wonderful and remarkable. 8 00:00:24,357 --> 00:00:26,860 It's very difficult to decide how to open a show. 9 00:00:26,943 --> 00:00:30,697 You're trying to plunge people immediately into another world. 10 00:00:30,780 --> 00:00:34,451 And we wanted, as far as possible, this to be very visceral. 11 00:00:34,534 --> 00:00:36,369 That's one of the signatures of the show, 12 00:00:36,494 --> 00:00:39,706 that you're in a Viking world, you're in a violent world. 13 00:00:39,789 --> 00:00:42,459 And again, we had such fantastic people 14 00:00:42,542 --> 00:00:45,378 who were choreographing the action sequences. 15 00:00:47,714 --> 00:00:48,798 Mmm-hmm. 16 00:00:49,215 --> 00:00:51,885 I think they did the Sherlock movies as well. 17 00:00:52,010 --> 00:00:55,221 And the fight sequences in there 18 00:00:55,347 --> 00:00:59,476 are imaginative and innovative, and remarkable, and... 19 00:01:02,687 --> 00:01:08,151 It's also where we're first meeting Ragnar and Rollo. 20 00:01:08,234 --> 00:01:09,235 And I was always... 21 00:01:09,361 --> 00:01:12,405 I always think it's interesting, how in the fight sequences, 22 00:01:12,530 --> 00:01:14,741 - how tired they are. - Yes. 23 00:01:14,866 --> 00:01:16,326 You know, as opposed to these superheroes, 24 00:01:16,409 --> 00:01:21,247 that there's this exhaustion in them from the moment we meet them. 25 00:01:21,498 --> 00:01:25,418 Yes, we wanted it to be as real as possible. 26 00:01:25,752 --> 00:01:30,006 We're shooting that in a rain-soaked landscape, 27 00:01:30,090 --> 00:01:33,093 on a very, very cold day. 28 00:01:33,176 --> 00:01:38,765 And I felt sorry for some of the extras, having to lie down in the heather for hours, 29 00:01:38,890 --> 00:01:40,266 - in the pouring rain. - Yes. 30 00:01:40,350 --> 00:01:43,019 Yeah. We never needed a rain machine. 31 00:01:43,103 --> 00:01:45,605 Ireland gave us all the rain. 32 00:01:45,730 --> 00:01:51,277 And of course, another feature was to introduce people to the language 33 00:01:51,361 --> 00:01:57,617 that the Vikings spoke. Old Norse, which is effectively a dead language now. 34 00:01:57,701 --> 00:02:00,453 We brought it back to life briefly, 35 00:02:00,537 --> 00:02:03,707 to give people a taste of what it sounded like. 36 00:02:05,083 --> 00:02:06,376 And, in the same way that 37 00:02:06,459 --> 00:02:09,879 when we first meet the English, the Anglo-Saxons, 38 00:02:09,963 --> 00:02:11,798 - they speak Anglo-Saxon. - Yeah. 39 00:02:13,967 --> 00:02:19,055 Now, this is the other side of the show. 40 00:02:19,139 --> 00:02:23,101 A very important side for me, you can call it the spiritual side, 41 00:02:24,102 --> 00:02:29,566 if you like, but the show is very much about paganism, 42 00:02:30,567 --> 00:02:34,988 as much as it's about adventure or violence. 43 00:02:35,989 --> 00:02:41,327 For the Vikings, the gods were real, and lived among them. 44 00:02:41,995 --> 00:02:48,168 And in their sagas, we 're told that after a battle, 45 00:02:48,293 --> 00:02:53,006 they saw the god Odin walking among the dead, 46 00:02:53,131 --> 00:02:57,260 and choosing the warriors who would go to Valhalla. 47 00:02:58,261 --> 00:03:04,434 And then, the valkyrie would come down 48 00:03:04,517 --> 00:03:07,854 and take them, pick them up and take them to... 49 00:03:07,979 --> 00:03:10,940 - So, this is not fantasy. - Right. 50 00:03:11,024 --> 00:03:15,862 This is from a Viking point of view. This is reality to them. 51 00:03:15,945 --> 00:03:17,614 That was something that we, as actors, 52 00:03:17,697 --> 00:03:21,534 were really encouraged by Johan, and then, the subsequent directors, 53 00:03:23,286 --> 00:03:28,875 was to... Exactly, that it was just, our truth, that it wasn't fantastic. 54 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:35,548 It wasn't even mystical or anything, it was as real as you're sitting beside me. 55 00:03:35,632 --> 00:03:37,467 That's how real the gods are to us, 56 00:03:37,550 --> 00:03:41,054 or that's how real the Seer is to us, and the predictions, 57 00:03:41,137 --> 00:03:47,477 and we had to fully embrace that as a natural extension of life. 58 00:03:47,560 --> 00:03:48,645 Absolutely. 59 00:03:48,728 --> 00:03:54,150 This credit sequence is brilliant. 60 00:03:54,234 --> 00:03:55,485 Absolutely brilliant. 61 00:03:55,568 --> 00:03:57,403 And it sets out our stall, 62 00:03:57,529 --> 00:04:00,990 and it's a statement, and what it's saying is that this is not 63 00:04:03,409 --> 00:04:08,748 a costume drama, this is not an easy show, this is going to 64 00:04:11,209 --> 00:04:14,254 work with contemporary audiences, it's contemporary. 65 00:04:16,005 --> 00:04:17,757 It was made by a company called The Firm. 66 00:04:18,925 --> 00:04:21,845 I never tire of watching or listening to that. 67 00:04:21,928 --> 00:04:24,180 - Agreed. Agreed. - The song is fantastic. 68 00:04:24,264 --> 00:04:25,348 Amazing. 69 00:04:29,102 --> 00:04:33,273 And now, we're in the other world, 70 00:04:35,567 --> 00:04:36,860 in the... 71 00:04:36,943 --> 00:04:40,029 Yeah, they're speaking Old Norse again. 72 00:04:40,905 --> 00:04:46,619 We're going to Ragnar's house, and being introduced to his family. 73 00:04:46,703 --> 00:04:49,581 This is Vikings. 74 00:04:50,081 --> 00:04:53,209 Is it, in one important sense, a family saga? 75 00:04:54,127 --> 00:04:57,881 L wanted to involve people, very much at a personal level, 76 00:04:57,964 --> 00:05:00,633 so they cared about Ragnar. 77 00:05:01,551 --> 00:05:03,469 And this is a story, 78 00:05:03,553 --> 00:05:07,640 at its simplest, about a man, his relationship with his wife, 79 00:05:07,724 --> 00:05:10,643 his children, his brother and his boss. 80 00:05:11,311 --> 00:05:13,813 And everyone has those son' of relationships, 81 00:05:13,897 --> 00:05:16,232 so everyone can relate to this. 82 00:05:16,316 --> 00:05:20,820 But it was important, very early, to engage an audience 83 00:05:20,904 --> 00:05:22,655 in the everyday lives 84 00:05:22,780 --> 00:05:26,910 of people who happened to live quite a while ago. 85 00:05:26,993 --> 00:05:27,994 GILSIGI Al' that time. 86 00:05:28,119 --> 00:05:30,914 It was one of the things you said to me when I first met you, 87 00:05:30,997 --> 00:05:35,585 which was a great entry point for me into the show, was, you said, 88 00:05:37,170 --> 00:05:41,174 "There's a constant..." I'm gonna misquote it, but something to the effect of, 89 00:05:41,299 --> 00:05:44,761 "There's a constant in life. It doesn't matter where you land in history," 90 00:05:44,844 --> 00:05:47,931 "or what culture, or what your religion is, or your ethnicity," 91 00:05:48,014 --> 00:05:52,352 "but there is a truth that everybody holds, which is that we all love our children." 92 00:05:52,435 --> 00:05:53,686 - Yeah. - And that... 93 00:05:54,312 --> 00:05:55,355 Yes. 94 00:05:55,438 --> 00:05:59,192 Well, that seemed like a radical thing to say about the Vikings, 95 00:05:59,317 --> 00:06:01,611 because the Vikings have had such a bad press. 96 00:06:01,694 --> 00:06:03,696 - Exactly. - Historically speaking, 97 00:06:03,780 --> 00:06:07,033 people think that they were just completely nasty, 98 00:06:07,116 --> 00:06:11,788 and they would smash your door down in the middle of the night, 99 00:06:11,871 --> 00:06:13,373 and rape and pillage. 100 00:06:15,166 --> 00:06:18,378 It was one of the many prejudices 101 00:06:18,461 --> 00:06:21,547 that I wanted to overturn, and challenge, 102 00:06:21,673 --> 00:06:25,468 that, hey ho, you know, they were human, they loved their kids, 103 00:06:25,551 --> 00:06:27,804 they got married, they... 104 00:06:29,389 --> 00:06:30,640 I mean, they were ambitious. 105 00:06:30,723 --> 00:06:33,810 I mean, they're hardly the first or the last people 106 00:06:33,893 --> 00:06:37,730 to want to expand their empire. 107 00:06:37,814 --> 00:06:38,898 Yeah. 108 00:06:41,359 --> 00:06:44,487 And another thing we were very keen on doing from the start, 109 00:06:44,570 --> 00:06:46,906 was to have a sense of scale, 110 00:06:48,074 --> 00:06:50,243 to get you into the landscape, 111 00:06:51,828 --> 00:06:53,913 not as a sort of tourist destination. 112 00:06:54,038 --> 00:06:56,916 We didn't want people saying, "Next summer, I 'm going there." 113 00:06:57,000 --> 00:06:58,710 - You know. 114 00:06:59,752 --> 00:07:04,424 But, it's actually... I think it's movie quality. 115 00:07:04,549 --> 00:07:08,177 It looks like a movie, it doesn't look like a TV show. 116 00:07:09,262 --> 00:07:14,350 We didn't hose down all the scenes, as you normally do on a TV show. 117 00:07:14,434 --> 00:07:21,691 We went for wide vistas, we treated each scene on its merits, 118 00:07:23,276 --> 00:07:26,529 we went wide as often as we could, 119 00:07:27,113 --> 00:07:29,782 but also, kind of trying to remind people 120 00:07:29,907 --> 00:07:33,619 that these Vikings are part of the landscape. 121 00:07:34,954 --> 00:07:38,291 And that kind of gives you a sense of scale as well, like you say, 122 00:07:38,416 --> 00:07:42,128 because the myth is the idea that they were larger-than-life. 123 00:07:42,211 --> 00:07:46,466 But then, when you put them in the context of the landscape, you see... 124 00:07:46,549 --> 00:07:48,384 - They're dwarfed by the landscape. - Exactly. 125 00:07:48,468 --> 00:07:49,886 Yeah, absolutely. 126 00:07:52,305 --> 00:07:56,142 And the gods are there in the landscape. 127 00:07:58,227 --> 00:08:02,231 It's also, I can speak as an actor, working with Johan, 128 00:08:02,315 --> 00:08:05,651 our first director, it was everything, 129 00:08:06,903 --> 00:08:09,739 as you say, we 'd sort of establish things and then there were times 130 00:08:09,822 --> 00:08:14,660 when he would come in so close, that it wasn't about the scenery, 131 00:08:14,786 --> 00:08:16,496 or the setting, or... 132 00:08:16,579 --> 00:08:19,999 It was really about getting right into the character's eyes, 133 00:08:20,083 --> 00:08:22,001 and trying to reach into their soul. 134 00:08:22,085 --> 00:08:25,088 And we just saw that with a shot with Katheryn there, 135 00:08:25,171 --> 00:08:27,173 where, having seen her as this mother figure, 136 00:08:27,256 --> 00:08:29,592 and then, you come right close into her face, 137 00:08:29,675 --> 00:08:32,428 and now, we get to know her. 138 00:08:32,512 --> 00:08:34,347 - And we get to care about her. - Yeah. 139 00:08:34,472 --> 00:08:38,684 And this, of course, is a vital pan' 140 00:08:39,185 --> 00:08:43,314 of her character, is her physicality, 141 00:08:43,523 --> 00:08:45,274 her ability to fight. 142 00:08:45,525 --> 00:08:48,945 That was one of the huge challenges of casting the role. 143 00:08:49,028 --> 00:08:50,780 I can only imagine. 144 00:08:50,863 --> 00:08:57,120 Because we were offered a lot of pretty, young actresses, 145 00:08:57,370 --> 00:09:01,040 who, it was impossible to imagine had had two children 146 00:09:01,124 --> 00:09:03,626 and fought in a shield wall and killed people. 147 00:09:03,709 --> 00:09:08,381 And, of course, Katheryn is a black belt in some martial art or not, 148 00:09:08,464 --> 00:09:11,968 so she is very comfortable doing the physical stuff. 149 00:09:12,969 --> 00:09:18,975 One of the ways for her into her character, was absolutely with the physicality of it. 150 00:09:22,728 --> 00:09:25,314 - She's awesome in these scenes. - Amazing. 151 00:09:25,398 --> 00:09:27,150 Yeah, and as you say, it's not just even when... 152 00:09:27,233 --> 00:09:30,486 Like, there was that shot just there, where she knew she was going to do it. 153 00:09:30,570 --> 00:09:34,824 And just that confidence that she has, the skill to take these two men on, 154 00:09:34,907 --> 00:09:38,244 that's a hard thing to manufacture in an actress, I think. 155 00:09:38,327 --> 00:09:39,412 Yeah. 156 00:09:39,704 --> 00:09:41,372 Gyda. 157 00:09:44,917 --> 00:09:47,253 I went to confess my love to her, 158 00:09:47,545 --> 00:09:49,505 but I was set upon by a bear 159 00:09:49,589 --> 00:09:52,884 and an enormous hound who guarded her home. 160 00:09:53,759 --> 00:09:57,054 I killed the bear with my spear, 161 00:09:58,431 --> 00:10:01,726 and I managed to strangle the hound with my bare hands. 162 00:10:02,935 --> 00:10:07,064 This is the son, Bjorn, 163 00:10:08,691 --> 00:10:12,278 - absolutely wonderful performance. - Agreed. 164 00:10:13,237 --> 00:10:18,034 He's a great kid, and when you cast a kid, you really don't know. 165 00:10:18,117 --> 00:10:19,202 GILSIGI No. 166 00:10:19,285 --> 00:10:21,621 You don't know how it's going to work out. 167 00:10:21,704 --> 00:10:24,290 - It is in the hands of the gods. 168 00:10:26,417 --> 00:10:29,128 - And he loved the role for himself. - Yeah. 169 00:10:31,631 --> 00:10:34,884 He brings... I love putting children into... 170 00:10:34,967 --> 00:10:37,136 It's a very brave thing to do though, as you say, 171 00:10:37,220 --> 00:10:39,889 because if it works, it's amazing. 172 00:10:39,972 --> 00:10:45,144 If it doesn't, then it can be a real trip in the rhythm. 173 00:10:45,269 --> 00:10:49,315 But he and Gyda, 174 00:10:50,066 --> 00:10:53,653 I feel like, just brought a dimension to the show, 175 00:10:53,778 --> 00:10:57,323 that was so necessary, and for what Ragnar's stakes are, 176 00:10:57,406 --> 00:10:59,825 - which are so real. - Yeah. 177 00:11:01,494 --> 00:11:03,788 What about finding Travis? 178 00:11:04,413 --> 00:11:08,000 - That, again, was a huge challenge. - I'm sure. 179 00:11:08,084 --> 00:11:11,254 I mean, we were offered many, many, very pretty men... 180 00:11:12,630 --> 00:11:16,259 Who, it was impossible to imagine could even lift an ax. 181 00:11:16,342 --> 00:11:18,594 - Right, right. - Let alone use one. 182 00:11:20,596 --> 00:11:25,184 I held on almost to the last moment, in the face of some grief 183 00:11:25,268 --> 00:11:28,688 from my executive partner. Producer partners. 184 00:11:29,897 --> 00:11:32,191 We were getting pretty close to when we had to start shooting, 185 00:11:32,275 --> 00:11:35,444 - and we still didn't have our lead character. - It's unbelievable. 186 00:11:35,528 --> 00:11:40,700 And Travis sent his own little showreel, that he'd shot... 187 00:11:40,783 --> 00:11:43,369 So, just putting himself on tape, in his own house. 188 00:11:43,494 --> 00:11:44,745 Yeah. In his own house in Australia. 189 00:11:44,829 --> 00:11:46,789 - Actors need to hear this. - Okay. 190 00:11:46,872 --> 00:11:49,232 Sometimes, you know, you're waiting for the perfect context, 191 00:11:49,250 --> 00:11:51,210 and you think, "Nobody looks at our tapes, nobody cares." 192 00:11:51,294 --> 00:11:53,379 But, in reality, you know, they're looking for you. 193 00:11:53,504 --> 00:11:56,465 We were looking at everything. We were looking at everything. 194 00:11:56,549 --> 00:11:59,760 So, he sent his own tape in. 195 00:11:59,927 --> 00:12:05,641 Johan and I watched it one famous morning, and we were blown away. 196 00:12:05,725 --> 00:12:09,437 - And he didn't try to act. - Right. 197 00:12:09,520 --> 00:12:12,023 He didn't try to put on a Viking voice, 198 00:12:12,106 --> 00:12:15,067 he didn't... There was quite a lot of stillness in it. 199 00:12:15,318 --> 00:12:18,029 He just wasn't trying too hard, but he... 200 00:12:18,112 --> 00:12:21,532 - There's a lot of intelligence in his eyes. - Right. 201 00:12:21,907 --> 00:12:24,452 A lot of character in his face, and we... 202 00:12:24,535 --> 00:12:29,040 I think Johan and I looked at each other, and we said, "I think we found him." 203 00:12:29,123 --> 00:12:30,750 It's the most exciting moment, isn't it, 204 00:12:30,833 --> 00:12:32,473 when you think everything's gonna be okay? 205 00:12:32,543 --> 00:12:33,919 - We found our guy! - Yeah. 206 00:12:34,003 --> 00:12:35,629 Yeah, he's amazing. 207 00:12:35,713 --> 00:12:38,132 And then, a great contrast, obviously, to Clive, 208 00:12:38,215 --> 00:12:41,344 who son' of embodies what you think the Vikings... 209 00:12:41,427 --> 00:12:46,474 Yes, exactly, he is far more, as it were, typical or characteristic, 210 00:12:46,557 --> 00:12:53,147 of our sense of what the Vikings looked like, and... 211 00:12:54,523 --> 00:12:59,653 And yet, he's the needy one, and he's the insecure one, 212 00:12:59,737 --> 00:13:02,698 - in spite of all those gifts that he has. - Exactly. 213 00:13:02,782 --> 00:13:04,742 He's the one he wants to be. 214 00:13:04,825 --> 00:13:06,494 He wants to be where his brother is. 215 00:13:06,577 --> 00:13:07,995 - Yeah. - It's so human. 216 00:13:08,079 --> 00:13:10,831 He and his brother are very competitive. 217 00:13:14,043 --> 00:13:17,463 Clive 's also in love with Ragnar's wife, 218 00:13:17,546 --> 00:13:19,673 - which is a big, big issue. - Right. 219 00:13:19,757 --> 00:13:24,512 He does form a very close bond with Bjorn, which I liked very much. 220 00:13:24,637 --> 00:13:27,390 A real uncle connection, it's something else. 221 00:13:27,473 --> 00:13:28,516 - Yeah. - Yeah. 222 00:13:28,599 --> 00:13:33,437 For the Vikings, families were very, very... 223 00:13:33,521 --> 00:13:36,107 Almost goes without saying, but very vital 224 00:13:36,190 --> 00:13:40,611 to their sense of who they were, and they would fight in the shield wall together, 225 00:13:40,694 --> 00:13:42,905 wives, husbands, sons, fathers. 226 00:13:43,906 --> 00:13:46,117 And it made the shield wall obviously stronger. 227 00:13:46,200 --> 00:13:48,661 That much stronger, of course. 228 00:13:50,037 --> 00:13:53,124 You know, writing this, rooting it in the rivalries 229 00:13:53,207 --> 00:13:55,918 and affections between brothers 230 00:13:56,001 --> 00:14:00,172 was a very necessary, son' of, obvious decision. 231 00:14:00,256 --> 00:14:02,758 But, it sparked many things. 232 00:14:02,842 --> 00:14:06,429 And it gave the show another kind of dynamic. 233 00:14:06,512 --> 00:14:09,056 Well, and as we go forward too, it plays into the... 234 00:14:09,140 --> 00:14:10,891 Right now, it just lives in this house, 235 00:14:10,975 --> 00:14:13,894 but eventually, it plays out into all the politics, 236 00:14:13,978 --> 00:14:15,020 - and how... - Absolutely. 237 00:14:15,104 --> 00:14:19,608 ...what the progress of the people is, just based on where the allegiances go, 238 00:14:19,692 --> 00:14:23,237 and, you know, it really bleeds out of this moment. 239 00:14:23,737 --> 00:14:26,198 ...to go west, over the open sea, 240 00:14:27,450 --> 00:14:28,868 using this. 241 00:14:32,830 --> 00:14:34,248 It's a sun board. 242 00:14:35,332 --> 00:14:37,251 It needs to sit in water. 243 00:14:37,585 --> 00:14:39,628 Another wanderer? 244 00:14:39,795 --> 00:14:40,921 This time, it's different. 245 00:14:41,005 --> 00:14:43,716 Now tell me, Ragnar, this wanderer of yours... 246 00:14:44,383 --> 00:14:48,679 - Rollo has his own agenda. - Right. 247 00:14:48,804 --> 00:14:53,809 And his story is, in some respects, as interesting as Ragnar's. 248 00:14:54,018 --> 00:14:55,102 Sure. 249 00:14:58,230 --> 00:15:02,735 And, as you say, it's interesting, that beneath that 250 00:15:04,820 --> 00:15:09,783 exterior, underneath that, there is a very sensitive... 251 00:15:09,867 --> 00:15:10,951 GILSIGI Yeah. 252 00:15:12,620 --> 00:15:17,625 - ...almost raw soul, who is hurting... - Exactly. 253 00:15:17,708 --> 00:15:19,919 - ...in a lot of ways, yeah. - It's a boy. Just a boy. 254 00:15:20,002 --> 00:15:22,379 - Yeah. - Yeah, it's such a... 255 00:15:23,964 --> 00:15:26,550 It's such an incredible performance that way, 256 00:15:26,634 --> 00:15:30,012 because you look at this man, but inside you see the need, 257 00:15:30,095 --> 00:15:31,764 - and the wish to be seen. - Yeah. 258 00:15:33,390 --> 00:15:38,062 Looking at this, I was just noticing Travis' fingernails, and how filthy they are. 259 00:15:38,854 --> 00:15:43,317 I can say, as a woman, you know, when we went into hair and makeup, 260 00:15:43,400 --> 00:15:48,030 and really, all we got was din' to put on our faces. 261 00:15:49,823 --> 00:15:52,159 - It's usually the other way around. - I know! I know! 262 00:15:52,243 --> 00:15:54,828 And they said, "Well, we 're just gonna add some din' and some sunspots." 263 00:15:54,912 --> 00:15:56,752 And then I thought, "I 'd bring the sunspots." 264 00:15:56,789 --> 00:16:02,419 But, without it, again, the world wouldn't be supported, 265 00:16:02,503 --> 00:16:06,465 and you can see, we got the message, as women, how far we had to go, 266 00:16:06,549 --> 00:16:08,759 based on how far the men were willing to go. 267 00:16:08,842 --> 00:16:13,764 And you looked at Travis' face and just how every nook and cranny is there, 268 00:16:13,847 --> 00:16:16,016 - and, you know, the texture. - Every blemish... 269 00:16:16,100 --> 00:16:18,394 - Yeah. - Yeah. 270 00:16:18,477 --> 00:16:20,229 And there's no show without that, I don't think. 271 00:16:20,312 --> 00:16:23,732 Then people just think you're walking out of your Hollywood trailer. 272 00:16:27,236 --> 00:16:31,740 No criticism of other shows particularly, but there are some shows 273 00:16:31,824 --> 00:16:34,493 that are supposed to be set in the past, 274 00:16:34,577 --> 00:16:38,330 and all the actors look as if they're Hollywood models, 275 00:16:38,414 --> 00:16:40,165 - you know, and they... - Absolutely. 276 00:16:42,293 --> 00:16:44,003 - Ah, the sunstone. - Yes. 277 00:16:45,170 --> 00:16:48,382 I asked my historical advisor, Justin Pollard, 278 00:16:49,383 --> 00:16:52,803 to give me something special that Ragnar could do, 279 00:16:52,886 --> 00:16:54,430 that no one else could do. 280 00:16:54,513 --> 00:16:57,516 And he said, "There is a theory", 281 00:16:58,434 --> 00:17:02,146 "it's no more than that, that the Vikings invented a new way of traveling" 282 00:17:02,229 --> 00:17:06,525 "across open ocean, using what they called a sun board, and a sunstone." 283 00:17:06,609 --> 00:17:07,693 GILSIGI Right. 284 00:17:07,776 --> 00:17:11,488 And you can give that to Ragnar, 'cause it's plausible. 285 00:17:11,572 --> 00:17:15,534 But he said, unfortunately, no sunstone has ever been found. 286 00:17:15,618 --> 00:17:18,370 Well, about five weeks, six weeks ago, 287 00:17:18,454 --> 00:17:20,539 perhaps a little longer than that, a sunstone was found. 288 00:17:20,623 --> 00:17:22,750 - Are you kidding? - No. 289 00:17:22,875 --> 00:17:25,085 I mean, there are some academics who will still say, 290 00:17:25,169 --> 00:17:30,174 "No, not sure," but, I mean, the weight of academic opinion 291 00:17:30,257 --> 00:17:32,968 is saying, "Yes, it's a sunstone." 292 00:17:34,261 --> 00:17:35,846 And it proves the point. 293 00:17:35,929 --> 00:17:37,723 So, we were first in. That was fantastic. 294 00:17:37,806 --> 00:17:40,434 I love it. You gotta take some risks. 295 00:17:42,436 --> 00:17:44,021 - So, here you are. - Yes. 296 00:17:45,356 --> 00:17:46,732 The Haraldsons are here. 297 00:17:46,815 --> 00:17:50,861 So, tell us, what it was like working with Mr. Haraldson. 298 00:17:50,944 --> 00:17:53,322 With my better half? 299 00:17:54,448 --> 00:17:59,119 L remember the first day, meeting Gabriel, we were actually right there, 300 00:17:59,203 --> 00:18:01,747 just waiting to enter, and I was really nervous, 301 00:18:01,830 --> 00:18:05,167 so, my strategy, which I think is my dating strategy as well, 302 00:18:05,250 --> 00:18:07,544 was to not speak to him at all. 303 00:18:08,796 --> 00:18:10,255 I was so nervous. 304 00:18:10,339 --> 00:18:14,885 So, we actually didn't exchange words until we got out onto the set. 305 00:18:14,968 --> 00:18:19,807 And then, I knew quickly... It was great, 'cause he just started throwing me looks, 306 00:18:19,890 --> 00:18:24,019 and I knew that he was going to work with me, even in silence, 307 00:18:24,103 --> 00:18:26,105 and that we were going to build this relationship. 308 00:18:26,188 --> 00:18:30,526 And from there, we had a fantastic working relationship and collaboration. 309 00:18:30,609 --> 00:18:34,947 And he really... It was so important to him, for his character, 310 00:18:35,030 --> 00:18:38,701 that the marriage be real, and that it be textured, 311 00:18:38,784 --> 00:18:40,786 and that it have history. 312 00:18:41,203 --> 00:18:44,373 And when we were in these scenes, I knew that he as Haraldson, 313 00:18:44,456 --> 00:18:47,334 and he as Gabriel, wanted me to be fully present, 314 00:18:47,418 --> 00:18:51,088 which is such a wonderful signal to get from an actor. 315 00:18:51,171 --> 00:18:53,298 And I really appreciate it. 316 00:18:54,675 --> 00:18:56,260 He's sort of an actor's actor, Isn't he? 317 00:18:56,343 --> 00:18:57,428 Absolutely. 318 00:18:57,511 --> 00:18:58,554 - Yeah. - Absolutely. 319 00:18:58,637 --> 00:19:00,556 And you could see it in his performance, too. 320 00:19:00,639 --> 00:19:06,270 He never goes back, he never edits himself, he just plays the moment. 321 00:19:06,353 --> 00:19:09,565 And I remember, he said to me at one point, he said, 322 00:19:09,648 --> 00:19:13,068 "Well, it's different each time," because I said something to the effect of, 323 00:19:13,152 --> 00:19:16,071 - "That's what happened then." Yeah. 324 00:19:16,155 --> 00:19:20,075 - Each moment is a new moment. - Yeah. Yeah. 325 00:19:20,159 --> 00:19:23,036 Carried out in secret, unacknowledged... 326 00:19:23,662 --> 00:19:25,330 Only came on board, I think... 327 00:19:25,414 --> 00:19:27,574 I mean, he wanted to do it, and it was back in Ireland, 328 00:19:27,583 --> 00:19:29,084 - it was good for him. - Yeah. 329 00:19:29,168 --> 00:19:33,255 But, he did say to me, "I 'm only going to do it 330 00:19:33,338 --> 00:19:35,758 "if you promise that we 'll talk all the time 331 00:19:35,841 --> 00:19:38,343 - "about my character" Oh, interesting. 332 00:19:40,179 --> 00:19:43,015 "I want to explore the character, I want to know 333 00:19:43,098 --> 00:19:47,311 "some of his depths and his issues," and it did... 334 00:19:47,394 --> 00:19:52,024 That helped enormously, to develop a backstory 335 00:19:52,107 --> 00:19:55,652 which we could then bring in to the drama. 336 00:19:55,736 --> 00:20:00,032 And, of course, it was rounding his character, it was deepening it. 337 00:20:00,282 --> 00:20:05,829 And, in the end, that's one of the reasons, why, when he eventually dies, 338 00:20:05,913 --> 00:20:07,998 - it's tragic, it's sad. - Absolutely. 339 00:20:08,081 --> 00:20:09,833 You know, he's not just a villain. 340 00:20:09,917 --> 00:20:12,628 - Absolutely not. - He's not, no. I couldn't agree more. 341 00:20:12,711 --> 00:20:17,090 If fact, you're not quite sure, really, 342 00:20:17,883 --> 00:20:20,427 who you would give your allegiance to, at this point. 343 00:20:20,552 --> 00:20:23,430 I mean, the way I always saw it, was just that 344 00:20:23,555 --> 00:20:26,934 he was the past, and Ragnar is the future, but... 345 00:20:27,559 --> 00:20:31,313 And, you know, we would talk about that, about how do you maintain that power. 346 00:20:31,396 --> 00:20:35,692 And even Ragnar is going to be challenged with, at some point, 347 00:20:35,776 --> 00:20:38,096 you have to make decisions that you swore you'd never make, 348 00:20:38,153 --> 00:20:41,406 - just to maintain your position. - Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. 349 00:20:41,490 --> 00:20:45,077 But, he's a man, Haraldson is a man who has lost, or is losing everything. 350 00:20:47,287 --> 00:20:50,499 - Everything. - And that's the pathos of it. 351 00:20:50,582 --> 00:20:53,418 And, a man, in some ways, who doesn't 352 00:20:54,294 --> 00:20:56,421 - like being Earl anymore. - Exactly. 353 00:20:56,505 --> 00:20:59,842 Yeah, but it's a burden. It's a heavy, heavy burden. 354 00:21:00,342 --> 00:21:02,970 Gabriel used to say to me, when we would enter the great hall, 355 00:21:03,095 --> 00:21:06,431 he would always say, "Siggy, do I have to wear the cloak?" 356 00:21:06,515 --> 00:21:07,599 Okay. 357 00:21:07,683 --> 00:21:09,351 I would say, "Yes, you have to wear the cloak." 358 00:21:09,434 --> 00:21:11,937 You know, and he just, he didn't want to go out there anymore, 359 00:21:12,020 --> 00:21:14,100 - but if you don't go out there, you're dead. - Yeah. 360 00:21:14,106 --> 00:21:17,401 - And so, he knew that he had to. - That's right, yeah. 361 00:21:17,484 --> 00:21:22,072 I remember this day, this was, I think, really significant, 362 00:21:22,155 --> 00:21:25,993 because, I think, we felt, as actors, like, this would determine 363 00:21:26,118 --> 00:21:30,747 if this show was just going to be this gratuitous experience, 364 00:21:30,831 --> 00:21:36,461 or if we were really going to feel what this moment would have been like. 365 00:21:36,628 --> 00:21:39,923 And I remember, even for myself, thinking, "How will Siggy experience this?" 366 00:21:40,007 --> 00:21:43,468 "How many of these has she seen? And where does it..." 367 00:21:44,136 --> 00:21:46,138 "How does it affect her, if it does?" 368 00:21:52,477 --> 00:21:56,773 I mean, I do confess, and I've told you this before, 369 00:21:56,857 --> 00:22:00,986 that I think, at this stage, 370 00:22:01,069 --> 00:22:06,491 Siggy was a developing character, rather than a developed character 371 00:22:06,575 --> 00:22:11,246 And it was precisely because I was watching this, and I was thinking, 372 00:22:14,166 --> 00:22:19,880 "Here we have a great actress, and I just haven't given her enough." 373 00:22:20,172 --> 00:22:25,260 But that also, it was a challenge, but it was also exciting. 374 00:22:25,344 --> 00:22:27,179 'Cause then, I can go off in that direction. 375 00:22:27,262 --> 00:22:31,475 L can, you know, let's start really, seriously, thinking about that. 376 00:22:31,558 --> 00:22:33,060 GILSIGI Right, right. 377 00:22:33,393 --> 00:22:39,024 But that's our job. You know, our job is to just fill what we 're given, 378 00:22:39,107 --> 00:22:41,443 and to not come to you to look for more. 379 00:22:41,526 --> 00:22:43,695 L feel like, with this also, if you just look at this, 380 00:22:43,779 --> 00:22:45,179 just to stay on Siggy for a second, 381 00:22:45,197 --> 00:22:49,076 when you look at what Joan gave us wardrobe-wise, 382 00:22:49,201 --> 00:22:54,331 I mean, you actually have to give the role to her in so many ways. 383 00:22:54,414 --> 00:22:56,814 Because she set this statue of this woman who was so "other." 384 00:22:58,293 --> 00:22:59,378 Yeah. 385 00:22:59,461 --> 00:23:03,173 And then that couldn't be denied, because this white comes out. 386 00:23:03,256 --> 00:23:07,219 ...may you accept this gift of salt and earth 387 00:23:07,970 --> 00:23:10,597 to remind yourself that you belong... 388 00:23:10,722 --> 00:23:13,725 We have many rituals in the show, 389 00:23:14,559 --> 00:23:17,854 some of which come from the sagas, I found in the sagas, 390 00:23:17,938 --> 00:23:20,607 some of which I found in history books, 391 00:23:20,732 --> 00:23:24,444 some of which, frankly, we made up, 392 00:23:26,238 --> 00:23:30,117 - including this one. - Yeah. 393 00:23:30,242 --> 00:23:34,162 I remember us talking about how he would... 394 00:23:35,330 --> 00:23:37,165 - What the action would be. - Yeah. 395 00:23:37,249 --> 00:23:38,917 And then finding it. 396 00:23:40,127 --> 00:23:41,837 But it's a rite of passage. 397 00:23:41,920 --> 00:23:47,009 In fact, I don't know if it still is, but this episode was called "Rites of Passage." 398 00:23:47,259 --> 00:23:52,472 And, of course, it's to do with Bjorn 's rites of passage, 399 00:23:52,597 --> 00:23:57,811 of going into the world as a man. 400 00:24:01,940 --> 00:24:05,485 But it's a rite of passage in other senses as well. 401 00:24:05,610 --> 00:24:08,989 It's introducing the audience into the world... 402 00:24:09,114 --> 00:24:10,115 GILSIGI Right. 403 00:24:10,198 --> 00:24:13,452 ...that I want them to live in and enjoy. 404 00:24:13,535 --> 00:24:17,330 And you feel that, what, as you say, when you're shattering the myths, 405 00:24:17,456 --> 00:24:20,250 you feel the deliberateness of the culture, 406 00:24:20,333 --> 00:24:23,795 and of the community, and the investment in the children, 407 00:24:23,879 --> 00:24:26,298 and in this real sense of, 408 00:24:26,381 --> 00:24:29,843 that everybody has come out to the great hall tonight 409 00:24:29,968 --> 00:24:33,555 for this, you know, really celebrated moment, 410 00:24:33,638 --> 00:24:38,185 which every culture has, of course, when a boy becomes a man. 411 00:24:38,310 --> 00:24:41,438 It's marked in different ways in different cultures. 412 00:24:41,521 --> 00:24:45,358 And this was also the fact that everyone's assembled in the great hall, 413 00:24:45,484 --> 00:24:48,528 for the thing, which is rather great, isn't it? 414 00:24:48,987 --> 00:24:50,489 GILSIGI Actually called "the thing." 415 00:24:50,572 --> 00:24:52,407 Actually called "the thing." 416 00:24:53,658 --> 00:24:57,537 It was also showing people, the audience, that, 417 00:24:57,662 --> 00:25:01,041 in a sense, they're much more democratic. 418 00:25:01,249 --> 00:25:04,127 Well, they were much more democratic than the Saxons, or the French. 419 00:25:04,211 --> 00:25:08,590 The French have much more hierarchical societies, and... 420 00:25:09,508 --> 00:25:12,302 Admittedly, the Vikings had slaves, 421 00:25:12,385 --> 00:25:15,931 but, other than that, they were very proud to be free men and women. 422 00:25:16,056 --> 00:25:17,140 Exactly. 423 00:25:17,224 --> 00:25:22,395 And to be able to vocalize their opinions, and there was dissent, 424 00:25:22,521 --> 00:25:24,397 and that's why the Earl is so threatened. 425 00:25:24,523 --> 00:25:30,529 Because if you had reason, then it couldn't just be rejected out of hand. 426 00:25:30,612 --> 00:25:31,696 Yes. 427 00:25:31,863 --> 00:25:33,073 I pay for them. 428 00:25:33,198 --> 00:25:34,449 And they go where I tell them to go. 429 00:25:34,533 --> 00:25:36,451 And, when you're writing, 430 00:25:36,535 --> 00:25:39,079 - the first episode's always difficult. - Right. 431 00:25:39,204 --> 00:25:40,288 - Always difficult. - Right. 432 00:25:41,081 --> 00:25:42,749 You want to... 433 00:25:42,874 --> 00:25:46,878 You're introducing your major characters, you're introducing a world, 434 00:25:46,962 --> 00:25:53,260 you want to give information about that world, 435 00:25:53,969 --> 00:25:57,681 but you don't want it to be a history lesson, you're not being educational, particularly, 436 00:26:01,059 --> 00:26:03,979 but unless you ground it, unless you give context, 437 00:26:04,062 --> 00:26:07,816 you can't push ahead for the rest of the season. 438 00:26:10,235 --> 00:26:12,112 Ragnar Lothbrok, 439 00:26:13,113 --> 00:26:16,950 Earl Haraldson wants to speak with you in private. 440 00:26:18,326 --> 00:26:21,121 And again, to emphasize the fact, 441 00:26:21,329 --> 00:26:23,081 which, I think, is widely, 442 00:26:24,249 --> 00:26:28,253 and thankfully, acknowledged amongst the academic community, 443 00:26:28,336 --> 00:26:29,838 that this is... 444 00:26:31,464 --> 00:26:35,635 And I was told that by the Head of Scandinavian Studies at Harvard, 445 00:26:35,760 --> 00:26:38,805 that this is the first time this culture 's been taken seriously. 446 00:26:38,930 --> 00:26:40,056 GILSIGI Right. 447 00:26:40,140 --> 00:26:45,562 It is based on historical research, of course it's the Dark Ages, 448 00:26:45,645 --> 00:26:48,148 - so there's lots of things we don't know. - Right. 449 00:26:48,231 --> 00:26:53,570 But there is a genuine attempt to be as authentic as possible. 450 00:26:54,905 --> 00:26:57,908 And to go into a culture that personally, 451 00:26:57,991 --> 00:27:01,703 - I find staggeringly interesting. - Right. 452 00:27:04,497 --> 00:27:06,958 That's what's so special about it, is you just, 453 00:27:07,042 --> 00:27:10,295 you know the facts, you know the history, 454 00:27:10,378 --> 00:27:12,005 first they were here, and then they were there. 455 00:27:12,088 --> 00:27:17,052 But then, to really stop and say, "Well then, but how did that come to be?" 456 00:27:17,135 --> 00:27:20,472 How do you make that decision, and who did want that, 457 00:27:20,555 --> 00:27:24,851 and who didn't want that, and what were those conversations, such as this one 458 00:27:24,935 --> 00:27:28,813 right here, where, as we've talked about... 459 00:27:29,356 --> 00:27:33,985 Gabriel brought this understanding. He knows, when he says that line, 460 00:27:34,069 --> 00:27:36,613 "They're my ships, I pay for them," 461 00:27:36,696 --> 00:27:42,035 he already knows he's drowning. That's not a reason not to go west. 462 00:27:42,494 --> 00:27:45,288 - You know? - That's right. That's right, yeah. 463 00:27:45,956 --> 00:27:47,165 Yeah. 464 00:27:47,666 --> 00:27:49,668 And, of course, this... 465 00:27:53,713 --> 00:27:58,385 Pan' of the texture of it, is when we discover that he's lost his... 466 00:27:58,468 --> 00:28:00,845 - That you've lost your sons. - We've lost our sons, right. 467 00:28:00,929 --> 00:28:04,975 And that Ragnar might have been the son he didn't have, 468 00:28:05,058 --> 00:28:08,395 that Ragnar's probably about the age his sons would have been. 469 00:28:08,478 --> 00:28:09,521 Oh, sure. 470 00:28:09,604 --> 00:28:13,066 So, he's looking at what he would have hoped to be his successor. 471 00:28:13,149 --> 00:28:15,527 - Absolutely. And who he once was. - And yet, he has to... 472 00:28:15,610 --> 00:28:18,280 Yes, and who he once was, absolutely. 473 00:28:18,363 --> 00:28:20,907 He recognizes that in himself. 474 00:28:20,991 --> 00:28:25,245 So, you know, Ragnar's ambition, his intelligence, 475 00:28:25,328 --> 00:28:27,956 are all things that he would like to connect with, 476 00:28:28,039 --> 00:28:29,958 - and appreciate, and he can't. - Yeah, and he can't. 477 00:28:30,041 --> 00:28:33,211 He has to be an enemy to it. He has to try to squash it. 478 00:28:33,878 --> 00:28:37,007 But he knows that that's not... I mean, he's intelligent enough. 479 00:28:37,090 --> 00:28:39,009 You have that later in the series, 480 00:28:41,678 --> 00:28:44,556 when he tells me that he admires him, that he can't reveal that hand. 481 00:28:44,723 --> 00:28:45,849 Yeah. 482 00:28:47,559 --> 00:28:49,019 It's what we do. 483 00:28:51,730 --> 00:28:54,941 And they're off to visit the ancient Seer. 484 00:28:55,984 --> 00:28:59,696 We know that the Vikings did have Seers, 485 00:28:59,779 --> 00:29:02,073 old men or old women, 486 00:29:02,907 --> 00:29:06,453 because it tells us in the saga, and Odin the god, actually 487 00:29:06,536 --> 00:29:11,207 went to visit the Seer, and the Seer prophesized the death of his own son. 488 00:29:12,375 --> 00:29:18,048 And, the subsequent chaos, which was Ragnarök, 489 00:29:18,131 --> 00:29:20,508 the twilight of the gods, the end of the world. 490 00:29:22,218 --> 00:29:25,263 For you, or for the boy? 491 00:29:26,264 --> 00:29:29,309 But, obviously, this is like going to your shrink. 492 00:29:31,353 --> 00:29:35,523 And your shrink doesn't help you as much as you want. 493 00:29:35,607 --> 00:29:39,778 Right. He just tries to point you in a direction 494 00:29:39,861 --> 00:29:41,488 and then says, "Now it's up to you." 495 00:29:41,571 --> 00:29:44,949 That's always the frustration with the Seer, I think, 496 00:29:45,033 --> 00:29:48,078 - it just leaves you with more questions. - Yeah. 497 00:29:49,287 --> 00:29:51,873 And then, of course, this is John, 498 00:29:51,956 --> 00:29:57,379 this amazing performance that he gives, it also has that balance 499 00:29:57,462 --> 00:30:03,676 of son' of, it's not... It's a man, it's not a... 500 00:30:03,760 --> 00:30:09,724 Yeah, he gets frustrated, he sort of complains about the role. 501 00:30:09,808 --> 00:30:11,267 Those roles are kind of tedious. 502 00:30:11,351 --> 00:30:13,186 Especially if you've been doing them for hundreds of years, 503 00:30:13,269 --> 00:30:15,021 you know what I'm saying? 504 00:30:15,105 --> 00:30:16,606 Now, he's growing old. 505 00:30:16,689 --> 00:30:19,025 - He had this really... - Oh, it's horrible. 506 00:30:19,109 --> 00:30:22,153 Oh, gosh, it's really hard for him to see with the prosthetic. 507 00:30:22,237 --> 00:30:23,405 Yes. 508 00:30:24,906 --> 00:30:28,451 But, it's kind of great, 'cause we 're all a bit intimidated by him, 509 00:30:28,535 --> 00:30:31,579 - which is as it should be. - Yes. Yes. 510 00:30:34,165 --> 00:30:36,126 Yes, he had to be guided onto the set. 511 00:30:36,209 --> 00:30:40,338 Oh, gosh, he can't open his eyes because it gives him vertigo. 512 00:30:40,422 --> 00:30:41,798 Because he can't... 513 00:30:42,006 --> 00:30:44,217 Because it blurs his vision so much, 514 00:30:44,342 --> 00:30:46,970 it's actually best if he just keeps his eyes closed. 515 00:30:50,598 --> 00:30:52,392 But the payoff is too great. 516 00:30:52,475 --> 00:30:55,562 This was... We talked a lot about this, the licking of the hand... 517 00:30:55,645 --> 00:30:57,564 Yeah. This was Johan, wasn't it, in a way? 518 00:30:57,647 --> 00:31:00,066 - Yes. - His idea. 519 00:31:06,614 --> 00:31:08,658 Where are they? 520 00:31:08,741 --> 00:31:10,034 Where are my sons? 521 00:31:10,118 --> 00:31:11,536 You said you'd found them. 522 00:31:11,995 --> 00:31:14,080 We shot this on the last day... 523 00:31:14,164 --> 00:31:16,708 - I remember. - ...of shooting. 524 00:31:22,213 --> 00:31:26,885 This is so much of who we are as a couple, is this... 525 00:31:27,010 --> 00:31:31,848 He always would talk about how it was... That it was a marriage that had... 526 00:31:32,682 --> 00:31:35,435 Had been so successful and had so much. 527 00:31:35,518 --> 00:31:38,104 He always said, "There must've been a moment when we really fell in love", 528 00:31:38,188 --> 00:31:39,439 "and we were really happy," 529 00:31:39,522 --> 00:31:43,318 "and we really thought that we had succeeded on every level." 530 00:31:43,526 --> 00:31:47,155 "And then when we lost the sons, the crash is that much greater." 531 00:31:47,238 --> 00:31:49,407 "And then we would never recover from it." 532 00:31:49,491 --> 00:31:51,868 How human is that, I mean, that's... 533 00:31:52,827 --> 00:31:55,580 What couple could recover from that? 534 00:31:55,663 --> 00:31:58,303 And it's just speechless, it doesn't need any dialog or anything... 535 00:32:00,543 --> 00:32:01,878 Agreed. 536 00:32:03,713 --> 00:32:06,257 Again, it just son' of feels right, doesn't it? 537 00:32:06,341 --> 00:32:07,509 Absolutely. 538 00:32:07,592 --> 00:32:10,762 Well, again it goes... It makes it... 539 00:32:10,845 --> 00:32:13,431 - It's not safe. - Yeah. 540 00:32:15,058 --> 00:32:16,935 I love that shot, it's one of my favorites, 541 00:32:17,018 --> 00:32:18,937 when they come out of the green. 542 00:32:22,065 --> 00:32:24,609 So they're going to meet the ship builder, Floki. 543 00:32:25,652 --> 00:32:27,570 One of my favorite characters. 544 00:32:27,654 --> 00:32:31,157 - I can have fun writing it. - Yeah. 545 00:32:31,241 --> 00:32:34,744 - Gustaf has a lot of fun playing it. - Gustaf has a lot of fun. 546 00:32:34,827 --> 00:32:37,830 - One of the famous Skarsgårds. - Yeah. 547 00:32:38,915 --> 00:32:42,794 Absolutely wonderful, mesmeric. 548 00:32:42,877 --> 00:32:46,798 Yeah, absolutely, and so free, and so loose, and so... 549 00:32:47,882 --> 00:32:50,134 He has a clown-like quality. 550 00:32:53,137 --> 00:32:57,350 And I like that too, it's that not every man on this show 551 00:32:57,433 --> 00:32:59,185 is a bulky-bulked Viking. 552 00:32:59,269 --> 00:33:03,147 There were smaller men and other ways to survive. 553 00:33:03,231 --> 00:33:05,733 Not just through your strength, but he does it through 554 00:33:05,817 --> 00:33:09,279 his understanding of the ship building and his engineering. 555 00:33:09,571 --> 00:33:12,407 We, at one stage, Johan and I had this idea 556 00:33:12,490 --> 00:33:16,411 that in fact it was... He collected together a boat of misfits. 557 00:33:16,494 --> 00:33:18,413 - Oh, yeah. - Because these were people... 558 00:33:18,496 --> 00:33:23,334 After all, they have to make a secret pact. 559 00:33:23,459 --> 00:33:29,465 They're obviously not the best favored people in the village or the town, so... 560 00:33:31,509 --> 00:33:33,595 You have to work that much harder, in a way, 561 00:33:33,678 --> 00:33:37,515 to say that you have a purpose. 562 00:33:38,641 --> 00:33:40,685 But it reflected well on Ragnar, 563 00:33:40,810 --> 00:33:43,688 that he has relationships with people like Floki. 564 00:33:43,855 --> 00:33:47,692 - Absolutely, sees the value. I agree. - Yeah. 565 00:33:49,277 --> 00:33:53,990 And ship building for Vikings obviously is a sacred an'. 566 00:33:54,657 --> 00:33:56,200 Absolutely vital. 567 00:33:59,829 --> 00:34:04,375 And finding the shape of the plank in the tree 568 00:34:04,459 --> 00:34:07,045 was something they did apparently. 569 00:34:09,714 --> 00:34:13,051 It's like Michelangelo who said he found the statue in the stone. 570 00:34:13,134 --> 00:34:15,720 Right, right. And it reveals itself. 571 00:34:17,513 --> 00:34:21,976 And then the ships that you had built for the show... 572 00:34:23,686 --> 00:34:29,525 Well, we had one, the hero boat, which was manufactured, I think, in... 573 00:34:30,151 --> 00:34:32,070 - In the Czech Republic. - That's what I thought, yeah. 574 00:34:32,195 --> 00:34:34,656 Brought over by truck. 575 00:34:34,739 --> 00:34:38,076 That's an awesome thing. Absolutely. 576 00:34:38,201 --> 00:34:41,162 These ships are... They're still awesome. 577 00:34:41,245 --> 00:34:42,997 - Unbelievable. - They still carry a charge. 578 00:34:43,081 --> 00:34:47,251 And when we put them finally on the river some misty morning, 579 00:34:47,335 --> 00:34:50,672 ah, with the oars gently plashing and... 580 00:34:50,755 --> 00:34:54,092 And they are both beautiful and intimidating. 581 00:34:54,175 --> 00:34:55,843 Yeah, there's an elegance. 582 00:34:55,927 --> 00:34:58,179 And that's the way 583 00:34:58,262 --> 00:35:01,432 that most people in Europe would first have seen the Vikings. 584 00:35:01,516 --> 00:35:04,769 Exactly as we reproduced it, standing on a river bank, 585 00:35:04,852 --> 00:35:09,023 - seeing these machines arrive. - Arrive. Yeah. 586 00:35:11,901 --> 00:35:13,528 So, we're talking here, though. 587 00:35:13,611 --> 00:35:16,614 They're talking about the new generation of boats. 588 00:35:16,698 --> 00:35:22,203 This is also true, that they were always developing 589 00:35:23,371 --> 00:35:26,207 the design of the boats. 590 00:35:26,290 --> 00:35:28,209 So even though they were Iron Age people, 591 00:35:28,292 --> 00:35:32,964 their technology in that sense was way ahead of the Saxons or the Franks. 592 00:35:33,089 --> 00:35:35,133 No one had boats like the Vikings. 593 00:35:35,258 --> 00:35:40,972 And these were shallow drafted boats, but they could cross seas. 594 00:35:41,097 --> 00:35:42,890 So, withstand huge storms. 595 00:35:42,974 --> 00:35:45,977 But when they got to land, they could sail up a river. 596 00:35:46,060 --> 00:35:48,730 Right, exactly, so they could go into more shallow water. 597 00:35:48,813 --> 00:35:51,733 Where do rivers lead you? They lead you to big towns. 598 00:35:51,816 --> 00:35:55,486 Exactly, so you could penetrate without having to actually 599 00:35:55,611 --> 00:35:57,822 make yourself vulnerable in the same way. 600 00:35:58,656 --> 00:36:00,408 ...greedy bastards. 601 00:36:00,491 --> 00:36:01,951 For the anchor. 602 00:36:02,994 --> 00:36:05,913 It's all I have left from last summer's raids. 603 00:36:05,997 --> 00:36:07,498 Don't worry. 604 00:36:07,790 --> 00:36:10,668 We'll soon be as rich as dwarves! 605 00:36:20,178 --> 00:36:21,304 I missed you. 606 00:36:21,596 --> 00:36:25,266 This is an interesting thing, I think, you explore, 607 00:36:25,349 --> 00:36:29,270 which is the intimacy between the husband and the wife 608 00:36:29,353 --> 00:36:32,106 and the connection. 609 00:36:32,190 --> 00:36:35,443 And the influence that she has. 610 00:36:36,444 --> 00:36:40,323 The voice that she has in the relationship and in the decision-making. 611 00:36:41,324 --> 00:36:46,829 Which I think is rarely done in historical dramas. 612 00:36:48,998 --> 00:36:53,294 And I think, really one of the things that makes the show so unique 613 00:36:53,377 --> 00:36:55,713 is this relationship, is this marriage. 614 00:36:55,797 --> 00:37:00,218 Because again, you've mentioned the word "Vikings" to everyone, 615 00:37:00,343 --> 00:37:01,969 they immediately think, "Oh, rape." 616 00:37:02,053 --> 00:37:03,846 GILSIGI Right, right. 617 00:37:06,057 --> 00:37:09,560 They don't think love, sensuality, togetherness. 618 00:37:09,685 --> 00:37:12,063 - Family. - Sharing, family. 619 00:37:15,066 --> 00:37:17,985 But I did at the same time, want them to be... 620 00:37:18,736 --> 00:37:21,072 I mean, we 're limited, what we could show. 621 00:37:21,197 --> 00:37:23,574 - Right. - But first, you know, 622 00:37:24,033 --> 00:37:26,577 there are legal limitations. 623 00:37:26,702 --> 00:37:28,663 And in any case, I didn't want... 624 00:37:28,746 --> 00:37:32,583 A lot of shows now are almost pornographic, I think. 625 00:37:32,708 --> 00:37:34,502 It's been pushed too far. 626 00:37:34,585 --> 00:37:37,255 But I did want to have the sense that they were 627 00:37:38,005 --> 00:37:41,759 fairly free about sexuality and certainly their bodies. 628 00:37:43,052 --> 00:37:45,096 As well as being remarkably clean. 629 00:37:45,221 --> 00:37:48,516 Which was something a lot of people don't know. 630 00:37:48,599 --> 00:37:50,268 Joan gave us that when she said 631 00:37:50,393 --> 00:37:54,689 that often they were found with a change of clothes. 632 00:37:54,772 --> 00:37:56,691 Yeah, they took a change of clothes on raids. 633 00:37:56,774 --> 00:37:58,276 They carried a comb. 634 00:37:58,401 --> 00:37:59,777 They washed every Saturday. 635 00:37:59,861 --> 00:38:02,947 Those are incredible clues into... 636 00:38:03,072 --> 00:38:05,867 Like you say, just to shatter those pre-conceived ideas. 637 00:38:05,950 --> 00:38:09,620 And, also, I think for us as actors, spoke to that idea of, 638 00:38:09,745 --> 00:38:12,540 what a proud people they were. 639 00:38:12,623 --> 00:38:15,126 That presentation mattered. And that they were... 640 00:38:16,627 --> 00:38:20,381 They cared very deeply about how they were received and perceived. 641 00:38:20,464 --> 00:38:23,217 Because I think I had a conversation with one person 642 00:38:23,301 --> 00:38:26,053 who said, "It's not dirty enough." 643 00:38:26,137 --> 00:38:27,977 - Oh, really? - "The show is not dirty enough." 644 00:38:28,097 --> 00:38:31,225 "Why aren't the people grubby, really grubby?" 645 00:38:31,309 --> 00:38:33,477 - I said, "Because they weren't." Right. 646 00:38:33,561 --> 00:38:35,897 And I said, "If you really want grubby," 647 00:38:35,980 --> 00:38:38,149 "if you want grubby people, if you want to show," 648 00:38:38,274 --> 00:38:42,737 "do a drama about industrial England in the 19th century." 649 00:38:44,655 --> 00:38:45,656 That's grubby. 650 00:38:45,781 --> 00:38:47,491 That's grubby. Mmm-hmm. 651 00:38:47,575 --> 00:38:52,121 People disfigured by the world they lived in. 652 00:38:52,997 --> 00:38:58,002 These are outdoorsy guys and women, they have to be fit. 653 00:39:00,171 --> 00:39:03,341 - They're farmers, they're sailors. - Right. Right. 654 00:39:03,424 --> 00:39:04,675 Good night, my children. 655 00:39:04,759 --> 00:39:06,427 - Good night. - Good night. 656 00:39:06,510 --> 00:39:07,762 - Good night. - Good night. 657 00:39:07,845 --> 00:39:09,138 Hey! 658 00:39:18,689 --> 00:39:20,024 Good night, Father. 659 00:39:22,777 --> 00:39:24,528 Tell me your news. 660 00:39:25,029 --> 00:39:26,614 What about the boat? 661 00:39:27,114 --> 00:39:28,824 It's nearly ready. 662 00:39:33,037 --> 00:39:35,164 Do you trust Floki? 663 00:39:35,289 --> 00:39:38,709 - He's got a great look, doesn't he? - Yeah, it says so much. 664 00:39:39,502 --> 00:39:41,337 They both have. 665 00:39:43,464 --> 00:39:45,883 Travis just commands the screen. 666 00:39:48,552 --> 00:39:50,137 Isn't it funny how that happens? 667 00:39:50,304 --> 00:39:52,556 - Yeah. - It's like the camera... 668 00:39:53,307 --> 00:39:56,060 If you're standing on set, 669 00:39:56,143 --> 00:39:58,646 and you see and you think, "Wow, this is a great set," 670 00:39:58,729 --> 00:40:00,398 "and it's been beautifully designed," 671 00:40:00,481 --> 00:40:03,609 "and I can see, and everyone is discussing the shot." 672 00:40:03,693 --> 00:40:06,946 And you actors come onto the set. 673 00:40:07,029 --> 00:40:10,574 It's when the DP says, "Do you want to look through the camera?" 674 00:40:10,658 --> 00:40:11,826 You look through the camera, 675 00:40:11,909 --> 00:40:13,744 - and it looks transformed. - Yeah, I know. 676 00:40:13,828 --> 00:40:15,413 - And then you're there. - It's transcended. 677 00:40:15,496 --> 00:40:17,873 You're right. It's always setting that frame right. 678 00:40:17,957 --> 00:40:21,168 Which absolutely tells the story. 679 00:40:21,711 --> 00:40:24,588 The camera is an absolutely magical thing. 680 00:40:24,672 --> 00:40:25,756 Magical. 681 00:40:25,840 --> 00:40:29,552 And it's just some people look at the camera, 682 00:40:29,635 --> 00:40:32,471 and the camera in a way isn't that interested in them. 683 00:40:32,555 --> 00:40:34,306 Absolutely, absolutely. 684 00:40:34,390 --> 00:40:37,518 And they kind of almost vanish in front of you. 685 00:40:37,601 --> 00:40:40,771 And there are other people that the camera just adores. 686 00:40:40,855 --> 00:40:44,525 And sometimes it's not even... You might meet that person in life, 687 00:40:44,608 --> 00:40:46,777 and it wouldn't have that experience of them. 688 00:40:46,861 --> 00:40:50,031 But as you say, once you frame them and put them through that lens, 689 00:40:50,114 --> 00:40:53,826 you can't take your eyes off them. And just irresistible. 690 00:40:53,909 --> 00:40:56,662 We're also helped so much by the lighting, 691 00:40:56,746 --> 00:41:03,502 because we were limited to candlelight with the interior scenes. 692 00:41:03,586 --> 00:41:07,048 Or the perception of candlelight, and you can play in all the shadows. 693 00:41:09,383 --> 00:41:12,928 We as actors, we enjoy that. 694 00:41:13,429 --> 00:41:15,639 - That's good to know. - Yeah. 695 00:41:17,892 --> 00:41:20,603 But I think, I can definitely speak from... 696 00:41:20,686 --> 00:41:24,398 We came over to do the show and we didn't know you and we didn't know... 697 00:41:24,482 --> 00:41:27,193 As you say, the preconceived ideas about Vikings, 698 00:41:27,276 --> 00:41:29,695 and there had been so many cheesy attempts 699 00:41:29,779 --> 00:41:31,781 to talk about this period. 700 00:41:31,906 --> 00:41:35,367 And it was a real leap of faith I think for everybody 701 00:41:38,662 --> 00:41:41,832 to do this, and I think what happened for a lot of us as actors, 702 00:41:41,916 --> 00:41:47,421 was we arrived and we saw the world that was being constructed, 703 00:41:47,505 --> 00:41:51,425 and we saw the passion, and we saw the investment, and we met Johan, 704 00:41:51,509 --> 00:41:56,180 and we could suddenly see that you either got on this train, 705 00:41:56,263 --> 00:41:57,473 or you didn't show up. 706 00:41:57,556 --> 00:42:00,851 Because we were going to do something that was different. 707 00:42:00,935 --> 00:42:03,521 That you just got that message so quickly. 708 00:42:05,523 --> 00:42:07,483 Here we are with the... 709 00:42:08,984 --> 00:42:11,612 Back with what you were describing before, 710 00:42:11,695 --> 00:42:14,824 - which haunts Ragnar, of course. - Yeah. 711 00:42:19,161 --> 00:42:21,872 Though the gods also shape-shifted. 712 00:42:21,956 --> 00:42:27,419 They appeared in different guises, as animals, as birds. 713 00:42:28,254 --> 00:42:30,214 This again, is in the sagas. 714 00:42:30,297 --> 00:42:35,136 And so now, when we see a raven, it's not just a raven. 715 00:42:35,219 --> 00:42:36,262 GILSIGI Right. 716 00:42:36,762 --> 00:42:42,184 In fact, a huge stag with 14 pointer... 717 00:42:42,268 --> 00:42:44,478 It had 14-pointed antlers. 718 00:42:44,562 --> 00:42:47,148 Wandered onto the set when we were building 719 00:42:47,231 --> 00:42:51,068 one of the sets outside the set of the temple at Uppsala. 720 00:42:51,944 --> 00:42:54,280 And it just came out of the forest. 721 00:42:54,363 --> 00:42:56,532 - Really? - And all the building work stopped. 722 00:42:57,533 --> 00:43:02,121 And it walked through the set, and then it ran off. 723 00:43:02,788 --> 00:43:06,584 And I was there, but Tom Conroy, the designer, 724 00:43:06,667 --> 00:43:09,712 said the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. 725 00:43:09,795 --> 00:43:13,257 And I said, "You didn't really think that was just a stag, did you?" 726 00:43:17,928 --> 00:43:20,848 - It's... - No need to say. 727 00:43:20,931 --> 00:43:23,976 I see it in your eyes. 728 00:43:24,727 --> 00:43:25,853 Beautiful. 729 00:43:31,567 --> 00:43:34,278 It's only beautiful if it works. 730 00:43:52,087 --> 00:43:53,464 Set the sail. 731 00:43:55,132 --> 00:43:57,468 Floki! The sail! 732 00:43:58,219 --> 00:43:59,428 She'll sink. 733 00:43:59,511 --> 00:44:00,930 No, she bloody won't. 734 00:44:01,013 --> 00:44:03,849 I shouldn't have pretended to build such a boat. 735 00:44:04,016 --> 00:44:06,268 It's beyond my humble capabilities. 736 00:44:07,978 --> 00:44:09,313 I'll set the sail. 737 00:44:09,897 --> 00:44:11,106 I'm sorry, Ragnar. 738 00:44:11,190 --> 00:44:13,400 This is so typical of Floki. 739 00:44:14,652 --> 00:44:18,781 The two sides of his character, 740 00:44:18,864 --> 00:44:22,201 the self-doubt, and then the too-much-confidence. 741 00:44:23,535 --> 00:44:26,413 The ultimate artist, right? 742 00:44:26,497 --> 00:44:30,960 Of pushing and pulling at the same time. 743 00:44:31,210 --> 00:44:33,796 That's why they need each other, of course. 744 00:44:33,879 --> 00:44:36,131 And that's so beautiful, and that's completely real. 745 00:44:36,215 --> 00:44:39,051 The shot of the boat, it's on the water. 746 00:44:40,511 --> 00:44:44,306 But it does have a kind of a slight surreal look to it. 747 00:44:44,390 --> 00:44:46,850 - Absolutely. - It's son' of super-real. 748 00:44:48,060 --> 00:44:50,260 But that's what's so amazing about it, is that in a way, 749 00:44:50,312 --> 00:44:54,733 I think what you've done is, you've just executed the scene 750 00:44:54,817 --> 00:44:56,568 as it would've been, 751 00:44:56,652 --> 00:45:00,030 and the simplicity of that, and you realize how profound it is. 752 00:45:00,155 --> 00:45:05,536 It's also their performances of this excitement over the wind 753 00:45:05,619 --> 00:45:07,746 and everything falling into place. 754 00:45:07,830 --> 00:45:11,792 And then you feeling like, "Whoa, we're in a new world." 755 00:45:11,875 --> 00:45:15,587 Because now we have this potential. 756 00:45:16,839 --> 00:45:20,050 That's such an interesting idea, it's just that fear of change. 757 00:45:20,134 --> 00:45:22,428 And not having the energy to. 758 00:45:23,053 --> 00:45:25,264 Yes, and he knows already. 759 00:45:25,347 --> 00:45:28,142 He's son' of... The Vikings believed in fate, completely. 760 00:45:28,225 --> 00:45:29,393 GILSIGI Right. 761 00:45:29,476 --> 00:45:32,896 So he knows how this is going to end. 762 00:45:33,022 --> 00:45:37,693 This is Michael Hirst. I'm the creator of Vikings, signing off. 763 00:45:37,776 --> 00:45:40,946 I really hope you like the show. 764 00:45:41,030 --> 00:45:45,367 It was made with such huge passion and commitment by everyone, 765 00:45:45,451 --> 00:45:49,079 which I think you can see on the screen, 766 00:45:49,163 --> 00:45:52,791 and we're going to start shooting the new season tomorrow. 767 00:45:52,875 --> 00:45:54,668 We're all looking forward to that. 768 00:45:54,752 --> 00:45:56,378 And we can't wait for you to see that, too. 769 00:45:56,462 --> 00:45:59,631 I'm Jessalyn Gilsig, I just want to thank Michael for having me here today. 770 00:45:59,715 --> 00:46:01,550 And thank you to the fans. 771 00:46:01,633 --> 00:46:04,470 We hope you enjoy Season 2, and to speaking to you again. 772 00:46:04,553 --> 00:46:05,679 Indeed.