There’s this plethora of stuff out there, and it’s just such a massive world. So your Vikings would often, if they were to bite their fingernails or cut their fingernails, they would put them in this locket on their neck or they would throw them in the fire and make sure that they weren’t, you know flicked idly on the floor. So if you were throwing your fingernails away, you were kind of helping Loki build his boat. Vikings, for instance, would never throw their fingernails away because they believed that Ragnarok when Loki would come back, he would come on a boat made of human fingernails. You know, there’s been some fantastic facts that we’ve learned through this.
I’m just obsessed with just taking in new facts, new information, reading new books, watching documentaries, and the more you’ve got there, the more of an arsenal you’ve got if you ever need it for a scene. And yes, I’m still doing research now, and I’m still finding out things. I never stopped learning, and I think that’s a good lesson in life is never stop learning and never stop questioning. All through filming, right up until the last day, I’d be annoying people on set and the crew just telling them about more stuff that I’d found out. And then obviously as an actor you choose to run with that and do as much research as you want, or do as little research as you want. Michael was very good at giving us a shedload of revision and books to read to set us in the right direction. There’s a lot that you think you know about Vikings and everyone thinks that they’ve read a book on Vikings or they’ve seen a film on Vikings, and I had to really kind of completely, you know, wipe the slate clean and sort of start from scratch. We had a good period of time after we’d met with Michael for the first time, and he set us on the right track. How much research did you put into the role before you started shooting?
Thanks for spending a couple of minutes with us today.
The nine-part series portrays the world of the Dark Age explorers through the eyes of Viking society, and focuses on the ambitious Ragnar Lothbrok (Travis Fimmel) and his family, including his impulsive, carefree brother Rollo (Clive Standen).ĭuring a recent press conference call, we were given the opportunity to speak with Clive about his experience working on the show. After last year’s critically acclaimed miniseries Hatfields & McCoys, History is charting new territory as they venture into the realm of scripted television with Vikings, created and written by Michael Hirst ( The Tudors, Camelot).