After months of whispering “I will avenge you, father. I will save you, mother. I will kill you, Fjölnir” into the abyss, The Northman is finally here. Robert Eggers’ newest film stars Alexander Skarsgård as Amleth, the viking warrior who utters the aforementioned revenge mantra. After decades away from home manifesting this revenge fantasy into existence, Amleth is, of course, going to come after Fjölnir. What else could we expect from a viking revenge drama? However, in the scene Skarsgård and Claes Bang, who plays Fjölnir, duke it out in the buff. Yes, this movie has everything—including a naked sword fight!
Except, of course, The Northman did use some CGI during the naked fight scene. And according to Eggers, that was for safety reasons. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, the director shared the CGI was actually a preventative measure to avoid anyone’s “bits [getting] chopped off.” Who among us can disagree with that? Instead, the actors wore little thongs to cover the goods.
Eggers shared:
We actually had to add things digitally because they were wearing thongs [instead of being naked] because no one wanted to get their bits chopped off. So, we actually had to add some CG genitals for certain shots so that they didn’t look too Ken doll-ish. You’ve got to make it look real, so I’m sure we did some full-body scans of Alex. They’re out there.
And obviously this particular moment resonated with Skarsgård, per the production team. The actor told Stephen Colbert that the whole cast got incredible gifts: Willem Dafoe got a longship, Nicole Kidman got a sword, Bjork got a trio of Icelandic horses. Alexander Skarsgård got a very bloody thong. At least it’s a memorable gift!
Skarsgård described The Northman‘s naked fight scene, which takes place on an erupting volcano because of course it does. Honestly, hearing bonkers tidbits about the movie is the best selling point. Was I already going to see it? Of course. But knowing that Alexander Skarsgård and Claes Bang have a battle to the death while naked on an exploding volcano is icing on the cake. If it were anyone but Robert Eggers, it might give me pause, but this man knows how to make truly outlandish magic.