At the Los Angeles premiere of his highly anticipated new film The Northman, director and co-writer Robert Eggers reveals how the final product of the naked fight scenes, including private parts, were achieved with a little help from CGI.
Eggers disclosed that because of practical reasons, the shots were not filmed completely naked but with the actors in thong underwear. To achieve an aesthetically-pleasing and anatomically-correct finished picture, CGI was used to fill in the genitals.
“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.”
The Northman tells the classic story of revenge based on the Icelandic legend of Amleth. When Prince Amleth, played by Alexander Skarsgård, witnesses the murder of his father, King Aurvandil War-Raven, and the kidnapping of his mother, Queen Gudrún, by his uncle Fjölnir the Brotherless, he vows to one day get his vengeance. Eggers worked tirelessly to assemble top collaborators and Viking historians to create a historically-accurate portrayal of the harsh realities of Viking life. He acknowledged them at the movie’s Los Angeles premiere, saying: “this is not a film by Robert Eggers. It’s a film made by an enormous amount of collaborators.”
The Northman will be released in theaters on April 21.