'Game of Thrones' Star Kristofer Hivju Talks 'Fast 8' and 'The Last King': 'The Most Dangerous Film I've Ever Done'
Kristofer Hivju in ‘Game of Thrones’ (Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO)
You might say that Kristofer Hivju has spent his entire career racing towards a role in The Fast and the Furious franchise. The Norwegian-born actor — best known for his role as Tormund Giantsbane on Game of Thrones, not to mention his instantly recognizable wooly red beard — booked his first gig in 2001, the same year that the original F&F premiered in theaters. “I grew up with these films,” Hivju tells Yahoo Movies from the set of Fast 8, where he’s fulfilling a career-long dream by going from a fan of the franchise to an actual participant.
Related: First Full ‘Fast 8’ Cast Shot and More Photos From the Set
In April, he joined the cast of the F. Gary Gray-directed sequel as the red-bearded henchman of the movie’s chief villain Cipher (Charlize Theron). And he’s finding that all the years he’s spent watching Fast and the Furious movies is really paying off. “It feels like I’m coming into a known universe, because I’ve been following it for almost 20 years! And Fast 8 is a roller coaster of a movie. The script is so crazy and filled with such heart and soul and guts and ambition. It’s gonna be quite a ride.”
Hivju and the cast of ‘Fast 8’ (Photo: Vindiesel/Instagram)
Little is known about the plot of Fast 8, which is set for release on April 14, 2017, and Hivju is careful to not divulge many details about how Dom (Vin Diesel) and his squad are lured back into action. But he’s been present in some of the behind-the-scenes photos that the film’s cast and crew, including Gray and Diesel, have been sharing via social media. And it appears that he’s already become Fast friends with Spanish actress and self-confessed Game of Thrones fan, Elsa Pataky, who plays Elena, Dom’s former flame and current partner of Dwayne Johnson’s DSS agent Luke Hobbes. (Johnson has already revealed that the Hobbes we meet in Fast 8 will be a very different man.) Hivju does tease that he’ll be involved in several of the movie’s signature over-the-top car chases and, at Cipher’s orders, will basically be making Dom’s life “horrible.”
Trailer buddies Hivju and Pataky (Photo: elsapatakyconfidential/Instagram)
Like the previous installments, Fast 8’s action sequences are going to be elaborate affairs to produce. This behind-the-scenes video footage from a stunt that the production filmed in May on the streets of Cleveland, for example, showcases just how many rigorously assembled moving parts go into creating set-pieces that leave audiences breathless. Still, Hivju says that Fast 8 isn’t the most demanding shoot he’s worked on. That honor instead falls to The Last King, a Norwegian-made period action film based on an actual historical event.
Currently playing in limited theatrical release and also available on VOD, The Last King recounts the famous story of King Haakon IV, who was born in 1204 when Norway was in a period of civil war. Purported to be the illegitimate son of the deceased Haakon III, the infant was embraced as the rightful heir and entrusted his safety to two soldiers, Torstein Skevla (Hivju) and Skjervald Skrukka (Jakob Oftebro), who carried the child to safety, traveling largely on skis through treacherous terrain. Haakon eventually assumed the throne in 1217 and ruled until his death in 1263, at which point his country was in the midst of its medieval golden age. “This story represents the turning point for Norway,” Hivju explains. “If Haakon had been lost, Norway wouldn’t be Norway today.” Torstein and Skjervald’s journey inspired the annual ski race, the Birkebeinerrenn, where contestants make a 34-mile trek through the Norwegian mountains, carrying an 8-pound backpack that symbolizes the infant Haakon.
Hivju as legendary Norwegian warrior, Torstein Skevla, in ‘The Last King’ (Photo: Everett)
According to Hivju, all that intensive skiing is what made The Last King such a challenging movie to shoot. “There were some crazy days,” he remembers. “A couple of the cameramen really hurt themselves, because when you shoot sequences like that, they have to glide backwards!” And when he wasn’t racing away from pursuing soldiers on skis, he had to navigate the frozen tundra on horseback. “I’m not the best horseman in the world, and they had to go full gallop on ice and snow downhill. I was thrown off that horse so many times. It’s the most dangerous film I’ve ever done.”
Despite the dangers, he’s happy the film was made on location in the Norwegian wilderness rather than on a soundstage. Hivju had a taste of the latter approach when he co-starred in the 2011 prequel/remake of John Carpenter’s Antarctica-set horror classic The Thing. “We shot that in Toronto during the hottest summer,” he says, laughing. “Everyone was naked under their winter gear. With The Last King, we did it for real.”
Watch the trailer:
Hivju’s commitment to realism continued off the set and into his own bedroom, where he often slept with his character’s weapon of choice: an axe. Although the actor has combat training in swordplay courtesy of Game of Thrones, he says that swinging an axe, as opposed to a blade, demands a different fighting style. “It’s a difficult weapon to use, so I kept it with me as much as I could. After some nights sleeping with my axe, we fell in love and had great cooperation throughout the rest of the movie.” Asked if he repeated this approach for any signature weapon he wields on Fast 8, Hivju remarks, “I have a signature weapon. You push a button and they’ll shoot.” Probably not something you’d want to cuddle up with then.
Watch some of the behind-the-scenes video from ‘Fast 8’:
