Winter is coming for Game of Thrones actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.
Coster-Waldau, most known for playing Jamie Lannister on the hit HBO series, stars in and co-wrote the new Netflix film Against the Ice, about two early twentieth century Danish explorers stranded in barren, frozen Greenland.
Coster-Waldau, a Dane himself, plays the real life explorer Ejnar Mikkelsen. The actor spoke about the importance of filming on location in a post-screening Q&A held at the Paris Theater in Manhattan.
“Me and [Director] Peter [Flinth] were adamant that we shoot everything on location,” said Coster-Waldau. “Greenland, it’s just spectacular. There was no reason to do CGI.”
He continued, “I’ve done movies in all blue screen. And it’s great, but when you are there in the elements you just have to react. For me it shows. I’ve never been on a movie where we have to evacuate from a glacier in Iceland because there’s a storm.”
Coster-Waldau shared some of the challenges of filming in the arctic tundra, like how the crew had to snowmobile two hours to shoot since there were no roads connecting the cities. “I’m embarrassed to say: I got on the helicopter,” he said to a laughing audience.
He said the film received a warm welcome in Greenland.He mentioned a special screening in the country of an audience of around 500 people, according to him. He noted the screening comprised roughly one percent of the population.
“Imagine turning on the TV and watching any movie and never hearing your language,” he said. “And never seeing your own culture. That’s what they’re facing.”
Against the Ice is available for streaming on Netflix.