The beauty and the beheading: Toronto star returns in new season of Vikings
By Ron Johnson
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| Katheryn Winnick is a third-degree black belt in tae kwon do and second-degree black belt in karate |
She could be slapping aside reporters with her shield and maybe beheading a gossip journalist or two, but she is on her best behaviour.
Winnick was nominated for best actress in a dramatic series, and the runaway hit series Vikings — one of the most popular shows in the country — was nominated for a slew of awards. But we’re here to find out what happens next. Season two of the series premieres Feb. 27 on the History Channel.
And, more importantly, why oh why must everyone lick the seer’s hand as payment for a prognostication?
“Ahaha, that is hilarious. I wish all my interviews started like that instead of ‘describe your character,’” says Winnick, squirreled away in a quiet corner of the Ritz-Carlton following the big announcement.
“It wasn’t originally in the script and we just wanted to come up with something unique and different.
Travis [Vikings star Travis Fimmel] did it first. My new pages were revised that morning, and all of a sudden they added, ‘Lagertha licks his hand.’ When, covered with all these prosthetics, and all this alcohol and makeup on his hand, I had to lick it, I’m not kidding, 14 times.”
Vikings is set in the Dark Ages and is based on actual Norse mythology. The story revolves around the life of legendary Viking Ragnar Lodbrok. Winnick’s character, Lagertha, is Ragnar’s wife. Or, at least she was in the first season. Now, all bets are off.
Season two begins where the last season left off, then the story zooms ahead a number of years.
Ragnar is off pillaging and plundering, and Lagertha finds herself married to a rich earl. “You can fill in the holes, yourself, what is happening,” says Winnick. “It’s not so big a jump that I felt we aged so much. But it was interesting and difficult to accept that my son is now grown up. He was 14 in the first season, and they recast him and now the person that plays him is 20 years old and six foot four.”
We wouldn’t want to reveal too much of the upcoming season, but for Lagertha apparently a tattoo is involved, and a quick read of the actual mythology surrounding the character will reveal what happens to husband number two. Spoiler alert: Lagertha may happen to murder him.
“Yes! How did you know that?” says Winnick, surprised by the rare display of investigative journalism courtesy of a little-known website dubbed Wikipedia. But, we’ve said too much already.
Winnick, of Ukrainian decent, was born and raised in Etobicoke, although she doesn’t count herself a member of the Ford Nation. Although she is currently living in Los Angeles, Toronto is still home and her family still resides here. When back in town, top of her list is a stop at the venerable Rodney’s Oyster House. “I actually have a shell up there [on the wall] that I wrote on,” she says. “It is a staple; I must do that when I’m here,” also adding that the festivities surrounding Ukrainian Christmas are high on her list.
Winnick started practising martial arts when she was just seven years old, got her first black belt at 13 and opened her first school at 16. Seriously. She continues to operate a self-defence consultancy with her brother Adam, a member of the Canadian Forces, to teach women how to “carry and conduct themselves in certain situations.”
“My first love was martial arts,” says Winnick, who went on to become a professional bodyguard and started working with actors and actresses, coaching them on martial arts. And that landed her on the set of eXistenZ, a David Cronenberg film shot in Toronto.
“His was the very first set that I went on,” she says. “I was just in awe of the production, and I realized I would like to try to be in front of the camera. So I owe him a great deal of credit.”
Since then, she has appeared in numerous films and TV shows. Last year, she portrayed Charlie Sheen’s girlfriend in A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III. And, most recently, as Kurt Russell’s girlfriend, Lola, in the feature film The Art of the Steal, also starring Canadian Jay Baruchel.
But Vikings is something else entirely. It is in a similar vein to something such as Game of Thrones, which started out as a niche product but has exploded in popularity. The Vikings series premiere drew more than six million viewers in the United States.
Winnick gives the producers of the series a lot of credit for concentrating on talent. “They spent a lot of time on casting,” she explains. “There are no divas on set; everyone is just there wanting to do good work. Me, I’m still pinching myself that I have this job. I feel very grateful just to be a part of something like this.”
In season one, Ragnar rebels against the village godfather and sails west to England to great success.
He is in serious plunder mode most of the season, while Lagertha spends much of the time back at home child-rearing and helping the local villages through a bout of the plague. She still manages to flex her rather sizable Viking muscles on occasion, beating up on a couple of travellers looking to take advantage of the poor, defenceless maiden at home alone while her man is away. Big mistake.
It is this combination of nurturing and knuckles that has made Lagertha so popular with young female viewers and more than a few males as well. When Winnick and company hit Comic Cons, the Vikings are overrun. This gives the actress an opportunity to influence young girls, something she takes very seriously.
“I realize how unique her character is and how strong a woman she is,” she says. “It is so overwhelming and amazing to see how all the girls look up to her. Especially at Comic Con, where I see them dress like her. I feel like it is such an incredible opportunity for women to be able to celebrate their strength as well as their femininity.”
The season premiere of Vikings is slated for Feb. 27.
Canuck actresses make their medieval mark on 'Vikings,' back for a 2nd season
Bill Brioux, The Canadian Press
A couple of Canuck actresses are making their medieval mark in the Canada-Ireland co-production "Vikings," which sails back for a second season Thursday.While Australian-born Travis Fimmel stars as Viking chieftain Ragnar Lothbrok, many of the other principal cast members are Canadian, including Katheryn Winnick who plays Ragnar's former wife and now ally-in-arms Lagertha, and Jessalyn Gilsig who plays Siggy, wife of the slain King Earl Haraldson. Donal Logue (King Horik) and Alexander Ludwig (Lagertha's grown son Bjorn) are two other prominent Canadians in the cast.
Every word of the first two seasons has been written by creator Michael Hirst, an English screenwriter best known for the feature "Elizabeth" and the series "The Tudors."
Hirst was very involved in casting and knew finding Lagertha would be a challenge.
"We got offered lots of beautiful young models, but I don't quite see that myself," says Hirst, interviewed on a fur-filled dwelling on the show's enormous sound stage. "I mean, I like them, and we might use them in the show, but not for this character."
Lagertha, a legendary figure in Viking history, had to look "kick ass" says Hirst, like she's raised two kids and killed people in battle. "A lot of these girls, they don't look like they ever did any of those things, really."
A Canadian producer suggested Winnick, mentioning that the Toronto-native was a black belt in taeKwondo.
A test, involving two scenes, was set up on Skype. "One was this kind of tender little innocent love scene thing and the other one was a speech from the throne," says Hirst, "and she totally screwed up the intimate thing. She couldn't do it at all, it was rubbish. "But when she sat on the throne," he says, "blew you away! Blew you away!"
Hirst told Winnick, "we can teach you that other stuff, but we can't teach someone to have presence.' You know, of that age, to be a queen."
Winnick is looking less-than-regal on a location at a picturesque farm north of Dublin. A scene on horseback has just been blocked by Canadian director Ken Girotti. While, as the locals say, the Irish weather changes every ten minutes, it is warm in the sunshine on this October day. Winnick is taking no chances, though, with five heat packs buried underneath multiple layers of fabric and fur.
The 36-year-old Toronto-native is also smeared with movie mud and nicked all over with faux battle scars.
"There are no mirrors on this set," she says. "You forget you have blood and dirt all over your face. I love getting dirty for this job though; it's part of the character."
Lagertha divorces Ragnar (common practice in Viking times) and becomes an Earl in Season Two. In this scene, she's part of a three alliance force and leads her own army. A hostage exchange is taking place.
"Women were very empowered back then," she says of the early medieval drama, which takes place at the beginning of the ninth century.
That suits Winnick, who really does have a third degree black belt in taekwondo as well as a second degree black belt in karate. Her whole family, including three siblings, got into martial arts when she was seven. She earned her first black belt at 13 and was operating three different martial arts schools by the time she was 21.
After training director David Cronenberg's daughter at a summer camp, Winnick started teaching martial arts on movie sets as a personal trainer. She later whipped Jennifer Jason Leigh into shape on Cronenberg's "Existenz."
So playing a Viking warrior seems about right-even if she's a little embarrassed about the name of the horse she's riding in this scene. "Sparkle," she says. "Sparkle the warrior horse."
Interviewed on a rolling green farm field that looks like it could spring from a calendar shot, Gilsig says her character, Siggy, is in "an on-and-off relationship" as Season Two begins with Ragnar's brother Rollo (played by Clive Standen).
Her wily character also schemes with others to solidify her position. Season Two, she says, "is really about me seeing if I can beat the system."
Seems she'll stop at nothing to get what she wants. "Siggy's really dirty this year," she teases. "You gotta use what you got. Am I right?"
The character has been through a lot, including the loss of her daughter, so not much intimidates her anymore. "She's unflappable," says Gilsig. "I mean, what are you gonna do? Kill her?"
In order to do "Vikings," the Montreal native has had to commit half of each year to working in Ireland, thousands of miles from her home in Los Angeles. Some would see it as disruptive, but Gilsig says there are advantages to working far from Hollywood.
In L.A., "we're asked to promote things constantly, so you're always reflecting on what you've done, which is not a great way to work. It's really good to just do it, and let it be."
She's also okay with being a little hard to reach. "It's kind of nice, because we can really immerse ourselves in the world, and I think that makes the show better."
The former "Glee" star has met with fans of the series at Comic-Con and marvelled at how knowledgeable viewers were about Viking times.
"If we had been at all inauthentic, they would have exposed us," says Gilsig, who found many viewers had read up on Norse history. "They really knew the show and knew the characters."
All that attention, she says, "makes us want to do better."
So far the attention to detail is paying off: "Vikings" finished last season as Canada's No. 1 rated specialty entertainment drama.
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