Available on Netflix, Lost in the Arctic was mainly shot in Iceland where the actors had to deal with extreme filming conditions.
Based on a true story, Lost in the Arctic recounts the Danish expedition led by Captain Ejnar Mikkelsen in 1909 with the aim of disproving the ownership of northeast Greenland by the United States. And it is truly on the ice and in the snow that the feature film, available on Netflix since yesterday, was shot, mainly in Iceland.
For Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who holds the main role of this film which he produced and co-wrote, it was imperative that Lost in the Arctic not be shot in the studio. “From the beginning, we wanted to shoot everything on location, to use real elements. We didn’t want to use too many special effects. Everything outside is outside”, he assures in an interview with Deadline.
And to specify that as a result: “You don’t have to worry about acting because you’re reacting to the elements all the time.” This is confirmed by his on-screen partner, Joe Cole, who plays the only man to have agreed to accompany Captain Mikkelsen on his dangerous journey.
“It’s uncomfortable walking in deep snow for hours, but it adds to the experience. I wouldn’t have changed it, it makes acting easier, you don’t have to act a lot, you just have to live it”, explains the one who became known to the public thanks to Peaky Blinders.
Attention danger !
If having shot in Iceland therefore has the merit of offering breathtaking images to the spectators as well as more real-than-life interpretations from the actors, the shots have not necessarily been easy for the production. .
Lilja Jonsdottir/Netflix
“We had to be rescued from a glacier”, says director Peter Flinth, for example, before Coster-Waldau gives more details: “It was madness. We were on a glacier in Iceland, there was a storm coming in but they kept saying it was going to calm down by lunch. It got worse and worse, we couldn’t stand up, there were hurricane force winds.”
At lunchtime, we had to take refuge in this hut, objects were flying in all directions, stones came through the windows of a van. There were 50-60 people packed together and we had to roll everyone over to make sure we were all there because otherwise we would have had to send rescue teams.
The Game of Thrones star also recalled another anecdote that could have gone wrong: “We had dogs, they are not actors, they are very difficult. At the end of a day we had a scene sledding on rocks, I lost control, I’m not very proud of it.”
The actor continues:I saw the whole team standing up, with dogs and sleds coming towards them, the dog handler jumping on the sled and shouting insults at me. No one was hurt, thankfully, and it’s amazing on screen. In the original audio you can hear all the screams.” More fear than harm, therefore, but the proof that filming in real conditions brings its share of dangers.
netflix
A funny bear
At least Nikolaj Coster-Waldau didn’t have to fight with a real polar bear as the director initially wanted! Instead, it is in front of a judoka that the actor shot the sequence where he is manhandled by a bear.
“I had a little concussion that day. They got their hands on Iceland’s heavyweight judo champion, who also works as a stuntman. It was the bear. On D-Day, I wanted it to look the best it could, so I dropped my head and he went all in, throwing me around like a rag doll. A very strong man”, he recalls.
And to conclude:We watched clips of that scene and it’s me and a guy in a brown suit with a weird bear helmet. It’s ridiculous. Now [avec les effets spéciaux]it’s incredible.“Head over to Netflix to judge for yourself!
The making-of of Lost in the Arctic: