Björk Is Unleashing Her True Form To Play A Witch In Robert Eggers' Viking Movie ‘The Northman’
Björkplaying a witch? What will they think of next? The musician and actress is known for her otherworldly persona, so it’s no surprise that she is set to play a witch inRobert Eggers' next film, which is not in fact titledThe Witch II. Björk will be joining the cast ofThe Northman, Eggers' Viking revenge movie featuring a hell of a star-studded cast includingNicole Kidman,Alexander Skarsgård,Anya Taylor-Joy,Bill SkarsgårdandWillem Dafoe.
According to a casting call list (via ThePlaylist) forThe Northman, Eggers' highly anticipated follow-up to 2019’sThe Lighthouse, Björk will reportedly play the “Slav witch.” The cast list also showsKate Dickieas part of the cast, reuniting with Eggers after her disturbing turn inThe Witch.
Björk’s musical persona is one of surreal, eclectic experimentation, so it’s not much of a reach for her to play a witch.The Northmanwill be her first major feature film role since starring in Lars Von Trier’s dark 2000 musicalDancer in the Dark, which won the Palme d’Or at the 53rd Cannes Film Festival and for which Björk received the Best Actress Award. She hasn’t acted much since, only appearing in the visual film projectDrawing Restraint 9in 2005, though it’s likely because of herterrible experiencewith von Trier, who she alleges sexually harassed her on set.
But Eggers, a rising director who has made a mark with his stylish, low-budget horror filmsThe WitchandThe Lighthouse, hopefully doesn’t have that problem, with stars like Taylor-Joy, Dafoe, and Dickie returning to work with the filmmaker again.
The Northmanis described as a Viking epic which follows “a grounded story set in Iceland at the turn of the 10th century that centers on a Nordic prince who seeks revenge for the death of his father.” Eggers wrote the screenplay with Icelandic poet and novelist,Sjón, and has described the film as his biggest andmost large-scale production yet.
“The scale is so huge and there are so many more locations and things that I couldn’t do everything or know every prop myself,” Eggers said recently. “That’s been a challenge with the new movie.”
Due to coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions, Eggers has had to maintain “a very small crew,” but the director is expecting “many locations” with “a lot of extras” that will require a grander scale than he’s worked with before. The film is just starting to reshoot again after a coronavirus delay in March. No release date has yet been set, but it’s possible we’ll seeThe Northman— and Björk in her true form — sometime in 2021.
