With The Northman opening in theaters this weekend, I recently spoke to director Robert Eggers about making his action-filled epic. During the interview, Eggers talked about how he filmed the invasion of a village as a oner, and how it was like choreographing a musical but with a “lot more blood,” what were the toughest aspects of making the story as authentic as possible, the challenges he ran into in the editing room, how the release is his director’s cut and why you won’t see a longer cut on the Blu-ray, writing the screenplay with Sjón, and why he thanked Ari Aster, Chris Columbus, and Alfonso Cuarón in the credits. In addition, he talked about his desire to do a third New England folk horror film at some point and why he loved the immersive quality and audio separation of the Dolby Atmos mix.

The Northman follows a young Viking prince (Alexander Skarsgård) on his quest to avenge his father’s (Ethan Hawke) murder. The fantastic film also stars Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang, Anya Taylor-Joy, Björk, and Willem Dafoe.

Check out what he had to say in the player above, or you can read our conversation below. Finally, I strongly recommend seeing The Northman in a movie theater. Eggers has crafted an epic that deserves to be seen on the biggest and loudest screen in your area. For more on the film, you can read our review or read my interview with Eggers from a few months back before I had seen the film.

COLLIDER: What was it like actually for you last night at the premiere? Because you've spent years spent a long time working on this film. And last night was like the first time that a lot of people saw it.

ROBERT EGGERS: Amazing. I mean, I didn't sit through [it] because the last time I was in London finishing the film I watched the film 19 times in two weeks. So I can't really sit through. But the reactions have been really great. And look, my favorite part of making movies is being on set. But the most important part is sharing it with an audience. And I'm so like thrilled to finally be able to do that. Because otherwise what's the point, you know?

One of the things that really struck me watching it last night was the incredible sound design. It sounded amazing in that theater. Can you sort of talk a little bit about the sound design of the movie because?

EGGERS: Thank you. Well, it was my first time working in Atmos. And I have to say I love Atmos not just because of the immersive quality, but the separation. The sound design is incredibly dense. The sound design is intentionally a bit too much. But I don't think there's any way that I can communicate the brutality of the punishing landscapes without really amping up the sound.

Also, I've never had so much music in a film before. And the score by Robin Carolan and Sebastian Gainsborough, in a two-hour and 15-minute movie, I think there's two hours of composed music. And it's just driving us forward. But in order to hear all the different drums, and the bone flutes, and the tagelharpa, and the different kinds of Nordic singing, with the waves crashing, Atmos gives us a separation to hear all of it, which is really great.

If someone had actually never seen either of your previous movies and hasn't obviously seen The Northman yet, what's the first one you want them watching?

EGGERS: I mean, it depends. If you're like a snobby cinephile, maybe try The Lighthouse. But if you're just like a person, please see The Northman.

One of the things that I would imagine is getting people in the right headspace before stepping on set. Did you have any of the cast or any of your crew watch or read anything prior to actually stepping on set that first day?

EGGERS: I don't know how many cast members did this, but I supplied them with a massive syllabus of sagas and historical articles. I mean, tons and tons and tons and tons of books. I mean, there's no way they would've finished the amount of stuff that I gave them, but they had the opportunity to dig into all kinds of things. But I know Alex particularly was drawn to Neil Price's book, The Children of Ash and Elm. Neil Price, being this tremendous Viking archeologist, who was an advisor on the film.

There are so many impressive shots in this movie, but I would love to actually spend a little bit of time talking about the invasion of the village, the 90 seconds, I believe it's 90 seconds or so. Can you sort of talk about, or take us through filming that sequence? Because it's great.

EGGERS: Thank you. Well, I mean, in some ways it's like choreographing a musical, but it requires a lot more blood. What can I say? You start with the main action, which is everything that Amleth is going to do. And then you just keep having to go layer, layer, layer, layer, layer, of all the extras, all the stunt guys, all the horses, the goats, the chickens, the geese, the sheep, the children.

We are building a village from scratch to accommodate where the camera's going to be and to accommodate every beat in the action. It's a whole lot of work. I've never planned something so meticulously in my life, but there was no way to get around that. There's no way to get around that planning. But the irony is that there were some simpler scenes that were harder to shoot because they didn't get the same amount of TLC.

the-northman-ethan-hawke — Image Via Focus Features

How many takes did you actually end up doing of that sequence to get the one that you use in the film?

EGGERS: It's two shots in the movie. The first, when the Berserkers tear their skins off and stuff, I think that was 28 takes.

Did you end up using the 28th take?

EGGERS: Of course.

So you were basically waiting to get the exact thing you were looking for?

EGGERS: Yeah. I mean, the way we were shooting this film, single-camera with these long takes, it was ... I mean, we were always using the last or second to last take. With those long winters, it's always the last or second to last.

You are known for being as authentic as possible. What was the thing or things while making this, that you were a little bit frustrated because there wasn't enough data or historical evidence to sort of know exactly what the right answer was?

EGGERS: So the sort of academic consensus has been that Vikings did not wear special clothing for ritual purposes, but it also seems [like] the academic consensus is that also, they were are spraying blood all over the place, all over themselves. So I asked Neil. I said, "Was everyone just walking around, covered in blood all the time? Surely, they must have special stuff they're wearing." And he said, "I've never considered it like that, because I've never had to consider it like that."

And that's something that filmmaking can bring up. So we designed special garments that we called bloat cloaks for the ritual purposes. It was an invention, but it was based on a whole lot of research and suggestion. And there was a need for it.

Nicole Kidman as Queen Gudrun The Northman — Image via Focus Features

I'm obsessed with the editing process because it's where it all comes together. I believe you had a longer cut. Can you sort of talk about the challenges you ran into in the editing room in terms of getting it to the shape where you wanted it to be?

EGGERS: Basically look, I mean, before I gave this script to the studio, I knew that it was going to be so big that I was not going to have final cut. I knew that was going to happen. And it was a risk that I was willing to take. And the studio was really great in pushing this movie forward and staying with it all through COVID when a lot of movies died. But the editing process was incredibly difficult because I promised them the most entertaining Robert Eggers movie I could possibly make. But entertainment is not my first instinct.

So, the editing process was really painful for me because of the studio pressure. But I needed that pressure to deliver this movie. This is the director's cut. There's not going to be a longer version on the Blu-ray. The scenes that we got rid of, while some of them I'm very proud of, will be supplemental features for people to kind of check out some interesting things about the goddess Freya, or whatever, but there's a reason why they're not in the movie.

For fans of yours, will you have 10 or 20 minutes of deleted scenes?

EGGERS: Yeah. There'll be quite a lot of deleted scenes.

Are they finished, or in is it a rough state?

EGGERS: Some of them are finished. Some of them I cut very early on, of my own, being hard on myself. But some of them are finished. Yeah.

It's Interesting because I speak to a lot of directors. And some directors refuse to show any deleted scenes.

EGGERS: Which I understand, because it can totally change ... It starts changing everything that you're thinking about the film when there's a scene where it describes an aspect of a character that you never knew. I can understand why you wouldn't want to do that. And maybe I shouldn't do it myself, but we decided to.

the-northman-anya-taylor-joy — Image Via Focus Features

If someone actually doesn't know anything about The Northman, hasn't seen a trailer, is there one or two things you want to like, tell someone about the movie?

EGGERS: It's tough. Me personally, when I watch a trailer, if I find it the least bit interesting, I turn it off and write down the name of the movie. I don't want to see anything. I don't want to know anything. I really want to be surprised. But of course, so much of my job in the past several months has been trying to find a way to orient and explain and guide people into what this is. But I think if I could say anything, this is an epic viking movie that is truly done in a way that has never been done before. And it has to be experienced in theaters.

I 100% agree with that statement. You've made two films about America's past, and now you've made one Vikings movie. The ratio says you might make another Vikings movie. Or am I completely off base?

EGGERS: Yeah. It's funny that now that I've started doing American press, the sequel question comes in.

I don't actually mean a sequel at all. I mean, just you made two films in America's past. Are you-

EGGERS: I think I'm much more likely to make, which I would like to do, a third New England folk horror film at some point. Yeah.

I think a lot of people would be ... Let me use the term enthusiastic.

EGGERS: Okay.

So one of the things obviously is no matter how much time and money you have, you're always going to hit limits. If you were able to have more money or more time, was there something, or a few things you wanted to include, but couldn't because of those restrictions?

EGGERS: Well, I don't know. It's funny because there are three ships in the beginning of the film that come into the Viking city. And I think certainly with a lot of TV shows, you can have the expectation of 50 ships. But I also feel like three great ships are better than 50 CG ships.

There are so many, it looks like when I was watching it, so many challenging days in the making of this movie. Were there any days where you were just like, "How are we going to finish this?" You know what I mean?

EGGERS: Yeah. Every day. I mean, the locations were impossible and so was what Jarin my DP and I were out to achieve. And so, yeah. I mean, yeah.

Alexander Skarsgard and Anya Taylor-Joy The Northman — Image via Focus Features

I really enjoyed some of these surprising left turns the story takes. I didn't expect certain things. Can you talk a little bit about coming up with the story and how it possibly changed in the writing process along the way?

EGGERS: When I decided that I might want to make of a Viking movie with Alex Skarsgård, I came across the story of Amleth, which inspired Shakespeare's Hamlet. And that was great because this is a myth that everybody knows. So I can make this large-scale epic movie for broad audiences, but I can explore the ritual world and the mythological world in a way that you may not ... It's not so common in a film this size. And so, we kind of went with that. I mean, so many things shifted and changed along the way. I mean, the first draft that Sjón sent me, after we had developed the story together, but then he went off and did his own thing, I mean, it would've cost like $350 million.

And the credits you thank Ari Aster, Chris Columbus, and Alfonso Cuarón. I'm just curious, how did they get thank yous?

EGGERS: They all saw the film at some point and gave me notes and support.

Were there any key notes that your friends and family gave you on the editing process that really had you see the film in a new way to help you in the editing?

EGGERS: Yeah. There's not some like special golden fish that I can point to, but that helped. The test screenings. I hate the test screening process. The worst part about the test screening process is that it's not enough data to actually mean anything, but I still learn things from it. I still learned a lot of things from it. Again, I don't like it, but it's helpful.