Travis Fimmel

Playing Ragnar Lothbrok: performance & interviews

Watching the performance

Watch the pauses before Ragnar answers. Fimmel often makes a look do the work of a speech, so the viewer has to decide whether Ragnar is amused, calculating or concealing hurt. His scenes with Athelstan provide an especially useful contrast to the public authority he displays around warriors.

Preparing Ragnar’s speech and weapons

In Lance Carter’s April 2013 WonderCon interview for Daily Actor, Fimmel described repetition as his way into the unfamiliar language work. A battle scene requiring both Norse and Saxon speech was particularly difficult, and he credited help on set. He prepared between takes and after long working days.

Research and the Irish shoot

Fimmel said Michael Hirst supplied documentation for his reading about the religion. His familiarity with axes from farm life was supplemented by stunt coordinators and choreographers, with movements becoming more natural through practice. He remembered the initial Irish shoot as roughly five months, with rain persisting through outdoor scenes. Asked about Ragnar’s ambition, he linked his interpretation to seeing the world, acquiring knowledge and earning lasting respect.

A different kind of warrior in Warcraft

In a 2016 on-set interview distributed by FilmIsNow, Fimmel identifies Anduin Lothar as the human military commander in Warcraft. He described being drawn to a hero with flaws and difficult choices, and to director Duncan Jones’s treatment of both sides of the conflict as containing good and bad. He also discussed the production’s oversized swords, draft horses and elaborate stunt work. For Vikings viewers, this offers a useful comparison in scale: the actor is again working with combat and leadership, but within a fantasy world designed around a different physical and visual vocabulary.