Liam Hemsworth was obviously willing to take on a big challenge when he joined The Witcher. It’s hard enough taking over the titular role mid-series on a hit show. But he signed on to replace Henry Cavill. Just just because you’re up for a challenge doesn’t mean you’re ready for everything coming your way, though. So when Nerdist got to take part in roundtable discussions with the cast and crew ahead of the show’s fourth season, we wanted to know what turned out to be much harder about playing the White Wolf than Hemsworth expected. His answer was unexpected. He said his biggest issue playing Geralt was not getting enough sleep.
“Sleeping.” That’s what Hemsworth said was the most difficult thing about taking over as the Continent’s most famous Witcher. His answer got a big laugh out of his co-stars, fellow newcomer Laurence Fishburne and series veteran Joey Batey. And he was serious, too. After a pause Hemsworth added, “Yeah. Getting enough sleep every night.”
But why is ending your day with a good night’s rest so hard to come by while filming The Witcher? Hemsworth explained why it was “honestly the biggest challenge” he had during the entire shoot, which was unlike anything he’d ever done before.
They’re long days. A lot of it is physical. But it’s a marathon. Most of my career has been movies, and it’s three or four months of intensity as opposed to eight months. Or the 16 months or whatever we just shot. It’s a marathon, and it does require a level of focus, a level of discipline. You’re dealing with eight different scripts at a time as opposed to one singular script that I’m used to dealing with.
The physical toll and time on set weren’t the only issues Hemsworth had to learn to navigate. He also talked about how it falls upon the actors to help incoming directors understand what took place before they started shooting their episodes. Here’s what Hemsworth told our press circle about that:
The changing of directors every two episodes, that’s something that I’m not used to doing. I think as an actor, you have to take a little more responsibility in your own continuity of your journey. Not in an ego way, but in a way where you have to inform the next director of what we actually shot last week and how it played out and where I’m at emotionally. Because the next director might not have been there for that. So I think you have to take a little bit more ownership or just focus on your own journey to help them. To make sure you maintain that continuity.
As for actually being Geralt, it sounds like the transition from Cavill to Hemsworth was pretty smooth. We also got to speak to showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich and series stars Anya Chalotra and Freya Allan. They’ve been major parts of the show from the very beginning and suddenly found themselves in a unique situation. So what was it like for them to suddenly be working with a new White Wolf?
“It’s a huge thing to come on into the fourth season and take on this incredibly complex role. It’s Geralt, the guy who leads the show,” said Chalotra. “And I suppose because of that I was surprised about how calm and safe I really felt with Liam, as Yennefer with Geralt.”
Hissrich described Chaoltra and Hemsworth’s time filming as having an “ease,” a term Chalotra agreed with. Minus the very first time they filmed together, that is. “Yeah, a real ease, that it was just so natural. Other than the first day, which I think we had a lot of laughs,” she said. “It was just so odd seeing each other costume, a new trio in a way.”
It didn’t help that their first day filming together involved them reshooting a scene from season one. That only added to the strangeness of the moment. “We all felt like we would in dress-up in some way, but we’ve all moved on from that,” said Chalotra before adding everything after that first day was “just incredibly organic.”
Also incredibly organic? A good night’s rest. But if The Witcher season four’s stars, both old and new, could only have one or the other, we’re sure they’d take a smooth transition to their new Geralt over eight hours of sleep/
The Witcher season four is now available on Netflix.
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