Kristofer Hivju on His New Series TWIN, the Sundance Hit ‘Downhill’ & Game of Thrones

Fans the world over have spent the last decade getting to know actor and writer Kristofer Hivju as the self-mythologizing, courageous leader of the free-folk Tormund Giantsbane on HBO’s Game of Thrones. Since that historic series came to a close last spring however, Hivju has been hard at work. 

Last week, you may have noticed him at the Sundance International Film Festival celebrating the premiere of his new film Downhill, the American remake of the 2014 Swedish film Force Majeure (which he also appeared in), alongside his castmates Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell and Academy Award winners Nat Faxton and Jim Rash, who co-directed the film. Now, he is busy promoting the North American debut of his gripping new series for MHz Choice called TWIN, where he plays twin brothers Erik and Adam, on February 4th. 

Hivju spoke with me recently about this new eight-part limited series, which he co-created alongside friend and former collaborator Kristoffer Metcalfe, in addition to his new film Downhill and the challenges of filming the final season of Game of Thrones. 

I wanted to start out by complimenting you on your performance [in TWIN]. The depths that you have to go to over the course of eight episodes was really, really incredible. What’s it like to be that vulnerable on screen for eight hours? 

It was a pleasure because I have been longing to play this part for five years, and when you are a part of developing something it’s like you can give much more of yourself into the material and I have been a part of shaping the role. And then he [Erik, the primary of the two roles Hivju plays in TWIN] has lost his brother and he’s in a fish out of water situation where everything is kind of messed up, so I enjoyed it [laughs]. 

Well, I definitely enjoyed watching it. Speaking of the relationship between your character Erik and your other character Adam, something that struck me while watching the series was that that central relationship was maybe the most important thing about the series and yet most of it occurs off-screen. Can you talk to me about the difficulty in presenting a relationship that’s that complicated and yet we are really only seeing the fall out from it? 

We talked so much about that relationship and we had many drafts and so, somehow, I feel like I have been through that relationship throughout the writing of the show and the creating of the story. We struggled a lot with making it because they only have two scenes together, and when we shot the first scene where they meet after 15 years, we had so many drafts where they were arguing and the conflict was in the open. We ended up trying to hide the conflict, because people try to avoid conflict in their lives.

Adam just really wants him out of there and Erik really needs him and wants the two of them to find a way back together, and so we ended up with two people just talking on the surface and the conflict just laying behind. It all happened so long ago that the conflict is still there, but it’s just deep down. So in the boat scene, Erik just wants to clear the air and just wants the anger out in the open so they can go on and maybe through, ya know, a kind of combativeness where it just gets everything out it might do something for them, but, you know, it didn’t happen as he wanted. 

Yes, that is definitely for sure. I noticed that Kristoffer Metcalfe, who created the series, that you have a long history of working with him, the first time being in 2005 with a short film. What was it like to work with him again after all these years? 

Well, we are very good friends. We have worked together developing different kinds of material. We have made short films and music videos, and he was one of the best men in my wedding. We have had this plan of making something bigger for so many years, and we actually spent five years on making this happen and that comes with everything from carving out the idea to create the story, the characters, the universe, and of course to get it funded. As an actor that is a new world, because ordinarily they just call us and give us the script and we get ready to work, but, in this case, we have been a part of developing it. So he is fantastic. 

So given that creative relationship, do you guys have any plans to work together again in the future? 

Definitely. If you stick him and me in a room together, we will pitch two new movies and a TV [seres] within a half hour, so we are constantly figuring out new things to play with. It is an ongoing process. 

So what was it about TWIN that made it the focus of that creative energy, if you guys have so many ideas all the time together? 

Well, we actually had an idea about 13 or 14 years ago where we wanted to make a Western where you had one brother who was a priest and the other one was a criminal in prison. When the preacher brother loses his life, the criminal brother breaks out of jail, so we had that as a story. We also had a mix where the criminal brother takes his [brother’s] cloak and shawl and goes into the world. So we had played with that idea so much, and some ideas just don’t leave you.

When we placed the story in modern times it gave it something primitive. Very often the identity switch premise is a comical premise. Many comedies are made from that. We wanted to take the story dead seriously and see what would actually happen if you had to live within another person’s mask. And the thing we loved about it is that every situation becomes two dimensions in some ways because the audience sees two people who don’t know each other but one person thinks he knows or doesn’t know the person, but it’s the wrong twin. It started out more like a thriller but we ended up making it more psychological because when, for example, Erik’s brother’s son has pissed himself, just that alone is a huge task for him to deal with [laughs]. 

[laughs] Moving on, I wanted to ask you briefly, I know you are in the American remake of Force Majeure called Downhill. I was curious what your thoughts are about that now that it just debuted at Sundance, because Force Majeure is such an acclaimed film. I feel like it came over here in a really big way and I was a little surprised to see it get an American remake. I’m curious, what was like when you found out the news? Also can you talk about the experience of being in a remake of a film you starred in? 

I just came from Sundance a couple of days ago, so it was a blast to see it premiere there. Force Majeure did have such a huge audience worldwide, so I must say I think they were brave to do it. Still, it is such a good story, and it is a story that is worth telling in different ways, in new ways. Ruben Östlund [the director of the original Force Majeure] has a very unique and special way of directing his movies. He observes his characters from distances, very often in long shots and all that, so for me I think they have somehow created new characters who have experienced the same thing. It is a remake, but still, it is a remake with the same premise and new characters. 

It seems like it is pitched a bit more like a comedy than the original film was. I remember the premise seemed fairly comedic, but then when you actually sat down and watch the film it really got into the heart of the emotional consequences of that. This seems like more of a comedy. What was it like to navigate that different tone for the same story? 

Well that would be interesting, but I still think Downhill is more drama than comedy. They tuned the comedy more down more than I thought, and I think that was a great choice. Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell are playing on other muscles than they very often have done before. The tone is a bit different, but Force Majeure and Downhill were funny. It’s funny in another way, because it’s so tragical. That’s why it’s funny. 

I wanted to end with just a brief question on Game of Thrones because I am a big Game of Thrones fan and most of our readers are as well. 

Thank you. Thank you. 

I can speak for everyone I know that loved you as Tormund. I was curious though, that cast was so huge and there are so many different types of roles within there. If you could pick one other character to play, other than Tormund, which character would you play? 

Well, I’m very happy. I think one of the things that made the show great was its cast, because the acting in the cast was very good. But you know for me, what hooked me on the show was, of course, Ned Stark and Sean Bean’s fantastic portrait of that [character]. But you know, I  wouldn’t play anyone else. I think I was well cast as Tormund [laughs] and that’s the way it should be. 

And is there any potential project that you would like in the future set in that world, like maybe a spinoff series of Tormund and Jon up in the North? 

Well, we have to see. There is a spinoff series coming up about the Targaryens, if I heard right, so we’ll have to see. I did six years on the show, and I felt that I gave Tormund my everything and then the story has ended, so you never know but as I said I gave Tormund what I had then and that the story is completed. 

What was it like when you had to do all of those night shoots in that last giant battle at Winterfell with all of the zombies and everything like that? What was it like to go through all that for such an extended period of time? 

Well, yeah, it was long hours and it was always dark and it was mostly raining [laughs]. I will say that the crew and the extras, they did the really hard job because they had to work for all of the 50 nights or whatever it was, but the comfort of it was that, however we had it, Tormund and the rest of the gang had a much more difficult situation to deal with and that’s what we were there to portray [laughs]. They were facing death and we were just facing rain … and insomnia. 

I guess, when you put it that way, it’s easier to cope [laughs]. The last question I wanted to ask you before we go is, you are such an incredible performer and creator, what is the last great thing that you’ve seen? 

I watched a show on Netflix called Messiah and I think it was great and am hoping a new season of that arrives soon. 

What about that spoke to you? 

No, it’s just interesting because you know it’s a strange time in the world and you have all these superhero movies and they are so popular because people are probably longing for something strong to protect them or to believe in and this is another take on a superhero movie and the discussion of if a Messiah actually came to the world what would actually happen when things are developed. It is a must see. But I must also say that, when we talk about TWIN and we talk about Beck [an ongoing Swedish detective series on which Hivju has a recurring role] and you talk about other Scandinavian content, MHz Choice is a small platform where there is so much great Scandinavian crime [dramas] and other stuff that I just want Americans to look through the subtitles and they’ll have a lot of great content to explore. 

Check out Kristofer Hivju on TWIN which premieres in the US on MHz Choice on February 4.