The Northman Star Responds To Viking Movie’s White Supremacy Controversy
The Northmanstar Claes Bang responds to the film’s controversy surrounding white supremacy. The A24 Viking adventure film is directed by Robert Eggers of The Witch and The Lighthouse fame, and is Eggers’ highest-budget production to date. The Northmanwas released in April and continues its theatrical run.
Bang stars as Fjölnir the Brotherless in The Northman. The Danish actor has mostly starred in European films and TV, and played the lead role in the Oscar-nominated film The Squareback in 2017. In The Northman, Bang stars alongside a cast of huge film and TV stars, including Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, and powerhouse rising star Anya Taylor-Joy. While The Northman critical reviews have been very positive, the movie has also found itself controversially adopted by right-wing groups online, who have co-opted the movie's content into their own, white-supremacist rhetoric.
Related: The Northman: Were Amleth's Visions Real?
Now, in an interview with The Guardian, Bang responds to criticism of The Northman’s positive regard by extreme right-wing groups. This response was unexpected for the actor, who claims “it was not something I thought about when we were filming.” Bang explains the story is rooted in an old Danish legend, and condemns the warping of it to further racist rhetoric. Check out his full quote below:
I remember when the trailer came out around Christmas, there was this voiceover that says, ‘You have to choose between kindness for your kin or hatred for your enemy.’ And I was like, ‘Woah, wait a minute – it’s Donald Trump!’ If it is being used by white supremacist groups, I think that’s bloody horrible. It was not something I thought about when we were filming – the script is
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