Kristofer Hivju on Tormund’s motivation, filming “Beyond the Wall,” and the importance of Rocky IV

Tormund Giantsbane might have started fighting for the opposing side, but eventually became one of Jon Snow’s most stalwart allies, and followed him north of the Wall on his mission to capture a wight. Actor Kristofer Hivju talked to HBO’s Making Game of Thrones blog about Tormund’s motivations.

"The White Walkers have been nightmares the Free Folk have dealt with as long as they can remember, so I think it’s something deep down in him. The Army of the Dead has  always been his greatest fear, even more than the Night’s Watch. If you see the wights, you know what’s at stake. Tormund saw so many of his people die and become wights at Hardhome, and it was a terrifying experience. So he’s fighting for his people, and on a larger scale, he’s fighting for humanity."

As for when Tormund began trusting Jon Snow, Hivju thinks it started small and built from there. “I think Tormund has always liked Jon,” he said. “And he saw Jon and Ygritte starting to get along, and Tormund loves stuff like that. He has given Jon Snow great sex advice, and it was been the soap opera of Tormund’s reality to watch them come together.”

"But the moment he really came to respect Jon was before they went to Hardhome.. Tormund saw the mercy arrow Jon gave Mance. It was an important moment when Jon took off Tormund’s chains and showed he trusted him and understood they had the same goal."

There’s the Tormund we all know and love.

As the group began their journey north of the Wall, the Hound drew Tormund’s interest the most, since “Tormund is the guy who needs to talk without pressure, so when he has this deadpan guy walking around, he needs to find some harmony there.” And of course, Tormund and the Hound eventually learn they share a mutual “friend”: Brienne of Tarth.

"It’s very unexpected; nobody saw that coming. When Brienne came into Castle Black on that horse, the arrow of love just penetrated Tormund’s heart. I think it’s really funny. It’s like throwing a bit of sugar into all that dark salt when you bring some light and love into this dark universe. Watching somebody falling totally in love is always pleasant to watch; especially since Brienne doesn’t really enjoy it. Although…I think she does a bit. Tormund might have a plan. It could be fantastic."

But before he could get back to Brienne, Tormund had to survive the mission north of the Wall, where the group squared off with — among other things — an undead polar bear. Hivju joked on set that it was Tormund’s long lost love, Sheila the bear. “[T]here was a line that was cut, when they first see the bear, Tormund says, ‘I’ve danced with plenty of bears.'”

It only got worse for our intrepid warriors from there, and climaxed when they were later surrounded by an army of wights on an island in the middle of a frozen lake. Due to the sheer number of stunt people working on the scene, Hivju says traditional fight choreography went out the window.

"It took at least a month to shoot. There were so many kills we didn’t have the time or capacity to choreograph every single move. So the fantastic thing we did was an alphabet of choreographed movements; every one of us had an alphabet of seven kills; seven movements. So they could just throw wights at us, and because they [the stuntmen] knew the language too, we could just improvise with that alphabet. So after a couple of days it became very organic, and extremely real because people were coming from everywhere."

Hivju compared filming the Battle of the Frozen Lake to the Massacre at Hardhome, as opposed to the Battle of the Bastards. “When they said “action” and you have 20 guys coming at you; it’s just crazy. It was like chopping for your life, and it was pretty physically intense, actually.”

One of the unique things about this battle were the number of principal cast members involved. According to Hivju, that made it a lot of fun to be on set.

"I love those guys, we had a great time. When you gather seven roosters in a small box, it can go wrong very easily, but these guys are so deeply secure in themselves, and are filled with so much warmth and love. We played a lot of music and Risk. All the guys are very competitive, so sometimes it became intense and it was hard to get us out of the game. They had to force us to shoot."

Finally, Hivju revealed how he gets into character for his scenes: he thinks of Rocky Balboa in Rocky IV. “When he has to face Dolph Lundgren [playing Ivan Drago] Dolph is running in a fitness center, with barometers everywhere on his body, but Rocky goes out in the woods and he chops wood and lifts trees. So that’s how I get in my wildling more.

Just when we thought we couldn’t love Hivju any more.

Next: Sophie Turner and the Game of Thrones showrunners discuss Sansa and Arya’s frayed relationship

The Game of Thrones season 7 finale airs this Sunday, at 9:00 p.m. EST.

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