Vikings star Alex Høgh takes a sympathetic angle on Ivar

The sixth and final season of Vikings premieres tonight, and we’re eager to see what’s become of our favorite characters since the season 5 finale, and that includes Ivar.

Viewers may think that Ivar was completely evil in season 5, but the actor who plays him — Alex Høgh — tells Den of Geek there are many different shades to his character. “There are no good or bad characters,” Høgh assures us. “Because, the bad characters do not think they are bad. And Ivar is especially one of those characters. If he believes in his cause, I have to believe in it too. I feel sorry for him, first and foremost. But I see through all of his bullcrap. Absolutely. All this dumb stuff that he does, the tyranny, the burning of people alive, all that stuff. I know that that comes from fear, and from fear of not being loved.”

"So what he does instead is the only thing that he understands, which is causing fear. I see through that, every single time. I understand that he’s a little boy on the inside and he’s probably more crippled on the inside than he is on the outside. I always remember that. It’s important for me to in every single scene to have just a little piece of that. Even though, in some scenes, it’s almost impossible to show that, that vulnerability to him, or that three-dimensional character that I absolutely believe that he is. But I try, and I hope I’ve succeeded."

As a fan of the show, I wish Høgh would just lean into the tyrannical evil of his character, like Iwan Rheon did with Ramsay Bolton on Game of Thrones, but I can appreciate him taking a different tack.

Høgh also talked about how Ivar loved being the ruler of the kingdom of Kattegat, and how he felt losing it to his older brother Bjorn. “Some would say that it’s kind of a big hit on his self-esteem and his belief in himself, his powers, his ideas and his talents,” he ruminated. “And I really liked that. Because I thought he was a little too much in season five actually. He was completely losing it and sometimes it was a little hard to protect him, and defending him. I think that’s what I’ve really tried and that’s the great thing about his arc in seasons six. In season six, he’s really thinking about what happened to him. So he’s processing that whole experience. And I think that he started looking in, way more than he usually did in the past. So that’s great to have him actually become as a human being growing. Because he actually received some kind of assistance that he didn’t expect, from within.”

Somehow I doubt Ivar learning to look within is going to temper his murderous impulses overmuch. Need we mention Freydis, his queen from season 5?

"She did betray him in the worst way possible, but I mean, it’s so hard for him. He’s had such a horrible time. Finally, he finds some kind of true love. Yeah, she’s probably just as crazy as he is, but, my god, and then she betrays him. I mean, he’s really, really hurt. I think he’s a broken, broken young man in season six. And he’s really processing that entire experience. And I don’t think he’ll ever get over that. I don’t think he’ll ever get over it."

Okay, I take back my previous statement; Alex Høgh doesn’t understand how evil his character really is, or he does and he’s just trolling us.

Anyway, during the filming of each season, Høgh and his fellow son of Ragnar, Marco Ilsø (Hvitserk), share a room together. Their characters did some really nasty stuff to each other in season 5. Were the actors able to separate from all that when the cameras stopped rolling? “We’re pretending for a living,” Høgh said. “We’ve been doing this for so long. I’ve killed a few people, let’s just say, a few people on this show. Marco, too. You know you get used to it…It’s what you do and, after the first three months of doing that, it’s just another day at the office.”

"And, it has to be, that feeling of a regular day at work, because otherwise you would get too emotional about it, to psyched about it, and you can’t sleep at night because you think you might be seeing it all the time, and stuff like that. You need to neutralize it in a way, in order to be calm and collected."

Some other notes from the the interview:

• He’s learned a great deal of respect for people living with disabilities, like Ivar does.
• He identifies “with every single one” of Ragnar’s sons.
• Høgh is a photographer. The production has asked him if they could use some of his photos for PR for the show.
• He’s currently filming “a big Netflix Danish feature right now in Prague.”
• What he’s learned most from playing Ivar is that help from others is good. “I’m learning that you will not get anywhere great on your own.”

Vikings season 6 debuts with a two-hour premiere tonight on History.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Watch Game of Thrones for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels