In an exclusive interview, Winter Is Coming was able to sit down with Game of Thrones star Kristofer Hivju (Tormund Giantsbane) and chat about everything from his new series TWIN (which he co-created) to his advice on being a #GirlDad. Oh, and Hivju also revealed what he thinks Jon and Tormund are up to north of the Wall now that things have settled down in Westeros.
First up, here’s a preview for TWIN, available now on streaming service MHz Choice, which specializes in foreign-language television series. Hivju plays brothers Erik and Adam, twins who haven’t seen in each other in a long while, and maybe it should have stayed that way:
Hivju and series director Kristoffer Metcalfe kicked around the idea for this series for nearly 15 years. “I’ve been friends with Kristoffer (Metcalfe) for a long time, but we’ve always been fascinated by twins, my mother is a twin, we have a lot of twins in my family,” Hivju said. “Besides that, the idea that two people have the exact same DNA is just fascinating. The idea we fell in love with, was what if you have two twin brothers who have developed in two totally different directions, and have developed two very different personalities and then one of them lives the other person’s life. That stuck in our minds.”
Of course, with that amount of time to think about a project, the idea through some changes over the years:
"Thirteen years ago, we wanted to make it a Western movie, about a priest and a criminal, and the criminal takes the priest’s clothes when he dies and goes into that whole world, but he still carries a shotgun (laughs). That was the first idea when we were in our 20s, something Hollywood-ish. But then we became older, and we started to look at the idea in a different perspective, we wanted to take the premise seriously, and see what would actually happen. How would it be for someone to live in another person’s mask? A sort of fish out of water story, every situation became interesting when we started to play around with it."
While Hivju plays two different characters on TWIN, neither are larger than life in the way that Tormund was on Game of Thrones. “Tormund was a huge character with a Shakespearean kind of style, everything is life and death. This is a totally different genre. I like to challenge myself, to do both is fantastic, but after six years on Thrones it was a pleasure to play a sober, emotional character. I longed for that, and it was a great experience.”
"We went to create twin brothers that have lived two very different lives, and had been separated for about 15 years. One of them has been a surfer bum, who owes everyone money, whose life is chaos, who hasn’t taken responsibility for anything in his life. Adam is a family man, a father of two kids and he runs a resort in Lofoten (Norway). It was interesting to jump between two parts in the same day, you do a setup and change, do a setup and change, so it was a bit schizophrenic. But as an actor, you play different parts, I just had to do it in the same day (laughs). I’m come from the theater, and in the theater you do it constantly."
And playing a duel role wasn’t the only challenge Hivju faced making this show. “When they call actors, you very seldom understand the work that has gone into that,” he said. “With this, it was great to be a part of shaping the characters, so it was sort of like playing the role for five years before I started to shoot. Then you have the funding, which is a chapter on its own, because you have to raise money to make it happen. It was very interesting, so I have much more respect because I know years of work go into it before I am there.”
Hivju also wanted to implore fans to not focus on the show’s subtitles. “We are so excited it’s available in Canada and the U.S. on Mhz Choice. They have so much great content there, including another show I have there called Beck. There are a lot of things, but the only thing is Americans need to embrace subtitles, because it opens up a world of entertainment. That’s an important message (laughs).”
Embrace the subtitles, people!
Pivoting to Game of Thrones, Hivju speculated on what Tormund and Jon Snow might get up to now that they’re going beyond the Wall. “Both of them have a broken heart, but I think Jon should be glad that Tormund is around,” he said. “I think Tormund is a faster healer and Jon needs help to get out of his depression. I think they are sitting around the fireplace, and Tormund is trying to cheer him up.”
If HBO ever wants to make a Jon Snow sequel, that’s a great place to start.
Hivju also weighed in on the the final season as a whole, which inspired a heated reaction from many fans. “I loved the final season, and I think that there is something organic about the show coming to an end,” he said. “I think the ending was expected; when you kill a lead character in season one, there won’t be a happy ending. So it fit what made Game of Thrones what it was. It had unexpected twists and turns, it didn’t follow the rules of storytelling, it followed the rules of life. People change, to do good or to do worse. I think, whatever end it had, people would be outraged, or like it, or disagree. That’s the name of the game.”
Now that we’re a while out from the end, Hivju looks back on his time on the series very fondly. Still, is there anyone in the cast he didn’t get to work with that he’d liked to have? “Not many,” he laughed. “I enjoyed the spirit on that set, the constant ambition to improve every season. Everyone gave their best game, the positivity, you didn’t see people looking at their phones or yawn, even though we had like 50 night shoots in a row because everyone was just excited, and wanted to make it as good as possible. I was on Team Jon Snow, so I made a lot of friends, and we had fantastic times in our black tent with our little warming machine that never worked. I love to work with everyone again, because it was a true pleasure.”
(L to R) Kristofer Hivju as Tormund and Kit Harington as Jon Snow – Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO
So what’s next for Hivju? We’ve heard rumors that he might be joining the cast of Netflix’s The Witcher, to start.“Well, I can’t comment on that (laughs). I love the show though.”
Take that how you will.
Finally, like myself, Hivju is a father of two girls close in age, and I couldn’t pass up the chance to ask Tormund Giantsbane’s advice on being a #GirlDad, “They are so close in age, I have the same thing with my daughters. They are 13 months apart, so now for the first four or five years will be much harder, but when they grow up they have each other. And then it’s much easier (laughs).” We’ll see!
TWIN is available now on MHz Choice. Thanks for talking to us, Kristofer Hivju!
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