LEFT OUT IN THE COLD
RICHARD DORMER AND SIENNA GUILLORY RETURN FOR A FINAL SERIES OF THE ARCTIC DRAMA…
There are few dramas as cheerfully barmy as Sky Atlantic’s Fortitude – a show which, in its previous two series, has proven that it’s willing to go where other shows wouldn’t dream of treading. (For example, the residents of Fortitude are still recovering from an attack of prehistoric parasitic wasps that caused them to go insane and murderous in the first series.) This week, it’s back for a final four-parter, and we know we’re going to miss it terribly when it’s gone.
Inside TV caught up with the show’s Richard Dormer, who plays terrifying town sheriff Dan Anderssen, and Sienna Guillory, who plays parasite-infected scientist Natalie Yelburton, to find out what awaits us. We’re almost too scared to ask…
Dan has done – and still does – some terrible things. Is he beyond saving?
Richard I think that there’s a good guy in there somewhere – he’s just forgotten himself a bit. He’s just doing what he thinks is right for Fortitude. He’s basically like a shepherd protecting his flock – when anybody comes in and starts trying to mess things up, Dan’s going to get rid of them!
Natalie is suffering greatly from her infection – what’s next in line for her?
Sienna What I love about this story is that it’s not so much horror as the very question of being. In a time when we’re questioning whether we are capable of being monsters, what is it about us that maintains our humanity? So if you’re beset by a parasite, how do you maintain a sense of who you are?
The location shoots for the previous series were done in Iceland, but this time you went to Svalbard, where the series is set. What was it like?
Richard Cold! It was freezing – about minus 45 degrees in the opening scene, but with the wind chill, I don’t know… Maybe minus 60 or something on my skin? I literally could not feel my face. The cold was intense – if you wanted to light a cigarette, you’d take your glove off and within 20 seconds your hand would be so sore, it’s actually painful. It’s that quick. So there aren’t a lot of people smoking!
Sienna, all of your scenes for this series were shot in studios in the UK – did you miss the location shoots?
Sienna I think that one of the most beautiful things for me, when I used to go out to the Arctic, was that we were all
together. It’s a very close-knit family – I think I’ll keep these people with me for the rest of my life. I can remember last season being on the tundra in a storm, getting into a tent, then shooting the inside of the tent in a studio during a heatwave in July! You’re sweating, but you’re trying to maintain the feeling and the ferocity of the cold in your performance!