Quotes

The Last Kingdom was also tough on its leading man. Alexander suffered cuts and bruises, and the scars viewers will see on screen are real. 'I had injury after injury for the seven months of the shoot,' he says. 'Ubba the Dane is one of Uhtred's main adversaries and Rune Temte, who plays him, would bring his axe down on my shield as hard as he could. We had these heavy-duty plastic shields to begin with and he broke them all. So we started using wooden shields with iron rims and he broke those too. The fear you see in my eyes in those scenes is very real.'

A pivotal scene in the film involves Jackman's character being punched by Rune Temte, who plays Norwegian ski jumping coach Bjorn. On filming the punch, Temte said: " You have to make sure you don't hit his nose. Because it costs too much money if you hurt a movie star. "But he's very gentle, he makes me relax. It was good. We did it a couple of times." The Norwegian actor continued: " In Norway, we love Eddie Edwards from the 80s, so for me it was like - 'Oh wow, I'll be in a movie based on his life!' "They loved him then, they love him now. As someone who, against all odds, can actually succeed. I think it's an important story to tell today. Done in a very nice, feelgood British way."

A pivotal scene in the film involves Jackman's character being punched by Rune Temte, who plays Norwegian ski jumping coach Bjorn. On filming the punch, Temte said: " You have to make sure you don't hit his nose. Because it costs too much money if you hurt a movie star. "But he's very gentle, he makes me relax. It was good. We did it a couple of times." The Norwegian actor continued: " In Norway, we love Eddie Edwards from the 80s, so for me it was like - 'Oh wow, I'll be in a movie based on his life!'"They loved him then, they love him now. As someone who, against all odds, can actually succeed. I think it's an important story to tell today. Done in a very nice, feelgood British way." (Belfast Telegraph 17/03/2016)