One Scene In The Witcher Season 3 Had The Cast Crying Tears Of Pain
The cast of "The Witcher" truly went on a journey of extreme temperatures in season 3. When Ciri actor Freya Allan wasn't baking in the 114 degree heat of a Moroccan desert while wearing a fur-lined outfit, she was freezing her toes off in the tundra.
Anya Chalotra, who plays Yennefer of Vengerberg in the series, explained that "The Witcher" season 3's opening arc was filmed in Slovenia. Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer are laying low at the dwelling of their old pal Yarpen Zigren in a snowswept landscape surrounded by mountains and a lake. That snow was very real, as a photo shared by producer Steve Gaub on Instagram can attest. Per Redanian Intelligence, the early days of production on "The Witcher" season 3 were centered on the border of Italy and Slovenia, including a pair of glacial lakes called Laghi di Fusine.
"It was very cold, and on the second day of shooting I remember bawling my eyes out because I couldn't feel my feet, so that was when my journey began this season," Chalotra recalled in an interview with The Digital Fix. "I remember bawling my eyes out too because I was like, 'This is just too much!'" Allan echoed.
Toss a hot water bottle to your sorceress
Filming in all types of weather is nothing new for "The Witcher," which has taken its cast all over Europe throughout the last three seasons — from the mountains of the Lake District, to the jungles of La Palma island. Film and TV productions can bring a lot of money into a country's economy, create work for local crew members, and boost tourism down the line, so there are generous tax relief incentives offered to qualifying productions. Slovenia, for example, offers cash rebates of up to 25 percent.
While the end results can be fantastic, shooting on location also presents a lot of challenges: unpredictable weather, the inflexible hours of sunrise and sunset, and, occasionally, actors bursting into tears because their toes are turning into little blocks of ice. In the fantasy genre, the bar for pain and discomfort has been set pretty high by "Game of Thrones," whose actors filmed in -40 degree weather across Icelandic tundras when their characters ventured north of the Wall. Reflecting on the hellish 11 weeks of night shoots for the Battle of Winterfell, actor Maisie Williams admitted, "There are moments you're just broken as a human and just want to cry."
Recalling the day of the frozen feet in an interview with PopBuzz, Chalotra said that it was "probably the most challenging" scene she had to shoot for "The Witcher" season 3, since it was at the very beginning of the shoot: "Started crying. Bawling, in fact. Swore a lot. I had to stay in a tent and warm my feet up."
Suddenly, a bit of fire magic doesn't sound so bad.