Vikings: Valhalla’s Frida Gustavsson Details Season 2 Pregnancy
Warning: This article contains spoilers for season two of Vikings: Valhalla.
Season two of Vikings: Valhalla presented a new challenge for star Frida Gustavsson.
While the Swedish actress underwent extensive training to portray shield maiden FreydÃs EirÃksdóttir in season one of the Netflix drama, she had to shift the way she carried herself in the new season as her character transformed from Viking warrior to expectant mother.
“I don’t just fight, I fight while pregnant and wearing a dress,” Frida told E! News about her season two transformation. “I worked really closely with Susan O’Connor Cave, our wonderful costume designer, and we broke down the entire arc of the season of how far along is she in the pregnancy.”
She continued, “And then we worked with the prosthetics team to create prosthetics that would weigh the appropriate amount of where I was in the stage. It really shifted my center of balance and made me have learn how to fight again.”
As for how she felt while filming with the fake baby bump? “I felt so protective, because it changed everything about my physicality,” she recalled. “All the sudden, my feet started turning a little bit more outwards, because the belly was weighing in and that shifted how my hips set. It changed how I walked. Instinctively, I’m standing holding my belly. And, for everyone on set, they had to remind themselves that I’m not actually pregnant.”
