10 Unusual Demands Made By Actors On Recent Movies

Of the many shocking and deeply unexpected beats that can be found raging through Robert Eggers' recent Northman epic, arguably the most unsettling of the lot came in a moment completely devoid of any violent Vikings bulldozing through a village with an axe in hand.

With Anya Taylor-Joy's Olga of the Birch Forest faced with the disturbing prospect of being raped by a despicable male, the fierce Slavic Sorceress resorts to sticking her hand between her legs and wiping her menstrual blood on the potential attacker. Far from being a part of the script from the get-go, however, Eggers would later reveal to Vanity Fair that this was actually a moment straight from the mind of the actor herself.

And when pressed on summing up the effectiveness of this shocking form of self-defence within his frequently gritty and savage Viking drama, the visionary director would simply claim, "It was great."

With Eggers and cinematographer Jarin Blaschke being famed for their strict process of largely sticking to pre-planned storyboards, the former's willingness to take on Taylor-Joy's inspired suggestions, and likely change up the original plans for the scene, tells you all you need to know about how much the director trusted his freakishly talented star.