The Witcher's Night Shoots Took A Major Toll On Anya Chalotra

The process of shooting a TV series or a movie can be a highly taxing activity for both the cast and the crew. Besides the oftentimes strenuous timetables, there are also a whole bunch of reasons why some scenes and some days can be way more exigent and depleting than others.

Things on the set of Netflix's "The Witcher" are no different. While some days are a breeze on set, others leave the professionals involved utterly fatigued. In a video interview with Stream Wars, when being asked about the toughest days on set during Season 2, Freya Allan and Anya Chalotra, who play Princess Cirilla of Cintra and the sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg, respectively, did not have much difficulty coming up with moments and scenes that were unbelievably demanding. Without much hesitation, both actresses remembered distinctly the particular shooting days — and nights — that took the biggest toll on them.

Allan described her "worst day" on set as being part of an extremely taxing six-day week, and the scene in question involved a lot of people. At the end of the day, Freya Allan explained, she felt drained of all energy and emotionally frustrated. Although this particular scene was incredibly challenging, she characterized the rest of the time on set as "lovely."

Following up on Freya Allan's account of her toughest day on the "Witcher" set, Anya Chalotra proceeded to recount her most difficult days, or, in her case, nights. In Season 2, Yennefer had quite a few scenes that took place during the night, and for the actress who portrayed her, these were by far the hardest to get through.

"For me, it was whenever there was a night shoot," Chalotra said. "I find night shoots really hard because I'm cold. I say this every interview, but I genuinely do really suffer in the cold and I can't think, so it's really difficult." The actress also referred to herself as a perfectionist, a quality that was at odds with the fact that she could not completely commit to saying her lines due to the low temperatures.

Speaking to The Guardian, Chalotra expanded on how her perfectionism influenced her view of her performance and the role she played: "I suppose because I exposed so much of myself in season one – it was actually fulfilling, because it just means I have done everything now – I really have shown so much of myself to the world, and being a perfectionist I'm like: well, I've done that bit now. I've done the 'learning in public'. Am I better now? I dunno. We'll see."

Hopefully, Chalotra didn't suffer as much from the cold when filming the forthcoming and highly anticipated Season 3 of "The Witcher."