Anya Taylor-Joy embraced tough shoot on The Northman

Anya Taylor-Joy enjoyed being pushed to her limits on the set of 'The Northman'.

The 26-year-old actress stars as Olga in Robert Eggers' historical epic and relished shooting in the cold and the mud in Northern Ireland.

Anya told Variety at the Los Angeles premiere of the movie: "I do not complain ever really.

"There was one day when the mud came up to about my knees and it had frozen. I essentially squeaked out a 'Please can we roll?' and Robert was like, 'Oh, Anya is asking if we can roll, we should roll.' But we did it, it's in the movie and it looks great."

Anya says she has fond memories of filming despite the tough conditions.

The 'Queen's Gambit' star explained: "I don’t usually watch the behind-the-scenes of things that I have done, but on this movie a friend of mine sent them to me and I just have the biggest smile on my face every single time you see me. I just loved it. I loved being pushed in that way."

Anya's co-star Alexander Skarsgard explained that the cast had physically and mentally challenging experiences on set – particularly when his character transformed into an animal.

The 45-year-old actor said: "There's one scene in which there's a shamanic transformation, a ritualistic scene in which our characters, the berserkers, basically transform and leave their humanity behind them to become their spirit animals.

"My character's name is Bjorn Ulfur, which means Bear Wolf, so he basically transforms into a hybrid of a bear and a wolf. That was not easy."