Michiel Huisman took "months and months" to master corralling pigs for ‘The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society’.
The 36-year-old actor plays farmer Dawsey in Mike Newell’s new movie and he admitted he was nervous about getting as close as possible to the swine.
He explained to Grazia magazine: "It took months and months of rehearsing.
"Dawsey has a special connection with animals. So, we were shooting it in a very intimate way, camera really close and it was just the pig, the camera and myself.
"Mike was saying, ‘get closer, I’m not getting it’ and I was like, ‘My god, do you see how big this animal is?"
Michiel has a 10-year-old daughter, Hazel, with his partner Tara Elders and he doesn’t think he’d have been able to convincingply play a single father in the movie if he wasn’t a dad himself.
He said: "I had a lot of scenes with this wonderful little girl and I wouldn’t even know if I would be able to do that if I didn’t have that experience as a father."
Parenthood has given the former ‘Game of Thrones’ actor a new focus for his career.
He explained: "Before Tara and I had a child, I don’t think I had such a sense of purpose or direction.
"And all of a sudden, I understood that I was an actor not only because I love making movies, but also because it’s how I can provide for my family. I like that grounding."
The Dutch actor famously stripped off in his role as Faario Naharis in ‘Game of Thrones’ and he has no problem with nude scenes.
He said: "Someone’s gotta do it. I think it’s much more prevalent in European cinema – definitely in Dutch cinema.
"At the end of the day, it’s just my job. But now I’m going to just shut up because otherwise people are gonna be like, ‘Hey, so what else did he do?’"
Michiel Huisman took ‘months’ to master corralling pigs
