There are five main abdominal muscles in the human body. And in Vikings: Valhalla, each and every one of them is on display. 

The bare-chested Nordic brawlers flaunt a veritable gallery of abs. You can witness the whole set: the external and internal obliques, the transversus abdominis and rectus abdominis, and the pyramidalis. This constellation of musculature gets so much screen time, it deserves its own end credit. 

It’s a familiar scene across seasons: A tunic-less Harald (Leo Suter) arrives to a fight, showcasing a sculptural stomach in the exact formation of King’s Hawaiian sweet dinner rolls. And like those bulging bread buns, he, too, is buttered up. 

Bernard Walsh/Netflix

“I’d got in really good shape in Season 2,” says Suter. “And then in Season 3, [the producers were] like: ‘No, we want to go superhero mode for this season.’ We filmed this two years ago, [and now] I don’t recognize the person who was in that routine of waking up at four in the morning and still putting in a workout.” 

Suter goes full He-Man for a simple reason: He was about to get Hulked. “It should be said that, with each season, my nemeses seemed to get bigger and bigger,” Suter says. “And in Season 3 we got Big Nasty [Florian Munteanu, who plays megabuff, uber-grumpy general Maniakes], a former heavyweight boxer, 6-foot-4, full of muscle.” 

But where does that sweaty, celestial sheen come from? Is it a blessing of the pagan gods?

Bernard Walsh/Netflix

No, it’s the work of an ab latherer, who gets those six-packs shining. 

Behind the scenes of Vikings: Valhalla, there’s a team charged with perfecting that golden aura. Meet Tom McInerney, a makeup and prosthetics designer at Ashford Studios in County Wicklow on the east coast of Ireland, where the production of the series takes place. Suter has glowing (see what we did here?) reviews of his ab fab friend: “Legend. What a superstar!”

The Emmy-nominated makeup artist’s work extends far beyond abs, of course. He’s the main man when it comes to tattoos, too. 

The makeup team prepares Leo Suter's body for the fight sequence.

When Suter’s perpetually shirtless Harald goes head-to-head with a foe, McInerney gets up in the actor’s business to reapply those tats. “Tom basically puts a film of plastic through aerosols all over my arms to keep the tattoos safe,” says Suter. And when those faux scars start falling off, yep, that’s McInerney’s responsibility. “The most disgusting thing is sweaty silicone beginning to disintegrate, and Tom has to squelch it into a ball and put it in a bag.” Sam Corlett, who plays Leif Erikson, also designed most of his tattoos with McInerney.

McInerney caught up with Tudum to share secrets behind the holy glow emanating from those Viking bods. It’s a very serious subject, and McInerney is a very serious guy. So let’s let the good times swole. 

Bernard Walsh/Netflix

How long does it take to film a shirtless fight scene with more finely chiseled physiques than the Met Museum? Set the scene for what that day of work looked like.
The day starts at about 5 a.m., the previous morning. Leo comes in to work withered as a beanstalk and angry as a rattlesnake fit to bite! It takes us hours to make him into what you see on the screen. All those muscles are prosthetic, gel-filled appliances fitted on to friction bearings that slide seamlessly over a spandex suit that hides his gray frame from the delicate eyes of the viewing audience. We paint in every single muscle, whiten his teeth, put his hair in rollers, and start the vocal exercises early. In the case of the fight [in Season 2, Episode 2], it must have taken us hours (what felt like weeks) to build the Adonis you saw before you in the ring. Massive team effort. That handsome, lighthearted, bare-knuckled brawler you saw was all makeup!

[Checks notes] Tom ... I don’t think that’s what happened. Leo is all natural — he even once told us about his workout plan. 
OK, you’re right. It actually took five days all-in, I think. We shot it out of sequence. In fact, the last scene of the fight when Harald is talking to his uncle, Yaroslav, we shot first, before the fight had been fully choreographed. So we were on the back foot in terms of how much damage Harald had received, we had a lot of makeup inferencing to stick it all together. Often, the best way to approach a scene like this is counterintuitive and backwards.

Makeup and prosthetics designer Tom McInerney (right) prepares to apply Leo Suter’s ab glow mixture, which includes glycerin and water.

What magical substance do you use to make those Viking abs shine like the brass of a brand-new doorknob?
It’s a special mix of unicorn tears, mixed with pure Irish mountain water from the highest spring in Ireland, delivered to us here in Wicklow (“the garden of Ireland”), where it’s distilled thrice by the studio execs before being hand-delivered by the director to the makeup room, where it’s mixed with one part Evian, one part rainbow, and two parts glycerin, for added moisture. It’s then handed to the key makeup person, who distills it into a silver atomizer that Leo insists on using, and then we’re off to the races. Takes hours to make.

Thomas McInerney. No. It. Is. Not!
Just kidding, the real stuff is glycerin and water, and we apply it with a simple aerosol hand-pump sprayer. Very common, easy to buy, usually takes moments to apply on set, usually right before the director screams, “Action!”  

What is the best small-talk topic for when one is slathering another’s abs?
The Nasdaq, world peace, climate change, politics, and religion. All in that order. Lighthearted stuff, really.

Bernard Walsh/Netflix

If one has a dad bod that’s shaped more like an avocado, what are your tips for faking abs so you don’t have to work out? Asking for a, ahem, friend.
There are many, many solutions. Most involve some sort of magic or incantations. You can buy great off-the-peg muscle suits from Amazon these days, or alternatively, you can buy Leo’s muscle suit from us. We’d have to clear it with Netflix of course, but it’s good to go. Only one previous owner! Or alternatively: Eat your greens, ditch the beer, and do a few push-ups every day?

If Beowulf is to be believed, dudes of yore like the Vikings slammed mead like none other. Would all those carbs make them unlikely to have awesome abs? Or would all that rowing help to keep them svelte?
It’s all about the calories: The Vikings were strict aestheticians, and calorie counting was common amongst the various tribes of Northman, in particular those that inhabited the region near the Volga River around the 10th century. So, in short, they cared about how they looked all the time, worked out six times a day on strength and conditioning. So I can assure you that Beowulf and his kin all had abs.

Tom, I can't seem to find that on Wikipedia …
Well, OK, the real history tells us that Vikings, like the Romans, ate healthy, and by and large their food was completely unprocessed. Likely they were lean as rip cords. Their healthy(-ish) teeth are evidence of this, though it’s hard to tell. [Ed. note: Tom is actually right here, bless him. Vikings had intricate hygiene practices! And some sweet teeth mods too.] If you were a warlord, though, your Viking days may have been behind you, and a sedentary life may have packed on the pounds.

Bernard Walsh/Netflix

If you don’t have a six-pack stomach — something more like a keg — is there a kind of stencil you can add that will simulate having more than one ab?
Yes, you can get it at Costco. Go to the Vikings aisle, it’s beside the war axes in the hunting section.

Speaking of stomachs, what was the process for creating Freydís’ belly bump in Season 2?
That was all acting. There was no belly bump. What you saw was Frida [Gustavsson] acting like a pro and creating the belly bump out of sheer acting skill and force of will.

The costume designer, Susan O’Connor Cave, helped her manifest a baby through deep breathing exercises using the Wim Hof Method, and the rest was all Frida. She’s really talented and the smart one of the group.

Thoooomas! 
It was actually the costume department that made it for Frida ... We had very little to do with it. 

Let’s talk beards briefly. What’s the process for affixing a faux beard to a Viking face?
Yak hair, glue, and a lot of patience. We use the hand-over-fist technique, one hair at a time, and make sure the hair cuticle is facing south. Makes for a more streamlined performance. No yaks are harmed; however, there are many, many bald yaks grazing in the hinterlands of China at the moment. Very undignified.

Bernard Walsh/Netflix

[Sighing] Tom. Please, for the love of Thor …
All right, we actually shingle the hair into place, much like how you would lay tiles on a roof, and apply them literally one by one. Most, if not all, the beards on the show were laid by hand using glue and patience.

True or false: Fake face fur is called a beard merkin?
Yes. Yes. That is in fact true!

OK, no, it’s not. I’ve only ever heard of fake face fur used in reference to Wookiees, but that was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. 

A fake beard is just called ... a fake beard. The technical term is a ventilated facial hairpiece. A merkin is a wig used to cover the unspeakable regions of the body for reasons of modesty — and/or often a false view of historical accuracy based on a 21st-century cognitive bias in relation to hygiene, vanity and sociohistorical paradigms. [Ed. note: The Viking’s 13th-century Eddic poem, Reginsmál, even says, “Combed and washed every thoughtful man should be.”]

Who is more ticklish, Leo or Sam Corlett?
I actually don’t know. The Vikings weren’t really into tickle fights — at least we couldn’t find any historical references to battles won by laughter. 

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.