According to Hemsworth, this isn’t just a personal choice for him as an actor, but a reflection of where Geralt is emotionally at this point in the show.
“I wanted it to be able to show these moments of him opening up a little more,” Hemsworth told IGN. “My interpretation of this character is Geralt is a deeply empathetic person. As much as he’s lived a very isolated life, and is reluctant to open up to people or be vulnerable with people, apart from, say, Ciri and Yen and Jaskier… [At] this point in the story, we’re really seeing him go through a lot of changes. So I wanted to earn those moments. Because when we find him, he’s dealing with doubt. He’s struggling. He’s really unsure about himself… He’s injured right now, so he’s unsure whether, even if he does find Ciri, if he’s actually going to be able to save her, if he has the strength and the ability to save her.”
Featuring a Geralt who is more emotionally expressive than the traditional grunts and growls we’ve come to associate with the character isn’t just a stylistic choice either. For Hissrich, depicting joy in the face of despair is an important element of the story the series is telling, no matter how dark it might get.
“There is nothing better than when Geralt finds joy and humor, especially in the people that he’s with,” Hissrich said. “We have a producer, Tomasz Bagínski, who is Polish and who has spoken from the very beginning about how important it is that even in these stories of war and violence and misery, that people continue living their daily lives, and that it’s normal to joke, to deal with trauma, it’s normal to have good conversations, to smile, even when things are going to shit. And so that was really great to see in dailies again, that we were able to bring that flavor back.”
The Witcher season 4 premieres October 30 on Netflix.
