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"Vikings" is a new, nine-part series created by Michael Hirst ("The Tudors") that premieres this Sunday (March 3) on History and delves into the mysterious Norse shipbuilders, explorers and warriors whose brutality was matched by their ambition and sophistication. The series centers on Ragnar Lothbrok (Travis Fimmel), a young Viking whose thirst for adventure and riches pushes him to explore the uncharted world west of his people. That puts him at odds with Earl Haraldson (Gabriel Byrne), the local chieftain who rules with a cold hand and is threatened by Ragnar's aspirations.

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Watching from the shadows is Siggy, Earl Haraldson's wife, whose quiet demeanor hides political and personal calculations of her own. Siggy is played by Canadian actress Jessalyn Gilsig, well known for her lead or recurring roles on hit series such as "Glee," "Heroes," "Nip/Tuck" and "Boston Public." MSN TV spoke with Gilsig exclusively about "Vikings," her character and what it was like to explore this enigmatic and surprising swath of history.

MSN TV: The words "Lady Macbeth" came to mind as we watched your cha! racter. Would you call that a fair assessment?

Jessalyn Gilsig: That's fantastic you could say that. Gabriel and I talked about Lady M a lot. He was such a fantastic collaborator, Gabriel, because really from our first day where we sat in our thrones in the Great Hall, we immediately started talking about who this couple was and that he who had this position of power had to be a collaborative effort. And I think that although she's very quiet, you know, as the show begins, which I think makes a lot of sense, she's present and watching and absorbing. And there's really nothing she doesn't see.

There's something about historical pieces where there are large emotions and large stakes at play, and you seem to really get a lot to work with as an actor.

There are just so many assumptions made about the Vikings because there's no knowledge about them. We have no information and Michael wanted to humanize them. So there are these large themes and people are moving really big pieces and it's all a political game. And at the same time, you know, you're talking about love and you're talking about betrayal and you're talking about jealousy and hope and lust and all of those emotions that transcend time and that are relatable to anybody.

Will we see some other sides of Siggy come to light? Maybe some other hidden motivations over the course of the next nine weeks?

Oh, yeah. I mean the journey that I went through over the nine weeks was probably a major transformation and a very abrupt change of direction. And what was really exciting about it was that, you know, Siggy is tested in probably in the deepest way that anybody can be tested. And we learn about her. What Michael wrote for her was that this woman just cannot be beat. When all the forces are working against her she has this ego, this tenacity of a lion and she will always, always, always fight her way through.

Ragnar is based on a real-life leader. Was there any historical! preceden! t for the Earl or Siggy? Is there any relation to people who may have existed in real life?

Yes, we had some evidence that they're loosely based on a family, and one of the best resources for me was a burial site that they had found, and also some drawings of a woman who would have been in her position at the time. What was so helpful for us was that in spite of all these preconceptions that we have about Vikings that they were just filthy and, you know, never bathed and had no grooming, in fact, a woman in her position was very deliberately dressed, you know, quite lavishly and very deliberately so and had these really intricate and complex hairstyles and then this really intense makeup that was almost like a mask. That was so helpful to me because I thought of this woman and these artifacts that they found as my guide of someone who was very deliberate about public appearance.

There's a stereotype of these big, brawny Viking men and yet apparently the women were also very strong. They could get divorced. They could own property. They could ascend to positions of being rulers.

That's what was so exhilarating. That was so exciting. It was very different from where we seem to be with what the position of women were and the voice that they had in their families -- even their physical strength which you see in Katheryn (Winnick)'s character so much. And then in my character I think it's an illustration of sort of the intellectual strength and respect that women had at the time, which is something that, you know, somewhere along the way has been suppressed. So it's really exciting to explore how different society really would be if 50 percent of the population actually had as much influence as the other 50 percent.

You mentioned that Katheryn (who plays Ragnar's wife) does get into some action. Do you get to see any action as the show goes along?

Yeah, I got to do a little bit of killing ... we have a lot of death, obviously, in the sh! ow, and i! t was really fun to think about what our relationship to mortality would be and what it would be like to watch a beheading or be a part of a murder. One of the things that Michael really touches on in an interesting way is that there's also evidence that there was a code in society. That there were justified killings and there were killings that were not justified. And those would be assessed. There was a justice system that people would have to go through.

When you're in costume and Gabriel's next to you in costume and you're on these sets it's got to almost feel like you're like living these lives for real. What role does that play in just helping you as an actor to feel immersed in this culture and in this world?

That's a great observation because when you look at the show, the production design and wardrobe is so thorough, and the hair and makeup is so thorough that, in fact, when we would step off the stage into reality and you'd see somebody walking by in jeans, it really threw you. As an actor that support is so valuable. For me to look over at Gabriel in that cloak and for me to be sitting in these clothes that have been hand sewn and are so intricately made and so beautiful, you really want to rise to the level that everyone else has brought into the room. And I feel like everybody did that. The whole world was supported by every department and, therefore, as an actor you felt supported and you could take that risk of really kind of embracing that position.

Working in Ireland and being in a country that has its own very ancient history has got to add to it, as opposed to walking out of a soundstage in L.A.

Yeah, absolutely. We were in the Wicklow Mountains. I mean, the view from my dressing room -- I can't even tell you how many pictures I took of it every day because in Ireland the light is ever-changing because they go through so many weather cycles just in one day. The shifting of the light also gave us a sense of place that -- I don'! t even kn! ow if we could have manufactured it.

Most of your scenes so far have been with Gabriel. What's it been like to work with him?

I just got so lucky to work with somebody who wanted to collaborate and really wanted to explore the nature of the marriage and to build into it all the complexities that a relationship would have. ... There's an indication that he's impotent and that, as a result, she's probably looking elsewhere to satisfy certain needs. I felt like you could have just spent so much time even just exploring that dynamic. He was really comfortable with guessing that there was a co-dependency between these two people. I personally think his performance is so exceptional and unique and humanizes what could have just been a brute and a loud character when, in reality, you're looking at a man who is going through a terrifying chapter of life where he's losing his confidence.

Now that you've finished shooting "Vikings," what are you looking ahead to?

Well, at the moment I'm about to go on a festival tour with a film that I produced called "Somewhere Slow." I'm really excited about it. It's an independent film that I produced last year and we're just doing the festival circuit with that. It's my little passion project. And I just wrapped on "The Good Wife." And other than that I'm just actually excited -- we did "Vikings" in kind of a vacuum over in Ireland and in a very sort of compact period of time, so I'm just kind of excited to see how it plays.

"Vikings" premieres Sunday, March 3 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on History.