Alexander Skarsgård tells Café’s Markus Wilhelmson about the want for revenge, money, detention (for drunkenness), parents separating and next prestigious series – Six Feet Under-creator Alan Ball’s True Blood.
It’s pure hell to find a knuckle of pork with mashed roots at restaurants in Los Angeles so Alexander Skarsgård has therefore been circling in his environmentally bad city jeep (for sale) around restaurant Pelikanen on Söder in Stockholm for almost 40 minutes.
He can’t find any parking so we keep driving along Götagatan, Östgötagatan, the worst raggarroad [raggare are Swedes who drive around in circles in smaller town – hard to explain, but you know a raggare when you see on]). I suggest other places – cafés, pubs, restaurants, park benches – but Skarsgård only wants to go to Pelikan.
He wears a Bajen scarf in a perfect Stockholm knot and red sneakers. He is 194 cm and fit like a marine soldier. You feel like a fat dwarf by his side. It would be easy to hate him if he wasn’t so nice. He arrives on time. He offers bubble gum. He tells about when his life took a new turn.
In May last year Skarsgård was his way from Los Angeles to Stockholm. He was going to spend the summer in Sweden, with his family, on the country cabin on Ljussterö in Stockholm’s skärgård and on the “standing stands” on Söderstadion. He looked forward to following the victories of Hammarby towards yet another allsvensk [all Swedish] football gold (Skarsgård is at this time of the season convinced that Bajen will take the SM-gold [SM = Swedish championship]. He is convinced even when the club played division one [which is the second best division]).
His agent Alex Irwing called and told about a filming that was going to start in Namibia in two weeks. A prestigious project: HBO superseries Generation Kill – produced by Ed Burns and David Simon, the man behind the acclaimed The Wire. Making the “based on real life” tale about a group of American soldiers during the first weeks of the invasion of Iraq in 2003 is estimated to cost 500 million kroner. When HBO, with Sopranos and Six Feet Under, decides to do something, it’s serious.
“They want to meet you in New York next week. Read the book. This is worth fighting for. You would fit just perfect in the role”, Alex Irving explained.
It turned out that Skarsgård was auditioning for the leading role, officer Brad Colbert, called Iceman because of his ability to stay calm when the platoon are being shot at. Skarsgård went through a metamorphosis. In a week he changed from Swedish pacifist to American killing machine.
He auditioned three scenes. Afterwards the caster Alexa Fogel asked what his plans for the summer were. It felt good. Often Skarsgård only heard “Thank you! Next” and then he would know that he blew it.
Now he was told to wait in New York. Two days later they called again. They wanted him to go to London the next day and audition to Susanna White, one of the directors. Same three scenes.
Back in New York. Waiting for a new call. After three days they called and asked him to present himself to David Simon and Ed Burns in Baltimore, where The Wire is made (60th and last show was shown in March).
After a few days they called again. Forth audition, in New York, with Simon, Burns, Susanna White and Alexa Fogel.
A day later they contacted him: “In two days you are sitting on a plane to Namibia. You will be home in seven months”.
How did you react?
– I was scared shitless. It was a fucking scary feeling. It felt like I had been successful in tricking them during the casting process. Now when they believed in me it was like the Emperors New Clothes [a fairy tale from Hans Christian Andersen], that they would find out I was naked. I felt: “Shit, can I really do this?” Now I had to prove myself.
Why did you become so nervous?
– I had tried to convince myself that I was the only one who could act this part. I was forced to go in with that self confidence, that I was awesome. I couldn’t doubt myself because then they would never buy the fact that I was the one.
What happened when you came to Namibia?
– We went to a boot camp for ten days with American Marine Corps soldiers. It was combat training, man to man, wrestling, running, shooting practice, weapon technique. We learned how to march, radio communications, maps. It was pretty hot in the desert of Namibia.
Did you ever feel that the others questioned the fact that you are not American?
– It lay very heavy on me that I had so much dialogue and that it wasn’t my mother tongue. But a few days before we were going to start shooting, I was out jogging at 8 o’clock a Sunday morning in the beach in Namibia and then I met Ed Burns, he looked at me and said: “You are Brad Colbert”. Then I thought that now I didn’t have to doubt anymore. It was enormously important to me to get that security, because I was so fucking insecure.
Why was it so hard for them to find someone for the part?
– They hadn’t met me yet.
Alexander Skarsgård had been waiting for a challenge.
For months he went on auditions in Los Angeles to get parts he really didn’t want.
– I had started to lose my courage. For a long time my agent only sent me to bad projects. Teenage horror movies with storylines my twelve year old brother could have made up. Like: “Five kids in a house in the woods. 200 years ago a man lived in the house and now he is killing the kids because they wear blue clothes and he doesn’t like blue because he was a sailor and hated the ocean”. I had to read through scripts like that and came to a point where I had to make up my mind. Either tell my agent that I didn’t want to do shit like this, or start prostituting myself and go there and scream: “Oh, my God!”
Why didn’t you just say no?
– It’s hard when you are with a big agent and you don’t work. You don’t make them any money and if you start saying no to going to auditions it will be incredibly tough in the long run. You can hear it when the agent calls and it is ice cold, but he says that it could be good to go there because the producer is there and even if I don’t like the script it could be useful because they have nice things going sometime later in the summer. That’s the way it can sound.
So what did you do?
– I went there poorly prepared because I wasn’t very motivated when I read the script.
And you still didn’t get the part?
– No, and I didn’t deserve it. It they were shitty parts, so I didn’t care, but there have been some smaller indie movies that I would really have liked. Of the major movies I was close to get the part as Angel, the guy with wings in X-men. It was a pretty stupid movie, but it would have been cool to do. If I had bellowed every time I had a no in Hollywood, I wouldn’t have stayed long.
Have you been close to giving up?
– For months I wondered what the hell I was going to do if nothing better showed up. I couldn’t sacrifice everything at home and rent a house and car in Los Angeles and audition for shitty parts. What brought me my motivation back going to Actors Studio. There are a lot of unserious, semiserious and serious acting schools in LA. But Actors Studio is a company where you are selected. They have classes four times a week where actors get to act scenes out of for instance Othello and then you discuss the scene afterwards. No prestige, just intelligent, creative people who want to develop.
One day Martin Landau (Oscar awarded for the part as Bella Lugosi in Ed Wood) could be moderator. Cool, old foxes. It was inspiring too go there when everything else was bullshit.
Have you felt the pressure of not having landed any good parts?
– Yes, of course. Every time I had been to Los Angeles and went home to Sweden without having landed any parts, I was in a bad mood.
What made you stay in LA?
– The fact that I never got the parts I wanted in Sweden. I was going to be 30, and all the scripts I got were still about teenage guys with love trouble. Romantic comedies in a high school environment. Definitely not what I wanted to do as an actor.
Can one call it revenge? Or the overused ”international breakthrough”?
Call it what you like. One thing is certain:
After Generation Kill Alexander Skarsgård will never again be offered parts as the high school hunk.
He was born in Råksta, a suburb between Blackeberg and Vällingby, August 25 1976. When he was six months old the family moved to a rental in Blekingegatan on Söder. This was ages before Percy Barnevik bought an apartment by Mosebacke, 30 years before SoFo became SoFo [Edit: Söder was not a “nice” neighborhood when AS grew up there. Now it’s very fashionable and nicknamed SoFo].
There is no doubt that Skarsgård has been formed by the neighborhood he grew up in. Not just because he was threatened in school if he ever cheered for any other team than Bajen, but mainly because his friends came from humble backgrounds.
– No one had successful parents. There were a lot of single mothers. Some had alcoholic parents. We had almost no money. My mum didn’t work and my dad went on a low theater wage. We had tin cans with tea that I used as drum set. They were my best toy for years. I thought they were so fun. As long as none of the neighbors have a radio-controlled car you have a lot of fun with the little you have. It isn’t until envy comes in to the picture, that you start to be sad.
But he does remember the father of a friend who was a civil servant and drove a Saab.
– He went for work at eight in the morning and came home at 17.30. I glanced jealously at my friend and thought it seemed so fantastic, that he had a father who was home at night and had a suit. My dad was like always naked and drank “rödtjut” with weird artist souls. He rehearsed at daytime and acted in the evenings. When he came home he was totally beat. It was not a perfect family situation.
Alexander Skarsgård cell phone is ringing.
– Sorry. Hello! Hi! I’m in an interview, you know. Did you land in New York, or what? Fuck how cool. Talk to you later.
It happens to be daddy Stellan who is in New York to do PR for Mamma Mia, the musical with among others Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan.
Did you revolt against your parents?
– Me and Gurra [brother Gustaf] revolted in different ways. He was more of a rebellion, screamed and fought and confronted them. I just shut them out. My room was close to one entrance of the apartment. Mum and dad’s room was in the other end. I sat in my room with my friends, drinking homebrewed beer, listening to punk, went out on town, came home at night and went to sleep. In the morning, I grabbed a sandwich in the kitchen and went again. We didn’t have any close relation at all when I was a teenager.
How long did that occur?
– Four-five years, till I moved from home when I was 19. I wanted to live my life, thought they were just a burden.
How did they handle that?
– They were probably a bit worried. I went out a great deal and became pretty messed up. They couldn’t come close to me. They tried, but it’s fucking hard as a parent if your teenage child decides to shut them out. The more they tried the more I turned my back at them and went. Every time they started – “Do you have a girlfriend?” – I was just: “See you later”. It wasn’t their business. I lived my life, I just happened to live in the same apartment.
Did they have any cause for their concern?
– (Silence) No, I don’t think they had. I was pretty messed up, but it ended up OK, after all.
Messed up, type drunk and disorder prison?
– Yes, something like that. My dad had to pick me up at Solna prison one morning. I was 17. First he didn’t say anything. He just looked me over. Then he said: “You are an intelligent person. You know what you did last night and how fucking stupid that was, so I don’t have to yell at you”. And he was right. I had this fucking anxiety. He knew I felt incredibly bad about it.
Are you aggressive when you drink?
– I have a nice beer temper, but I ended up in environments where it became messy. I tend to defend my friends when someone ends up in trouble. My temper could turn around quickly. I was never aggressive, but if there was already testosterone in the air I was often mixed up in it. But it’s a long time ago. I don’t expose myself to situations like that anymore. Weird parties with a crowd from Solna who are Gnagare [fans of the football team AIK].
Have you tested drugs?
– Yes.
What did you test?
– I don’t want to talk about it, but I have tested.
What is your contact with Gustaf like?
– Today my contact with all my siblings is good. I am four years older than Gurra. When he was 14 - 15 he was the most troublesome individual in the whole world. Contrary. We had nothing in common. He was hip-hop and I was a rock dude. Then my family bought an apartment by Mosebacke. Me and Gurra moved there. Then everything turned for the worse. We had totally different lives and friends. It became way too intimate, we came too close to one another. But as soon as he moved it was fine. As soon as we had a little distance to one another we started to see what we had in common.
Skarsgård has to go. He is going to Södra theater and see friend Fares Fares guest star in Özz Nujens talk show on Mosebacke.
- I’m going to stand in the back of the room and shout sex words, he says and jumps into the jeepmonster.
One month later we meet on Gondolen, Erik Lallerstedt's luxury restaurant 11 floors up from Slussen
in Stockholm. “A place to see, see each other and be seen”, according to the website.
Alexander is seen immediately.
- Jaha, you are here charging before the derby, our waiter says.
- Exactly, it’s here the Bajen fans are warming up. The other 3000 will be here shortly, Alexander answers.
He is probably one of few who can blend in among the ties on Gondolen in his t-shirt and order “A brewski” without it being strange.
He looks back at his career and doesn’t regret any of the parts. Not Marcus in Vita lögner, not Micke in Hundtricket, not Ingmar in Dykaren, not Anders in Järngänget, not Johan in Vingar av glas, not Kalle in Om Sara, not Geert in Kill your darlings or Meekus in Zoolander, even if Ben Stiller blew him up after a few minutes. It is how he has handled his celebrity that makes you wonder.
- I said yes to way too much, I could see myself in ten covers in Pressbyrån (kiosk). No one was curious about seeing that guy in a movie. I was everywhere with the same puppy dog look. I am so fucking tired of that hunk thing. I am much pickier now.
The character actors Skarsgård admires – Sean Penn, Daniel Day-Lewis, Philip Seymour Hoffman – are all keeping a safety distance to the media.
Personal? To some extent. Private? Never..
– One doesn’t know shit about them. It is so easy to become more of a celebrity than an actor. Not to be seen everywhere can create interest and mystique. I’m scared to death of being overexposed again.
Your father has had a good relation to the media.
–He has always tried to be fair, honest and offer everything, but still nothing.
One year ago Stellan Skarsgård reacted strongly on an article in Aftonbladet with the title “Married couple Skarsgård's recipe for a long marriage: We wait out the crisis.”
The problem was that My and Stellan were already separated. According to Stellan more employees at Aftonbladet knew about it. He wrote an open letter were he questioned the purpose of the newspaper by making him “ideal husband, dream father and nuclear family icon”. He ended the letter with:
I write this so I won’t have to “talk about it” in the evening newspapers and I am still going to let my private life be private. Have a nice summer. Stellan.
It was a clever way to be ahead and kill speculations.
- I was not in Sweden at the time and was told everything over the phone, but he handled it well.
How did you handle their separation?
– I thought it was great that it ended up the way it did. They weren’t doing well over the last few years. I understood that it would be a tough period when they decided, but they will be better friends by not living together. I have never understood the point of being together for the children. Children can feel vibes. To grow up in a family where the parents don’t love each other, but it’s quiet and they don’t argue because they have an understanding for the sake of the children, I think is much more harmful than a fucking stormy breakup where both parents can find happiness with someone else.
What is your relation to your father now?
– We have this level where it is almost more common that I argue with him than the other way around. There have been a thousand things to deal with both emotional and practical after the separation and I meddle quite a bit. I have to, dad is scared of me so he listens.
When Alexander is in Stockholm between filming he now stays in mum My’s computer room. He has been single for a year and a half.
- I find it hard to fall in love, he says.
Why?
– I’m scared.
Of being hurt?
– Partly that, but also because I run away from everything tying me up. But I run away slower and slower
What does it take for you to fall in love?
– An attractive woman with self distance, there is nothing sexier. Drunken girls at four in the morning do not turn me on.
He looks out the window.
- Fuck! It is starting to rain.
Dark clouds have pulled over Riddarfjärden.
It will probably be rather wet at Råsunda [football field] tonight.
Alexander Skarsgård was only eight years old when he made his debut as Kalle Nubb In Åke och hans värld, but on his way into the teens he was convinced that public life was nothing for him. He hated media attention. Didn’t like when people looked at him in the streets. Wanted them to like him because he was a nice guy, nit because they had read about him in a newspaper. He wanted to become an architect.
As the oldest out of six siblings he rarely followed daddy’s filming and had already moved out that morning when Robert De Niro ate breakfast home at family Skarsgård. (He has met De Niro later and doesn’t find it as hard to picture “Bobby” on Söder: “He is a fucking mixed up guy").
In the army (marine, 15 months) made Skarsgård think. 280 days in a tent gives you some perspective on life and he decided. He missed acting. He was 20 and more mature to handle the attention. He moved to Leeds with a friend. They lived in a basement without a window and heat.
- We barely had any money and the little we had was spend on beer. It was a fucking weird place. We
shared the bathroom with the others in the house. One character with long grey hair looked like the
killer in Twin Peaks. He sat in his room and had loud arguments with himself. One flight up David
who had made a prayer corner with the Swedish flag and framed pictures of [queen] Silvia, lived. He
had smuggled drugs to Sweden for almost 20 years and was obsessed with Silvia.
From Leeds he applied to acting school Marymount in New York. He lived with a 55 year old Filipino clothes designer called Renè.
- He rented out a number of rooms and I noticed that only 20 year old guys moved in. When I came
home and sat and studied he thought I seemed tense and wanted to give me a massage. He knew I was straight, but he refused to give up hope. Every day he came crawling on all four, inching in and trying to get something. I told him: “Rene, stop it. I’m not going to suck your dick, you know what’s on”.
After half a year Alexander Skarsgård moved back to Sweden. He had met a girl in Stockholm. He was passionately in love and decided to bet all on love. Two days after he landed she broke up with him.
- Fucking ironic. I had dropped out of school and couldn’t move back. New York is a rotten place to be a poor student and unhappily in love. You are eaten up. I was so fucking unhappy. That whole spring was tough as hell.
One love did survive anyway. He was now convinced that he wanted to become an actor.
Almost a decade later he is finishing his biggest role as yet.
Skarsgård flies back and forth to New York for something that in the jargon is called ADR.
– Automated Dialogue Replacement – and means that you sit in a studio and read your lines to already filmed scenes where the sound wasn’t good enough.
– You sit on a stool, feed lines and drink Ramlösa. I’m divided on how I feel about it. It is hard to recreate a scene you did six months earlier.
During the Generation kill-time Alexander didn’t take ”one day off in seven months”. When the other guys in the team went out for beers he stayed at the hotel to prepare the scenes for the next day or work an hour with “dialect coach”. He was so focused on the part that he even talked English with Swedish Ulf Brantås who also worked on the filming.
– I hardly called home, even though I missed people there. I needed to live in this bubble. To me it was no hard decision. I couldn’t allow myself to be bad in even one scene. It would create self loathing.
What did Generation kill mean financially?
– Hardly any money at all. All the actors got minimum wages. Why? Because it is HBO and they don’t have to pay more. And because they wanted unknown actors. I didn’t get rich, but I would have paid to participate.
During filming he was told about a new major role, in Six feet under-creator Alan Balls new series True Blood (premieres this autumn, also on HBO). It is based on the book series Southern Vampire Mysteries, and is about the revelation of vampires having lived fore a long time side by side the inhabitants of a town in Louisiana and that vampires demand the same rights as the humans have. The action is around a waitress who falls in love with one of the vampires.
- It is paralleling the racial conflicts in the USA in the 60s. I think that was what made Alan Ball start this, Skarsgård says.
He has the part of Eric, a Viking who became a vampire a thousand years ago and who has seen a lot.
What’s the difference between him and Brad Colbert?
– Apart from Brad not having fangs? Eric is cocky, has a flashy suit. Runs a club and drives sports cars. Brad Colbert is the guy who can sit in a corner for five hours and work on something. Eric sits on his throne and enjoys attention.
Skarsgård is better paid for True Blood.
– Before Generation Kill it was a little hard for my agent to say: “He has to have a shitload of money because he acted on Hundtricket.” Now she can demand a little more.
What do you think this turn will mean for your career?
– It’s dangerous to think too big. Even if it is HBO and two major series, you never know. It might not be as good as I hope. But I don’t want to sit and be a pessimist and say that you shouldn’t expect anything. I understood in two seconds that this was the biggest job of my life,
He orders “another brewski”.
Three hours to kick off and it has stopped raining.