He plays an American murder machine in Iraq with a conviction that goes straigh through the television screen. But privately Alexander Skarsgård doesn't like USA's occupation. "There is no doubt that the invation was based on lies", he says.
Alexander Skarsgård, 32, was tires of playing the hunk in Swedish teenagemovies and moved to Los Angeles. That was four years ago. His big, international break through is coming now.
This autum he is in no less than two celebrated series produced by the American television company HBO. First is "Generation Kill", a drama in seven parts about the invasion by USA in Iraq year 2003. The series is based on a book by reporter Evan Wright.
- I was in LA last year when my agent in London called and said I should run and buy the book because HBO was making a series of it. I did what she said and lay reading it all night, completely fascinated by the story. Next day I called and said I just had to be in it, Alexander says.
He tells that he had to travel around and audition in both New York, London and Baltimore before it was decided that he was going to get one of the leads, sergeant Brad Colbert.
- Brad has been in the Marine core for many years and is one of the more experienced soldiers. He is called "The Iceman" by the others because he's so calm under fire. He keeps to himself, but likes to through in a killer of a line when the other guys get too talkative, Alexander says.
The filming of the series were in Namibia. For seven months Alexander and the rest of the crew worked in the desert heat there.
- It was of course tough to be away from family and friends for so long. But somehow I think the project gained from us living so isolated with eachother, he says.
Ten of the days on the job were particularly tough.
- We had a "boot camp" with physical work out, radio communications, weapons training and so on. It was a crash course in being a fake marine soldier.
Alexander found time to get pretty close to his co-actors during the time in Namibia. Of course the story of the series was discussed quite a lot.
- There is no doubt that the invasion was based on lies. And thousands of lives and billions of dollars later, the world is hardly a better place, and the enemies of USA have been multiplied, he says when going into his own views on the events.
Alexander was not alone in thinking that way about the American invasion in Iraq, in spite of the fact that the other actors were almost only American.
- No, the difference wasn't particularly big, he says about the views being aired during filming.
"Generation Kill" premiered in USA this summer. In Sweden it is aired on Canal+, the first episode is broadcast on September 3rd. In October the next Skarsgård-series premieres on Canal+, the vampire drama "True Blood". Alexander plays Eric, a viking who became a bloodsucker a thousand years ago.
- He has been living for a long time in Louisiana where he is running a club for vampires and tourists. Eric has an enormous self confidence. He knows what he wants and how he is going to get it, Alexander says.
From crew-cut tough guy to longhaired diva with fangs, it is. Alexander shows that he can act in a broad repertoire. What is going to happen later is not yet clear.
- Right now I'm living like a nomad, I'm where the job is. I like it quite well, but the situation will of course change when I get a family, he says.
That can take a while though - the movie favorite is still single. But he has his parents and siblings of course. Alexander's dad Stellan and little brother Gustaf are also wellknown actors. It hasn't always been like that. The family had some tough years before Stellan's break through on the silver screen.
- When I was a kid my dad was on a shitty theater wage and mom was home with the kids, Alexander says.
- I'm not going to paint a picture of how we sat freezing in a one-room apartment and ate bark for dinner. We didn't have much, but more than we needed.
Götgatsbacken on Söder in Stockholm was the address.
- Of course this was way before time of the café latte and the design shops. When I was a kid there were only second hand bookstores and angry Finnish drunks on Götgatan, Alexander says.
His upbringing has colored his view in politics.
- I'm definitely more to the left than to the right, he says.
- It's our responsibility to at least very familiar with things if we want a functional democracy. The most important question right now...that Sweden is to be in the forefront of the ecological revolution that has to be implemented if we are going to have any future on earth.