Alexander Johan Hjalmar Skarsgård (Swedish:[alɛkˈsǎnːdɛrˈskɑ̌ːʂɡoːɖ]ⓘ;[1] born 25 August 1976) is a Swedish actor. Born in Stockholm, son of actor Stellan Skarsgård, he began acting at age seven but quit at 13. After serving in the Swedish Navy, Skarsgård returned to acting and gained his first role in the US comedy film Zoolander (2001). He played Brad Colbert in the miniseries Generation Kill (2008), and had his breakthrough for portraying vampire Eric Northman in the television series True Blood (2008–2014).
Skarsgård was born on 25 August 1976[2][3] in Stockholm, Sweden.[4] He is the eldest son of actor Stellan Skarsgård and physician My Skarsgård.[5] His parents are divorced.[6] He has five younger siblings: Gustaf, Sam, Bill, Eija and Valter, and two half-brothers from his father's second wife, Megan Everett.[7][8] Gustaf, Bill and Valter are also actors.[7]
A friend of his father, a director, gave Skarsgård his first film role when he was seven years old, playing Kalle Nubb in Åke and His World (Åke och hans värld).[9] In 1989, his lead role in the Swedish television production Hunden som log (The Dog That Smiled) earned him praise and brought him to prominence in Sweden at age 13.[10] Uncomfortable with the fame, he quit acting at that same age.[11]
At age 19, Skarsgård applied to perform his national service. He served in the Swedish Navy's SäkJakt ("protect and hunt") unit that dealt with anti-sabotage and anti-terrorism in the Stockholm archipelago, for 18 months.[12] After completing his service in 1996, he left Sweden and attended Leeds Metropolitan University in England for six months. He enrolled to study English but admits he did not study much and "had a blast" instead.[7][13] While there, he considered pursuing an architecture career, but chose acting instead.[6] In 1997, he enrolled in a theatre course at Marymount Manhattan College and moved to New York City. He returned to Stockholm after six months, but his time studying theatre confirmed to him that he wanted to act.[7][14]
Career
2001–2009: Career beginnings and television breakthrough
On his return to Sweden, Skarsgård began landing roles in film, television and theatrical productions.[7] While vacationing in the United States, he auditioned for and obtained the part of a mindless model in the 2001 film Zoolander,[15] his first role in an American film.[6] In 2003, his performance in Hundtricket-the Movie (The Dog Trick) earned him an Guldbagge Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He was named the Sexiest Man in Sweden five times.[9]
He moved to Los Angeles in 2004 but continued to work in Sweden.[16] His break came when he was cast as US Marine Brad Colbert in the HBO miniseries Generation Kill. An adaptation of journalist Evan Wright's book of the same name, Generation Kill follows the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion of the United States Marine Corps during the early part of the Iraq War. Director Susanna White wanted to cast him, but executive producer David Simon was not convinced he could do a convincing American accent. After four auditions in three cities, Skarsgård learned the role was his just 36 hours before he had to board a plane for Namibia where the project was filming. The cast and crew spent seven months in the desert there, shooting six days a week. Skarsgård worked with a dialect coach to master the American accent.[7][9][17]
Just before leaving to shoot Generation Kill, Skarsgård heard about the development of True Blood, an HBO series based on the Southern Vampire Mysteries novels by Charlaine Harris,[18] which chronicle the coexistence of humans and vampires in a town in Louisiana.[19] Though initially reluctant about playing a vampire, he sent an audition tape for the role of Bill Compton on learning that screenwriter Alan Ball was behind the project.[18] Skarsgård had been a fan of Ball's series Six Feet Under and film American Beauty. The role went to Stephen Moyer, but Skarsgård was cast as Eric Northman, a 1,000-year-old Nordic vampire.[18] Northman first appeared in the first season's fourth episode,[20] and the role brought Skarsgård to prominence.[21] To inform his portrayal, he studied the work of actors Max Schreck and Bela Lugosi and the film Nosferatu.[22] He said that playing Northman appealed to his preference for characters who were not simply diabolical or righteous.[11]True Blood ran on HBO from 2008 to 2014,[23] receiving mixed reviews.[19]
In 2009, Skarsgård appeared in the music video for pop singer Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi".[18] He was the voice of Stefan in the 2009 animated film Metropia, directed by Tarik Saleh.[13] In 2010, Skarsgård portrayed Terje, a gay Norwegian trekking to the North Pole, in the British mockumentary Beyond the Pole.[24] Suit-maker Hickey Freeman chose Skarsgård to model a new look it debuted in 2010. Annie Leibovitz photographed the ad campaign, which appeared in The Wall Street Journal Magazine, GQ and Details.[25][26] Skarsgård appeared on the cover of the September 2010 issue of Rolling Stone with his True Blood co-stars Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer.[27]
From 2017 to 2019, Skarsgård starred in the drama series Big Little Lies as Perry Wright, an abusive husband to Nicole Kidman's character, Celeste.[39][40] He described his character as violent due to internal conflicts involving his insecurities about needing his wife.[38] The series earned universal acclaim.[41] Reviewing the first-season finale, The Hollywood Reporter's Daniel Fienberg found Skarsgård's performance "utterly chilling".[42] Skarsgård won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie in 2017 for the role.[43] He starred in the science fiction film Mute as a silent bartender in a futuristic society, which was released in February 2018.[6] Later that year, he starred as a secretive man in The Little Drummer Girl, a miniseries that chronicles political violence in Europe in 1979.[44] It received positive reviews.[45] In 2019, he portrayed a sensitive German architect in The Aftermath, a film set in 1946 post-war Hamburg.[46] He appeared in the romantic-comedy Long Shot as the prime minister of Canada. Critics were fond of the film, with The Guardian's Kristy Puchko commending Skarsgård in the minor role and how he "makes a meal out of it".[47][48] Released in May 2019, it had an unsuccessful commercial performance.[49]
A football fan, Skarsgård supports Hammarby Fotboll, a club based in Stockholm, his birth city.[64] In October 2010, he donated several autographed items to "Bajen Aid", the club's fundraising auction.[65] In July 2011, he received an honorary degree from Leeds Metropolitan University, which he had attended.[66] He identifies as a feminist.[67]
Skarsgård was the Ambassador for the American team for a Walking With The Wounded fundraising event for wounded soldiers.[68][69] He trekked to the South Pole against Team UK (Prince Harry, Ambassador) and Team Canada/Australia (actor Dominic West, Ambassador). A few days into the trek, it was decided that the competition part would be cancelled due to hazardous terrain and weather conditions, so the teams combined forces and continued together, and all three successfully reached the South Pole on 13 December 2013.[70][71]
Skarsgård is in a relationship with Swedish actress Tuva Novotny, and in 2022, the couple welcomed their first child.[72]
^Bhattacharji, Alex (6 September 2018). "Alexander Skarsgård in His Element". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 2 January 2022. Retrieved 18 May 2022. When he was 13, his lauded performance as a coming-of-age teen in Hunden som log (The Dog That Smiled) got him something entirely unwanted—fame, which only deepened his ambivalence about acting.