New Interview with Wall Street Journal Magazine: Alexander SkarsgÄrd in His Element (Part 1)
While the actorâs recent roles have taken a more dramatic turn, including his pivotal part in âBig Little Lies,â his outlook is as positive as ever
By Alex Bhattacharji
Sept. 6, 2018Â
AT LUNCHTIME in Los Angeles, the slate-gray sky has an ominous, end-of-days feel. Alexander SkarsgĂ„rd enters Eveleigh, a quiet restaurant tucked away on the Sunset Strip, beaming amid the June Gloom, the annual atmospheric aberration that makes Hollywood resemble the Hebrides. âItâs great,â he says. âThereâs been so much darkness in my life.â
After all, the 42-year-old Swedish actor has spent the past several days in Monterey shooting the second season of the Emmy Awardâwinning HBO series Big Little Lies. That meant revisiting the role of the chillingly manipulative Perry, who, in SkarsgĂ„rdâs hands, fused sex appeal and sexual violence, leading man and monster. Still reeling from the first season of the acclaimed drama, SkarsgĂ„rd has embarked on a bender of ever-bleaker projects: The Aftermath, with Keira Knightley, a romantic drama set in the ruins of 1946 Hamburg, Germany; The Kill Team, based on the real-life story of American soldiers who murdered unarmed Afghan civilians; and Hold the Dark, the Jeremy Saulnierâdirected dramatic thriller (in select theaters and on Netflix this month), which opens as wolves have begun to feed on the children of an Alaska town and gets more desolate from there. SkarsgĂ„rd, as Vernon Slone, learns his son is dead and his wife (played by Riley Keough) is missing, then sets off on a vengeful rampage. SkarsgĂ„rd pauses, does a mental recap and raises his eyebrows. âSo,â he says with a chuckle, âa lot of fâing darkness last year, man.â
Wearing a short-sleeve blue shirt with a camp collar, olive khakis and white Jack Purcell Converse sneakers, SkarsgĂ„rd looks like a â50s matinee idol. And at 6-foot-4, he has the towering physique of an action hero. Perhaps therein lies the confusion. While many in the celebrity-industrial complex cling to the notion that SkarsgĂ„rd is best suited for big summer blockbusters, like Battleship and Tarzan, SkarsgĂ„rd has shifted gears to pursue a run of smaller, more serious projects. âHeâs just exploring the full range of his versatility,â says Jeffrey Wright, who stars opposite SkarsgĂ„rd in Hold the Dark. âWhat is really interesting about Alexâs presence is heâs a super gentle, nice guy, who somehow mixes that with real menaceâa really disarming and dangerous mix.â SkarsgĂ„rd quickly makes clear this extended run of projects is not an indication of his demeanor. In person, heâs quick to laugh, speak off-color and poke fun, most notably at himself. He is unabashed about the fact that he likes a drink and carousing with his friends. And he works to ensure that doesnât change, even after a painful performance.
âI learned early on if I canât switch off and clock out, if I carry it with me when I come home, itâs gonna destroy me and my relationships,â SkarsgĂ„rd says. During production of Hold the Dark, which was shot in rural parts of Alberta, Canada, he would host cast parties with Wright. But the depictions of domestic abuse and sexual violence in Big Little Lies proved harder to shake. The scenes with Nicole Kidman, who plays his wife, Celeste, were perhaps the hardest of his careerâon par with the one in Straw Dogs, in which his character rapes Kate Bosworth, whom SkarsgĂ„rd later dated. While that was one harrowing scene, Big Little Lies was made up of seven unremitting episodes, with SkarsgĂ„rd acting out abuse on a person he cares about day after day. âI was staying with my friends, and they have two kids, 8 and 10. It meant so much to have that lightness, to go home to a lovely family life and hang out and play with the kids just so I didnât spend five months in that darkness,â he says, adding: âThey saved me.â
Kidman wasnât surprised her co-star needed the reprieve. âThe toxicity of the relationship is compelling and also really uncomfortable,â she says. âWhen you deem yourself a character actor, that is saying, âIâm willing to go anywhere and explore anything if the story and performance warrant it.â And thatâs what Alex did.â
Since he was a child, SkarsgĂ„rd has followed a pattern of striking out on his own, blazing a trail but always returning to the people and places he cares about. âHe would run ahead and keep on running as far as he was allowed, then run back,â says his father, Stellan, who has appeared in nearly 100 movies, from Breaking the Waves to The Avengers. âHe has always had a lot of freedom and used that freedom.â
The eldest of eight, SkarsgĂ„rd has four brothers and a sister and two half brothers from Stellanâs second marriage. Three of his brothers have followed him into their fatherâs trade. Gustav, aka Gus, stars in Vikings and Westworld; Bill played Pennywise in It and stars in Huluâs Castle Rock; and Valter is just starting to appear in projects outside Sweden. The familyâs seven-bedroom flat, in the then-gritty, artsy Södermalm section of Stockholm, was also home to uncles and family friends and frequent social gatherings. âIt was very lively, crazy, bohemian and intense,â SkarsgĂ„rd says. âI was studious, I was into sports, I was into listening to music. I just wanted to be normal.â His father, a longtime repertory theater actor before he gained international renown, would roam the house in the nude regularly enough that SkarsgĂ„rd was hesitant to bring girls home. âMy biggest wish when I was 14,â SkarsgĂ„rd says, âwas that Dad would become an accountant, drive a gray Saab and wear a suit to work instead of cooking these weird dishes naked and drinking wine on a Tuesday with artistsâstuff that I love and appreciate about my father now.â
As a child, SkarsgĂ„rd was approached for TV and film parts by his fatherâs friends. âIt was never a decision, it just happened. I never thought of it as, âThis is what I want to do for life,â â he recalls. âI was just like, âItâs great, itâs fun, and I get free Cinnabons and shit.â â 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 unwantedâfame, which only deepened his ambivalence about acting. SkarsgĂ„rd was uncomfortable with the attention, in particular from members of the opposite sex. âI wanted to be like everyone else, to blend in,â he says. âIf I thought a girl was cute, I wanted her to talk to me because she thought I was interesting or nice. Not, like, âI saw that movie.â I thought people only wanted to hang out with me because they liked this movie. So I quit.â
With acting behind him, SkarsgĂ„rd struck out in opposition to his pacifist parents. He enlisted in the Swedish Royal Navy, joining an elite anti-terrorism unit, akin to the SEALs in the U.S., assigned to patrol the Stockholm archipelago. After completing an 18-month tour of duty, SkarsgĂ„rd studied for a semester at Leeds Metropolitan University in England; he then went to the theater program at Marymount Manhattan College in New York City for a term, giving acting another shot following a seven-year hiatus. âMy fear was that Iâd wake up a bitter, old man and say, âI shouldâve fâing gone for it. Why didnât I?â â
On vacation, visiting his father who was shooting a movie in L.A., SkarsgĂ„rd auditioned for Zoolander on a lark. He landed the small but memorable role in the 2001 comedy as Meekus, a male model who perishes in a comical gasoline fight. âIt was a good death,â SkarsgĂ„rd says, with a laugh. He thought everything in Hollywood would come that easily. But for several years after, he didnât get another part. âI questioned being out here,â SkarsgĂ„rd says. ââWhy am I thousands of miles away from my family waiting for an audition?â â
SOURCES:Â ARTICLE:Â ALEX BHATTACHARJI for WSJ (x,x), PHOTO: ANNEMARIEKE VAN DRIMMELEN FOR WSJ. MAGAZINE, STYLING BY GEORGE CORTINA
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