#expressen

In reality, Bill doesn't look the least bit diabolical. The hair is well styled in a wavy James Dean bangs and is matched for the day by a knitted white polo shirt with a luxurious glossy sheen. Overall, he rather exudes a mystique, a bit like a movie star from Hollywood's golden era.

Nevertheless, he has repeated in many international interviews that it is something in him that these characters are drawn to:

- The clearest way for me to formulate it is that I attract them, and they attract me.

- It is a special process to be chosen for a role at all. You have to be inspired, but also be right for the role. So you attract each other, says Bill, but adds:

- After all, I have done an incredible number of different types of characters in over thirty films. But since the biggest projects are in a certain direction, like "It", you become associated with it.

In "Nosferatu" you are unrecognizable. Do you like to completely dissolve into a character?

- In some way, that is always the ambition. I like to find a voice, a physical expression. Making "Clark" wasn't me in any way either, even though he looks more like me.

- The challenge is that it is me who expresses the character, while none of Bill must be there. Nothing of a 32-year-old guy from Södermalm can be found in a 400-year-old Transylvanian count.

You usually succeed. My son has a fear of clowns because of you. On the other hand, it has saved me many visits to Gröna Lund...

- Haha. Is it that bad? Clown phobia? But I apologize. One of my childhood friends got it from the previous "It".

- I don't think I've told anyone this, but when he married my cousin, who is like a sister to me, we organized a kidnapping attempt for the stag party where all his best friends were dressed up as clowns. It was the thing he was most afraid of in the whole world. Someone thought it was too shitty, and that he would break down. But it went well. Then I forced him to attend the premiere of "It", and now he is not afraid of clowns anymore.

Does exposure therapy work?

- Yes, that's a tip. Haha.

But "Nosferatu". Of course you were in the running as Hutter, but then the role went to Nicholas Hoult?

- I actually got it. Several years ago. Then the "Nosferatu" fell apart.

How did you react to the news that the role was no longer yours?

- I was broken.

- I would actually have been in Robert Egger's "The Northman" in the role of Gustav Lindh, Bill continues and then describes how pandemic-related circumstances led to a schedule conflict where he prioritized "Clark" and said no to Eggers.

- "Clark", which I helped develop and produce, felt to me personally as a bigger challenge.

- So I explained that I was sorry, but that it was like this. But I didn't know if he was offended.

- Then "Nosferatu" was on again, and he cast Nick and then Aaron (Taylor Johnson) as Harding. So then I wrote an honest and pretentious letter to Eggers with the title "Wisborg in flames".

It pays to be desperate?

- Yes, if the desperation is motivated by something that is true. I meant every word I wrote in that letter, and I think he felt it.

I interviewed your brother Alexander after "Northman". He described it as isolated. How was your Eggers trip?

- It was up and down. I was also very isolated. Self-isolating.

- I lived in a hotel suite in an 18th-century building where Mozart had lived, and you feel that he is sitting in the walls. I walked around this attic and went a little crazy.

- But there was a madness in Orlok that was worth facing. I've talked a lot about my technical methods, but it was also a psychological journey.

The relief after the recording

How has it been to leave Orlok?

- An enormous relief. You don't always feel that way, but the last day of filming was a really tough fucking day. Not performance-wise, but because it was twelve hours in that outfit, and the soles of my feet were the only thing on me that wasn't covered. It means that the body cannot breathe.

- I was close to fainting and had heat stroke. My heart just skipped a beat, and I started thinking about that gold-covered woman in "Goldfinger"…

Who would have been suffocated by the paint?

- Yes, that's not true. But I thought about it. So when I was done, I was so grateful to be free of this evil entity.

What's next for you?

- I'll be home for a couple of days, and then I'll go to Los Angeles and New York for the premieres there, and then home to celebrate Christmas.

The Skarsgård Christmas is supposed to be something really special?

Published 20 Aug 2023 at 23:56, updated 21 Aug at 06:14

Arne Lapidus

Olena Zelenska, wife of the President of Ukraine, talks in an emotional interview about how the family lives during the war - and how close she is to her husband Volodymyr.

- "He's my best friend, he has a fire inside him, and I believe in him 200 per cent," she says on TV4's 'Malou möter'.

Olena Zelenska and her husband, President Volodymyr Zelenskyj, work around the clock to defend and strengthen Ukraine in the war against the aggressor Russia.

During their short visit to Sweden, they experienced the Swedish summer idyll that stands in stark contrast to the suffering in their troubled homeland.

"Can't relax"

- When I sit here on the lawn, it feels peaceful, but unfortunately, it is only for a moment. Even if I get to experience nice moments, I don't allow myself to relax and feel happiness as long as there is a war in our country," Olena Zelenska tells interviewer Malou von Sivers on TV4's "Malou möter" on Sunday evening.

She talks about her commitment to children and women in Ukraine. About a four-year-old who has been raped, about women in a whole village who have been raped by Russian soldiers.

- More than 20,000 Ukrainian children have been kidnapped by Russia. The most terrible thing is that we do not know where they have been taken. We have no answers, we are fighting for the return of every single child," said Ms Zelenska.

- "I hope that we can continue to develop a platform at the international level to create the conditions to bring our children home," she says.

"We are together"

She explains that her own children, a daughter aged 19 and a son aged 10, are going through the same difficulties as their peers. And she is happy that the family lives together, that they have not moved abroad despite the fact that she and her husband were targeted by the Russian attack.

- "Our daughter has finished her first year at university, our son is looking forward to meeting his friends when school starts. I am happy that we live as a family, even if they don't see their father all the time, we are together," says Olena Zelenska in "Malou möter".

She praises her husband for his efforts both as a family man and as a leader of the country.

Honouring her husband

- My husband is my best friend. He is stubborn and confident, and that gives me great hope in these times. He has a fire inside him to keep going even if he is physically tired," she says:

- "I believe in him 200 per cent. Not only because I am his wife but because we have been working together for so many years. He is the one who takes responsibility and acts when no one else dares. We can count ourselves lucky to have such a person as President.

Thanking Sweden

Ms Zelenska also expressed her gratitude for Sweden's political and military support for Ukraine.

- "We feel the support of the Swedish people since the first day of this terrible war of invasion. We hope your support will continue, we need it very much," she said on 'Malou möter on TV4'.