Stellan Skarsgård on acting:

Actor Stellan Skarsgård may be well-known in Sweden – his picture is prominently displayed at the airport – but he dismisses that it is a big deal. “Sweden is a small country!” he laughs.

He’s self-effacing, and while Skarsgärd was recognized during our stroll through his hometown of Stockholm, respectful, shy Swedes may help keep any Hollywood-actor-ego in check. Skarsgärd noted, “They don’t say like Americans – OH MY GOD, IT’S YOU!!!”

He’s recognizable from any number of roles over the decades, from Hollywood blockbusters (“The Hunt for Red October,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”), popular streaming shows (“Andor”), European art-house fare (“Breaking the Waves”), and even an ABBA musical.

I said, “This morning I was watching you singing in ‘Mamma Mia’…”

“Oh. Watching is okay, but listening to it?” Skarsgärd laughed. “I’ve tried to get into projects where I enjoy myself and have a fun time. And that’s why I’m not bored. I made 150 films. I still love it, you know?”

“It seems impossible to make that many films,” I said.

“Well, some are very short.”

His break came at age 16 on Swedish television, in “Bombi Bitt och jag.” Now, at 74, he’s reached a new high, in the Norwegian film “Sentimental Value.” He plays a once-successful filmmaker trying to reconcile with his estranged daughters.

He described getting the role as a chef’s kiss.

“You think this is the best role for you ever?” I asked.

“Maybe – I don’t know,” Skarsgård replied.

He picked up a Golden Globe for his performance just last week. 

He has many moments in the film where the camera just watches him, where he’s not saying much, but he is saying a lot with his expression. “I love that stuff,” he said. “Movies, real movies are not literature. Cinema to me is what happens in the image. Not what is said; what is not said.”

In the film, he plays a father of two. In real life he’s the father of eight. All live nearby, and all have worked in the film industry, five of them actors. “It’s insane,” he said of the “family business.” “I mean, what is the chance? I didn’t encourage them. They have no illusions about the business. They see I am I’m happy and I’m enjoying what I’m doing, so they probably learn from that.”

He playfully sparred with one of his sons, Alexander, when the two were nominated for the same Gotham Award last year.

Alexander: “‘Sentimental Value,’ beautiful film. You play yourself, right?”
Stellan: “That’s an insult.”
Alexander: “Absentee father.”

I asked Stellan, “Did you ever find that you had difficulty in balancing family and career?”

“I sort of made sure that I was at home a lot,” he replied. “You can’t be a perfect father always. I mean, you gotta accept, and the kids have to accept, I’m flawed. Good luck!”

At Stockholm’s Royal Dramatic Theatre, he recalled appearing in Moliere’s “The School of Wives,” but stumbled on the name of his co-star. “That’s what I’m talking about,” he said. “Had a stroke. That makes me forget my language, forget words, and that makes me more stupid and makes me less funny and everything.”

“Do you really feel that? Less funny?”

“I felt so funny before.”

“Must be tough.”

“Yeah, well, I’m 74 years old, and I’m alive.”

Since that 2022 stroke, he wears an earpiece on set to help with lines. “It’s actually more complicated than learning the lines, because the prompter has to say their line while the other actor is talking,” he said.

He wore it while shooting “Sentimental Value,” a film about the pull between career and what’s really important. 

Skarsgård said, “I’ve had kids in the ’70s, in the ’80s, in the ’90s, in the ’00s, and in the ’10s.”

I asked, “Do you learn more from having kids for five decades, or making 150 films?”

“Maybe I couldn’t have made 150 films if I hadn’t have eight kids to learn from,” he replied. “I stole things from them. Like, expressions and the sort of naive attitude towards everything. Just watching them is fantastic.”

It’s a curiosity in humanity that Skarsgård explores, and expresses, through acting. “It is like being a child,” he said. “You never grow up. You’re allowed to play all the time, even as an adult.”

“Is that how you feel now?” I asked.

“Yeah. It’s make-believe, and kids in the sandbox, they do it all the time. And they shouldn’t stop.”

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Watch an extended interview with Stellan Skarsgård (Video)

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Story produced by Robert Marston. Editor: Emanuele Secci.