Alexander Skarsgard Interviews – “Generation Kill” and “True Blood”

I came across these interviews with Alexander and I want to post them here because he talks a bit about his role as ‘Eric’ in True Blood. The interviews are mainly about his role in Generation Kill, which should be awesome. What really caught my eye was when Alexander mentions his “love for the Chicago Cubs of Stockholm soccer, Hammarby IF”. As a die-hard Chicago Cub fan, this struck close to my heart. We’ve been waiting 100 years for a shot at the World Series and here is this soccer team who’s fans have waited 104 years! Now that’s long suffering. It gives me hope, though. Hey, Alexander, can we talk?

He won the approval of the Marine he plays in HBO’s ‘Generation Kill.’ He’ll soon play a vampire.
By Michael Ordoña, Special to The Times
July 19, 2008

Waiting in the lobby of the Beverly Hilton, the lanky, laid-back Alexander Skarsgard bears little resemblance to the stoic, super-efficient U.S. Marine he plays in HBO’s miniseries “Generation Kill,” airing on Sundays. In his loose-fitting clothes, sandy blond pageboy and one-day stubble, the reported five-time Sexiest Man in Sweden honoree looks more likely to hit the beach than the enemy.

Perhaps the authenticity he brings to his role as real-life Sgt. Bradley Colbert comes in part from his stint in his homeland’s military but, he says, “It’s . . . Sweden. We shoot flowers. I mean, we haven’t been in a war in almost 200 years. I was training for something I knew would never happen. Who’s going to invade Sweden?”

If Skarsgard’s name rings a bell, it should: His father, Stellan, is one of Sweden’s most famous actors (“Ronin” and “Mamma Mia!” among about 100 others).

Starting himself as a child actor, Alex took a break from the craft for schooling and military service. When he returned to the screen at 20, he amassed nearly 30 credits in 10 years. But he admits his steely performance as Colbert, nicknamed “Iceman” for his cool under fire, was his greatest challenge so far.

“Colbert’s such a confident guy, he knows that he’s good. I had to bring that into the [audition] room; if I didn’t feel that, how were they supposed to feel that?” Skarsgard says. “So I convinced myself I could do it. But then when I got the part, I got terrified. Suddenly, I was sitting there with 400 pages of script and the book and reading all these long monologues and the language was so difficult, all these words I didn’t understand: ‘Oscar Mike,’ ‘RTO,’ what is this?”

For Colbert in particular, Skarsgard says he carries a “tremendous amount of respect. I wanted him to be proud of the project. But I also realized I had to make ‘Brad Colbert’ in the show my own,” he says. “I was extremely flattered when [Colbert] said he liked it. That meant so much to me.”

It’s heady stuff, making a painstakingly accurate drama about events so current the smoke is still rising from the barrel. “I hope that people will realize that hundreds of thousands of men and women are over there and this is what they go through on a daily basis,” Skarsgard says. “The good stuff and the bad stuff, the collateral damage and just the . . . feeling of being shot at.”

Now that he’s back from seven months of camo in the desert, Skarsgard will don Dolce & Gabbana as a suave, 1,000-year-old Viking vampire for Alan Ball’s upcoming HBO series, “True Blood.”

In theaters next year are the animated fantasy “Metropia” and the British comedy “Beyond the Pole,” about “two morons walking to the North Pole.” Skarsgard liked the script but the biggest draw was shooting in Greenland:

“I wanted to experience silence. I’ve never experienced that. In my country, there’s the wind in the trees, you hear animals, birds somewhere. It’s so . . . amazing how compact the silence was. It’s like your ears are going to start bleeding, almost. It’s so intense.”

Whenever possible, Skarsgard indulges in his (usually) doomed love for the Chicago Cubs of Stockholm soccer, Hammarby IF, which won its first title in 104 years in 2001.

“It’s like a curse, being born a Hammarby supporter. Now that we’re pretty good, it’s not right. ‘Really? Is this happening?’ ” says the Sexiest of Swedes, soon to be known in the States. “But I could get used to the sweet smell of success.” ~ Source.

Hal Boedeker | Sentinel Television Critic

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – Alexander Skarsgard walked away from celebrity once. He won’t be doing that again.

“I was working as a child actor in Sweden until I was 13, then I quit,” says the son of actor Stellan Skarsgard. “I didn’t like the fame. I didn’t do anything for seven years. I turned down everything. Then, when I was 20, I missed it. I wanted to try it again.”

Skarsgard says reading about himself as a teen made him very confused. “I think I can deal with it better than when I was 13,” says the actor, who is 31.

He’ll inspire a lot of talk in coming weeks. He has a star-making role in HBO’s Generation Kill, a fact-based, seven-part miniseries at 9 p.m. Sundays. Then Skarsgard portrays Eric, a thousand-year-old vampire, in HBO’s True Blood, a drama series debuting Sept. 7.

Oh, and there’s his looks: The blond, 6-foot-4 performer frequently has been voted the sexiest man in Sweden.

“He’s gorgeous. The camera loves him,” said True Blood executive producer Alan Ball. “He’s a sweetheart. He brings the role to life. A lot of guys would come in and decide to play the role as a tough guy. He plays it very understated, which really works. It makes him that more menacing.”

Skarsgard brings a quiet authority to his role as Sgt. Brad Colbert in Generation Kill, which is set in the early days of the Iraq war.

“We were very cautious about casting Colbert. He is the moral and psychic center to the piece in a lot of ways,” executive producer David Simon said. “Alex had a presence.”

The production’s attention to detail extends to Skarsgard’s wearing a back tattoo.

“It’s Colbert’s. I don’t have that. It’s fake,” Skarsgard said.

Generation Kill is Skarsgard’s biggest project yet in this country — he lives in Los Angeles and Stockholm. His other credits include Zoolander, The Last Drop and Kill Your Darlings. He joins True Blood as Eric in the fourth episode. TV critics are raving over that series at their summer tour here.

“Eric is a really important role in the show,” said Ball, who adapted the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris. “It’s the one that Charlaine’s fans seem to be most interested in who they were going to cast, even though they were pitching professional wrestlers and models. I was very pleased to find Alex and that he was willing to do the show.”

Eric is the boss of the Louisiana area where the story is set. Skarsgard tosses in a Swedish line every so often although the Nordic vampire has lived in this country almost a century.

“It’s one of the main characters in the books,” Skarsgard said. “He’s probably going to be featured a while.”

Like the actor himself. ~ Source.