Skarsgard Quotes & Sayings

If you're a great documentary filmmaker, it doesn't necessarily mean that you're a great narrative filmmaker. There are fantastic documentary filmmakers that can't direct actors. You don't have to do that in a documentary, if it's a real documentary. — Alexander Skarsgard

A character on screen that's the 'good guy' or the 'bad guy,' they're never interesting. There's got to be an internal struggle, the duality is important to find. — Bill Skarsgard

Norway is a small country, about half the size of Sweden, but it has a very good film climate because they have municipal cinemas, so even in the smallest towns you have a cinema that shows art house films from all over the world. — Stellan Skarsgard

You can never connect on a deeper level if you idolise someone - you don't see the real person. — Alexander Skarsgard

Even the most despicable person is still a human being. — Stellan Skarsgard

My height can be a problem. A lot of directors and photographers are sometimes not happy because I'm pretty tall and especially if I work with short actors the difference can be pretty massive. — Bill Skarsgard

We don't live. We're miming in the choir. — Stellan Skarsgard

When I was four or five, I would organise my cars and my action figures. I needed some kind of structure, I think. — Alexander Skarsgard

You have to make sure that you find projects that are not too similar and roles that are not too similar, so the challenges are new and you still learn things. I still think I can become a much better actor. — Stellan Skarsgard

I don't think that people in the world, in general, have too many chances. — Stellan Skarsgard

When we were shooting in Shreveport, me and a couple of friends went down to Lafayette, because they had a big Zydeco music festival down there. We spent two days dancing to Zydeco music, eating fried alligator ... It was one of the craziest festivals I've ever been to in my life, but I loved it. — Alexander Skarsgard

To be with Derek Jacobi and Stellan Skarsgard, it's a master class in acting every day. — Richard Madden

Life isn't one-dimensional. The world isn't simply divided into good versus evil. I think we're all capable of both. — Alexander Skarsgard

I spent two months in Fredericksburg, Texas, when I was 8, while my father shot a movie, and I loved it. I just embraced the whole cowboy culture. I got myself a pair of awesome boots and a cowboy hat. — Alexander Skarsgard

A true artist, in my mind, is willing to fail sometimes, because if you're not brave enough to say yes and follow your gut, it's never going to be good. — Alexander Skarsgard

Norwegian kids, they grow up well educated in film. So they have a lot of good directors there. — Stellan Skarsgard

I'm pretty intense when it comes to relationships, platonic ones as well. If I feel a connection with someone, I'm willing to go there. — Alexander Skarsgard

All directors are control freaks and very obsessive. I get the feeling that directors as kids, they all have had a childhood with not too much contact with other kids. They constructed their own reality and they continue to do it. It's a funny breed, directors. — Stellan Skarsgard

To me, it's all about inspiration. What gets me creatively excited is a challenge. — Bill Skarsgard

In terms of jobs, I'm an actor. There's gotta' be depth there. I'd never say yes to something just to play the hot guy. That's not what I'm interested in. — Bill Skarsgard

The way I look at humanity, I don't think there's good guys or bad guys. We're all potentially bad and potentially good. — Stellan Skarsgard

TV is a very sensitive thing. If you're not happy with what you're doing, I don't think you should do it because you will do it for awhile. — Bill Skarsgard

People don't want to read subtitles. — Stellan Skarsgard

I'm not interested in parts where they are looking for a good-looking guy. I want to be a weird little sidekick in a crazy comedy and then play like a dark drama or a thriller. — Alexander Skarsgard

Swedes are such a civilised, perfect society - at least on the surface. There's a great safety net, a huge middle class, free education, free health care. People are very polite, they wait their turn. They're not too loud, they're not too quiet, but sometimes it's a little too perfect. — Alexander Skarsgard

All the characters I play are all inside of me in a way, and they're all different, the darkness, the lightness, whatever that is. — Alexander Skarsgard

Being followed is weird, that people want to discuss where I ate lunch or what I wear when I go to lunch ... the private life is just gone. — Alexander Skarsgard

I play Father Francis in 'The Exorcist Prequel.' It's fantastic. We are shooting in Morrocco and Rome. Paul Schrader is directing; Stellan Skarsgard plays the younger Max Von Sydow character. It's just a fantastic script. It's a very eerie, very scary script. It encomposes a growing dread that I think is really appropriate for the film. — Gabriel Mann

Casting a film, you can have the greatest actors in a film and it doesn't work. It's a combination of all of the elements. — Stellan Skarsgard

Theres nothing more reassuring than a world thats crazier than you are. — Stellan Skarsgard

If you are with someone who is awesome and having a good time, you can sit at a bus station and still have fun. — Alexander Skarsgard

Every culture has their myths that people are aware of and share. — Stellan Skarsgard

It's really nice to go down to an extremely low-budget movie, but that is very daring and courageous and try something different, where the roles usually are more complicated. — Stellan Skarsgard

It was such an amazing experience to be able to spend nine days on a boat with these Greenpeace people. Some of them were scientists and some were crew members working on the ship. Just to hear their stories, like what drew them to Greenpeace in the first place and what they've been through. Every single second of the day they work to save the planet, which makes me as an actor feel quite insignificant. — Alexander Skarsgard

When I read a script and have my first interaction with this character, do I feel like there's something I'm gonna' learn here? If I feel like it's something I've done before, then what's the incentive for me to do it? — Bill Skarsgard

Why do I love being naked? Because I was born that way? — Alexander Skarsgard

I treat everyone as equals. I can't work if I'm not having fun, and I can't have fun if not everyone is happy. — Stellan Skarsgard

I love working with Alexander Skarsgard. He brings such gravity to a scene. — Nelsan Ellis

For me, creatively, I'd suffocate if I played the same thing, over and over again. I want challenges. I want to sit down with a director and be like, "I've never done this before, but it's going to be exciting. It's scary, but really thrilling, so let's do it!" — Alexander Skarsgard

When you work with someone you don't quite know, you have to figure the director out and you can come up with ideas that are counter-productive. — Stellan Skarsgard

I never help my kids and I never encourage them and I never give them any advice. — Stellan Skarsgard

I don't want to ever think that I don't know what to do. I want to deal with my own things, to perform my own roles, to be like, "I did this." — Bill Skarsgard

It's funny: it takes a while to really get your character. It's impossible to do it on the first day. That's the same way in films; if you start shooting a film, maybe a couple weeks in, you're like, "Ah! Now I think I really get him." — Bill Skarsgard

There's something I love about how stark the contrast is between January and June in Sweden. In a way, I feel that time doesn't exist in LA. Sometimes I don't know if it's February or April or October, because you're always sitting outside on the same patio, and it's 70 degrees. — Alexander Skarsgard

To turn off your phone when you go to your country house or you're on vacation for a few days is important. I turn off my phone and just check it once a day. I turn it on and, if it's an important message, I'll call back. Otherwise, it can wait. — Alexander Skarsgard

My plan was never to be an actor like my father. — Alexander Skarsgard

Whether I'm interested [in something] or not, step one is read the script and figure out if a character is someone I'd want to explore or not. — Alexander Skarsgard

What intrigues me is that people kind of naturally want to label or pigeonhole the characters. They want to make it easy for themselves to go, "All right. There's the good guy, there's the bad guy, there's the girl. Okay, I get it now." But life isn't one-dimensional. The world isn't simply divided into good versus evil. I think we're all capable of both. So any time the hero does something I'm not crazy about, or the bad guy does something I can relate to, I'll find it more interesting. — Alexander Skarsgard

Acting was always there, it's true. But for a long time, in my teenage years, I wasn't sure about it - not because I didn't like it, but I didn't want people to think I hadn't earned it. — Bill Skarsgard

I started acting long before I decided to pursue it. I started acting as an amateur when I was a kid, but I wanted to become a diplomat. It was self-centered and weird, but I had this idea of going out in the world and solving conflicts and making the world a better place. — Stellan Skarsgard

I needed to be myself and find my own identity. — Bill Skarsgard

I'm not very active on social media. I'm not on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, or anything like that. But I think it's wonderful that they're out there. They're fantastic. I have a lot of siblings and friends that use it, and it's great for them. It's such a connected world. — Alexander Skarsgard

I'm in Stockholm in my office. I just got here after seeing my eighth child on an ultrasound, so I'm in a good mood. It's beautiful: an energetic little skeleton. — Stellan Skarsgard

Actors are different. Some actors play themselves very successfully, but I come from the theater. Having done Shakespeare, we sometimes did three or four characters in the same play. — Stellan Skarsgard

There is no overacting, only untrue acting. — Stellan Skarsgard

Life is crazy. You travel and you're busy and there's so much going on that it's important to have the moments where you can breathe and you can just be present with the person or the people that you're there with. — Alexander Skarsgard

There was a Russian director named Elem Klimov, who did his films during the communist days. They were constantly struggling with the authorities and to be allowed to express themselves. But he did one of the best war movies I've ever seen - it's called 'Come and See.' — Stellan Skarsgard

It's difficult to get to know a Swede. But once you do, you're in. — Alexander Skarsgard

A hipster is someone who's very aware of his style. — Alexander Skarsgard

I've done so many sex scenes in my life and it's much easier to do a funny sex scene than a sex scene that is supposed to look like it feels. — Stellan Skarsgard

I'm not always happy when Hollywood does remakes of films, but that's usually, when they have a very, very, very good film and they take away anything controversial from it and make flatter. — Stellan Skarsgard

As an actor, what's interesting is what's hidden away beneath the surface. You want to be like a duck on a pond - very calm on the surface but paddling away like crazy underneath. — Alexander Skarsgard

I've been a member of Greenpeace since I was a teenager. — Alexander Skarsgard

I love having 30 shots of every scene. — Stellan Skarsgard

I worked with Lady Gaga for a day on a video shoot. It was crazy; we had a lot of fun. I had a great time. — Bill Skarsgard

It takes a long time to make me beautiful, but it goes fast to make me ugly. — Stellan Skarsgard

In movies we tend make things black and white: you're either this, or you're that. — Bill Skarsgard

We don't have paparazzi following you in Sweden. — Alexander Skarsgard

I don't fall often, but I fall hard. And when you fall hard, it takes a while to get up. — Alexander Skarsgard

I have three older brothers, and each one of them has chosen one of my parents' education. Two of them are actors, and the third is a doctor as my mother is. — Bill Skarsgard

I can deal with it now, but 13 is a tough age to be recognized and famous. It's a tough age, period. — Bill Skarsgard

I'm an actor and I love to find new collaborations and new characters where I can grow as an actor and human being. — Alexander Skarsgard

One of the beauties of 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' is the very delicate and strange relationship between the two main characters. — Stellan Skarsgard

I played a heap of snow in a school play. I was under a sheet, and crawled out when spring came. I often say I'll never reach the same artistic level again. — Stellan Skarsgard

I've lived in California for six years and I've never surfed. — Bill Skarsgard

I come from a family of pacifists, so it's not like I was going to join the war. Sweden is not like the States or England where you might get sent to Afghanistan next month. — Bill Skarsgard

I'm not lazy on set. I'm lazy in the rest of my life. — Stellan Skarsgard

I see myself as most people see themselves, you have good days and bad days. I don't think I'm better looking now than I did three years ago. — Bill Skarsgard

I wasn't like a Hollywood child actor - 'I'm five! I can sing, I can dance, I can act! I wanna be a star!' — Alexander Skarsgard

Unfortunately, the way the world is constructed, a lot of people have no chance, from day one. — Stellan Skarsgard

I'm always looking for something that's real and that's got meat on it. I think it's artistic suicide if you're too vain, or if you're afraid to play ugly. I would never fall for that. — Bill Skarsgard

You can use the internet in a way that's actually really great. It doesn't have to be about how amazing you are, or "Come watch my show!," or "Look what I'm wearing today." It doesn't have to be narcissistic. — Alexander Skarsgard

When I'm on a plane, people know where I'm going before I even know where I'm going. People know where you had lunch yesterday, or who you had lunch with. So, trying to avoid sharing everything with everyone is my way of keeping something private in my life. — Alexander Skarsgard

Personally I don't believe in bad people. I think there's always a reason for people acting badly. — Bill Skarsgard

I'm from Sweden. We don't wear clothes in Sweden. — Alexander Skarsgard

Sweden is a small country and, well, our family's pretty prominent in that world, I guess. And I really didn't like the sound of just being 'the fourth acting Skarsgard.' — Bill Skarsgard

I have to be careful because there is something destructive within me, I think, and I can have a tendency to just search for the kicks. I can't really get too close to someone who's too destructive, or too dark, because then I might go down the rabbit hole myself. — Alexander Skarsgard

A lot of times we associate Greenpeace and climate change and shrinking polar caps with heavy-handed, weighty material. It's somber stuff. But with Funny Or Die we thought we could put an interesting take on it. Make it a little more palatable, especially for young people who tune into the website. — Alexander Skarsgard

If a real God were actually so vain as to constantly demand worship, then he would not be worth it. — Stellan Skarsgard