Alexander Skarsgård

Press & Interviews -EricNorthman.net

Conducted over the telephone using Blog Talk Radio on June 11, 2010. Click here to download an .mp3 of the interview.

ALEX: Hey, DeeDee.

DEEDEE: Hi, Alex.

ALEX: Hey, how are ya?

DEEDEE: How are you? I'm doing alright.

ALEX: I'm very good, thank you. I'm a little tired. We worked till like 5:30 last night - in the morning, so...

DEEDEE: Oh, I'm so sorry!

ALEX: But other than that, I'm pretty good.

DEEDEE: Well, good. So this interview's for EricNorthman.net, and there's a chat room full of fans listening right now, who are all telling you hi.

ALEX: Oh, hey, guys!

DEEDEE: I think there's some marriage proposals thrown in there as well, probably.

ALEX: [laughs] Oh, really?

DEEDEE: I'll start off with an Eric question from Cat. Eric is a different, darker character on the show than he is in the books. But are there particular aspects of the book version that you like to bring to your performance?

ALEX: Well, I think there's some darkness in the books as well.

DEEDEE: Mmhmm.

ALEX: Absolutely. I know there are definitely sequences that I like a lot, that hopefully will end up on the show at some point. The whole... He loses his memory, you remember that whole sequence?

DEEDEE: Yes! [overlap] Do you know anything more about that?

ALEX: I'm sorry?

DEEDEE: I was gonna say, do you know anything more about that? Are they... Do you know if they're planning to do that?

ALEX: Well, that's in book... in the fourth book, right?

DEEDEE: Book four.

ALEX: Yeah. Yeah. So we'll see. You know, we'll see what Alan and the rest of the writers have in store for us, you know.

DEEDEE: Well, that sounds promising! [glee much too evident]

ALEX: Yeah, hopefully! That'd be a lot of fun 'cause, you know, there's a lot of... [laughs] You can have fun with a character like Eric when... I can see that... you know, a lot of interesting situations that can come up. So... but I really don't know, because like, obviously, Alan... The series is obviously based on the books, but you know, you never know... like, at this point, I have no idea what season 4 is gonna be like, what it's gonna be about, or what's gonna happen. So...

DEEDEE: Sure.

ALEX: I guess that could definitely be fun.

DEEDEE: Okay! Well, here's a question from Liz. She wants to know what your favorite charity is, and how much do we need to donate to them to encourage you to grow your hair out.

ALEX: Grow my hair out? [laughs]

DEEDEE: [laughs] Yes. They like you with long hair, apparently.

ALEX: Well, I do like Human Rights Watch. I like them a lot. I think they do a really, really fantastic job in working for human rights around the planet, and... kind of like Amnesty International, which is also a great charity. And... [laughs] you know, I think most people know that that wasn't my hair in season one, it was a wig, so...

DEEDEE: Yeah. [overlap] I think they just want it longer.

ALEX: I never... I started True Blood right after Generation Kill, and my hair... I had like a super-short buzz cut in Generation Kill, so that's why they threw the wig on. But we'll see, we'll see. The hair might grow long one day.

DEEDEE: So there's no particular amount, like thirty million dollars?

ALEX: [laughs] No, I'm happy to grow my hair out, I'm happy. If it's motivated in the script for... not only for True Blood, but for any kind of... any character in any project, I'm happy to shave my head or grow my hair long or... whatever works for the character. I think that's the most... you know, the most important thing.

DEEDEE: Okay, well, this question is from Alexa Castro. Is there any special way that you prepare yourself for violent or disturbing scenes, or do you just throw yourself right in?

ALEX: No, I usually just take a very... just relax the night before... I do think a lot about it and just go over it in my head a couple of times right the night before, and then just take a very... just relax and then in the morning not think about it at all. Just go to set and then try to be in the moment, and whatever happens, happens. And... yeah, just go on into it at that point.

DEEDEE: Okay.

ALEX: But it's all about preparations, I think. To know what's going on, know the script very well, and to understand, you know, where you are... where your character is at that point in the script, and what kind of triggers you, what... why you end up in this situation.

DEEDEE: Okay, Traci P. wants to know what three places a visitor to Sweden should definitely see.

ALEX: Well, I would... I grew up on a place called Södermalm in Stockholm. It's in downtown Stockholm, but like the southernmost island in downtown Stockholm. I'm biased, so... [laughs] I grew up there, my family, they're all still there, but I love Södermalm. I think it's... I think Stockholm is a great city, but I think Södermalm is definitely the best part of Stockholm. It's very vibrant, and great restaurants and culture and theater and music scene, and a lot going on. And so I highly recommend a visit to the south. Södermalm means the southern island, basically. And there's another island in southern Sweden, like five hours south of Stockholm, called Öland, which is where I grew up. We had a summer house down there, so I grew up, spent my summers down there, and that's a very special place to me, and very dear. And I go back there every summer still, and I have a lot of amazing memories from down there, and it's such a beautiful island, and great people around there, so I do recommend that highly as well. And then...

DEEDEE: Alright.

ALEX: That's two... three, I like Gothenburg. I know Gothenburg is the second biggest city in Sweden. It's on the west coast, and it's a bit smaller than Stockholm, but it's a great city. Really, really, really, really great. I recommend that as well.

DEEDEE: Alright, Deborah wants to know what team you'll be rooting for in the World Cup.

ALEX: Well, you know, I'm obviously pretty [laughs] devastated because Sweden didn't qualify, and...

DEEDEE: Yeah.

ALEX: And that's the first time in many years that Sweden didn't qualify. We're usually pretty good. But we didn't make it this year. So...

DEEDEE: You have a second favorite?

ALEX: Well, I did an interview earlier, and I said that when I... we shot Straw Dogs in Shreveport, someone sent a yellow Swedish jersey to my... the hotel, which was very kind. And I'm actually gonna put that on tomorrow and go to the bar where they... I'm gonna go with a bunch of American friends and British friends to watch England versus the USA tomorrow morning, and I'm gonna sit there with my yellow Swedish jersey and cry.

DEEDEE: So are you gonna be cheering for the US or England?

ALEX: Well, you know, I live in the States now, so I definitely hope the US will do well in the World Cup for sure.

DEEDEE: Okay.

ALEX: Yeah, they have kind of an underrated team. I think they're better than most people think, so I definitely...

DEEDEE: Hope so.

ALEX: Yeah, I hope so, too.

DEEDEE: Jacquelyn wants to know, what do you look for in scripts and characters?

ALEX: It's hard to say what I look for. It's more about, like, a gut feeling when you read a script and when you first get to know a character. It's more about a gut feeling. It's something that excites me, that triggers something creatively inside that makes me like, "Oh, I understand this character, I'm intrigued by this character, I wanna... I would like to get to know this character better."

DEEDEE: Mmhmm.

ALEX: And it's all about that. Sometimes you don't feel it, and [laughs] that's usually a sign that you shouldn't do the movie, if you're not... if you don't feel that connected to the character.

DEEDEE: Right.

ALEX: And if you do, then that's kind of a good platform to start. It's like a nice foundation, and then you, you know, start working on creating the character and finding him within you.

DEEDEE: Well, that makes sense. Summer has a question about Kill Your Darlings. She wants to know, how the hell did you run so fast while wearing heels?

ALEX: [laughs] It was kind of scary, 'cause I'm not... I'm not very good at that. I just went for it, and I almost...

DEEDEE: You looked pretty good at it.

ALEX: It's all fake. It's all fake. I wasn't good at all, and I was terrified. I was like, alright, I'm gonna, you know, break a leg or twist an ankle any second now, but that fortunately didn't happen. But it was scary, for sure.

DEEDEE: So you're not gonna admit that you just have had a lot of practice running in heels?

ALEX: Well, I did walk around with them quite a bit before we shot it, because I knew that it would be tricky. So I did spend a couple weeks walking around with them at home a lot. I hope the neighbors didn't see me.

DEEDEE: Well, Sabrina wants to know what the vampire tears are made of and how they're applied. And are they ever done digitally?

ALEX: They are sometimes... It's the same... you know, the blood we use... it's like a synthetic blood that's kind of like... sticky, kind of sweet tasting... movie blood, basically. Sometimes they do them digitally if... obviously, if you have to... Sometimes the tears are just there, sometimes if you're supposed to start crying during a scene, and they really want to see them, like, you know, tears, like really crying, dripping, then they do it digitally. Sometimes it's good if you cry for real, if you have, like, real tears, because then they just color that and make it red in post-production.

DEEDEE: Oh, okay.

ALEX: Yeah.

DEEDEE: Some of the True Blood cast are gonna be visiting Australia this year, and a lot of fans wanted me to ask you if you have any plans to visit there soon.

ALEX: I would love to go to Australia. I've never been, and I have a lot of friends who've been there, and they say it's amazing, so I'm... Hopefully, I'll get a chance to go sometime soon. I don't know exactly what my summer and the fall will... where I'll be in the world and what I'll be doing, but definitely, as soon as I have an opportunity to go there, I will.

DEEDEE: Great!

[Alex's manager gets on the phone here and tells me they have time for one more question. Eek! I was saving most of my main questions for the end!]

DEEDEE: Okay. When you started reading the books after you got the part of Eric, what were your thoughts when you realized that he eventually becomes the male lead of the series? Was it kind of like, "Jackpot"?

ALEX: Not... Well, I... It was just good. I wanted to read the books because, you know, I had, like, the first episode, episode four of season one. And that was all I knew about the character, other than talking to Alan about it, so it was just a good way to get a little more information about the world that Charlaine Harris had created, and the relationships, and who Eric was. And... yeah, but I had no idea. Of course, I was excited to see that he didn't die after forty pages, that he was in all the books, and that he played a big part in... kind of in the story-telling. But I also didn't know - and I still don't know - how... if they will follow the books or what's gonna happen next year. You know, what part of book number four will be in season four, what will not, if things are gonna change. 'Cause the show has to... is and has to take on a life of its own, and you know, obviously, some characters from the books aren't on the show, and some characters on the show aren't in the books. So things do change a bit, so you never know. You can't plan anything. It's the same thing like when by reading the fourth book, it's not like I'm reading, I know exactly what's gonna happen next year. And I also think that's important because you wanna be able to surprise the fans of the books, and if the show is exactly like the books, then the fans of the books don't even have to watch the show because they'll know exactly what's gonna happen in the next sequence. That's why I think it's important to bring something fresh and new to it, so it's fun for all the fans of the books as well.

DEEDEE: Okay, and could I just ask you one more small thing?

ALEX: Sure.

DEEDEE: There's a listener named Stephanie who named her little boy Alexander in honor of you. And do you have any words of wisdom for baby Alex?

ALEX: I'm sorry?

DEEDEE: Do you have any words of wisdom for baby Alex?

ALEX: Oh, God! The pressure, the pressure, the pressure. That's so flattering to hear that she did that. I'm slightly overwhelmed. [pause] Oh, God. Did she really?

DEEDEE: Yes!

ALEX: Wow. Well, in terms of what my dad always said, like, follow your heart and your gut feeling and your dreams. And when I didn't want to be an actor (my father's an actor), he was always super supportive. He was like, "If your heart's not in it, don't do it." And the same thing when I came back to acting when I was twenty. It was like, "Just search yourself. If you feel strongly this is what you want to do, then do it." And I think that's been... That was so great for me to have that support from my father, and I wish that little Alex will have that as well.

DEEDEE: Okay, great! Well, thank you so much. You're so gracious to your fans, and we really do love you for it.

ALEX: Oh, no. Thank you so much. I appreciate all the hard work you guys do on the fansite.

DEEDEE: Okay, thanks again, Alex.

ALEX: Thanks, guys. Have a good one. Bye.

DEEDEE: Bye!

Thanks to Skarsgard News for helping me with the Swedish place names, and to Becky for editing the sound file to even out the volume.