Eventually, I landed the job, and that was something that I felt transcended whatever other people would think of me.
BILL SKARSGARDEventually, I landed the job, and that was something that I felt transcended whatever other people would think of me.
BILL SKARSGARDWhen 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 SKARSGARDI’ve always been a night person. There’s a sense of virtue attached to getting up in the morning and doing things and starting the day, and I always felt bad for not being that person. But as I’ve gotten a bit older, now I’m completely okay with it. That’s just who I am.
BILL SKARSGARDI 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 SKARSGARDTo me, it’s all about inspiration. What gets me creatively excited is a challenge.
BILL SKARSGARDThere’s something I love about how stark the contrast is between January and June in Sweden.
BILL SKARSGARDI’m constantly embarrassed at the level of attention actors get and the level of money that we get. It’s completely disproportionate.
BILL SKARSGARDPersonally I don’t believe in bad people. I think there’s always a reason for people acting badly.
BILL SKARSGARDI 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 SKARSGARDSweden 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 SKARSGARDIt’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 SKARSGARDIn movies we tend make things black and white: you’re either this, or you’re that.
BILL SKARSGARDI 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 SKARSGARDI’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 SKARSGARDI had no idea what I wanted to do. In my last two years of high school here happened to be these few scripts that I really responded to.
BILL SKARSGARDMy 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