Battleship | Alexander Skarsgard
 

Battleship | Zoolander | Melancholia | Alexander Skarsgard

WHAT MAISIE KNEW, a contemporary adaptation of the Henry James novel, which recently completed filming on location in New York. Scott McGehee and David Siegel (THE DEEP END) are directing the touching comedic drama starring Julianne Moore, Alexander Skarsgard and Steve Coogan and produced by Daniela Taplin Lundberg and Riva Marker (THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT).

Darkly comic and emotionally compelling, the film centers on Maisie, a six-year-old girl enmeshed in the bitter divorce of her mother, a rock and roll icon, and her father, a charming but distracted art dealer. As Maisie is shuttled back and forth between them, she comes to rely more and more on her parents’ respective new partners who begin to see how selfish and damaged the girl’s parents really are, while finding themselves falling in love with one another.

Title: Swedish Pillar

Text right under the title:
Swedish men in their prime are always “wanted”.  However if Karlson got a role of “spooky, but likable” ghost, his countryman, Skarsgård, chose role of a vampire.  (Notes:  Karlson is a character from a Swedish book that was made into an extremely popular cartoon in Russia.  “Spooky, but likable ghost” is a line from that cartoon.  Here is a link to the book: http://www.amazon.com/Karlson-Roof-Astrid-Lindgren/dp/0416802400 )

Four lines of text on the bottom right of the first page (the red and gold boxes):
In “Melancholia”, by Lars von Trier, 35-year-old veteran of Sweden’s Navy very convincingly played a very sweet boy and a “soft” (spineless) man.

Picture caption on the second page:
Father (1) has raised Alexander Skarsgård well.  He is equally successful with women (2 – with Kate Bosworth), and in military service (3 – movie “Battleship” will come out on screen on April 19th).

Four lines of text in the middle of third page(the red and gold boxes):
I didn’t want to play the roles of college students with complicated inner world until my retirement.  However, other kinds of roles were not offered to me in Sweden.  In the States, it was even more difficult.

Main text:
Even Bram Stoker, the author of “Dracula”, stated that the “blood-suckers” possess hypnotic likability.   Sure enough, now-a-days, every other young girl in the world wants to invite Edward Cullen into her house, quench his thirst with her blood, and pet him on his head – since he is so sweet and well mannered, just like half of the vampires in “Twilight”.  The vampires of the highly-rated series “True Blood” are not like that.  Eric Northman is a tall blond who’s been living for a 1000 years, vampire and the owner of a night club in American “nowhere-land”, he drinks blood like water, fucks anyone he wants, and manipulates anyone who gets on his “radar”.  Very few girls want to “pet his head”, most of them want to take his pants off.  Not so much his pants, but more from a man who plays Eric – Alexander Skarsgård, the most popular Swedish actor of our time.  Interestingly, most popular actor of previous generation, Alexander’s father, is Stellan Skarsgård (who besides Trier ’s “Dogville” and “Breaking the Waves”, has also played in Hollywood ’s “Mamma Mia!”, “Girl with a Dragon Tattoo”, and even in “Pirates of the Caribbean ”).  It was his suggestion that got Alexander into the movie business, but it was also Stellan who supported him to leave it.  “I was 13 when I played in my first movie – the producer was a friend of my dad.  I didn’t really like it.  So my father said: “You have to like what you do.  If you don’t like it, do something else”.  Now I understand that if at that time he forced me to be a movie actor, then I would have never had a career as one”.  However, back then, at 13, Alexander “killed” it almost ruthlessly – the teenager was fanatical about architecture: “For days, I could just sit and draw houses and even full streets”.  Later, he “abandoned” schooling all together in the preference of punk-concerts, drinking, and spending time at the soccer arenas – Skarsgård is a huge fan of soccer.

In those cases, the loving Soviet parents would sign up the sloven for military service, but Skarsgård, without much deliberation, signed up for the Navy service himself. “Actually, I am from a family of pacifists, and we weren’t looking forward to seeing any military actions. But, thank God, Swedish soldiers, as oppose to American or British ones, are not being sent to Iraq or Afghanistan.  Thus, for me, the military service was a mean to prove myself.  And, I have to tell you, there were a lot of tough guys, real killers.  I was part of anti-terrorist unit, and the level of testosterone was very high in everyone’s blood; to the point where I felt a bit uncomfortable”.

Leaving the military after one-and-a-half years, the brave soldier-Swede, set course for a foreign country to England.  At Leeds University, he studied English and literature for half a year.  The Scandinavian Atlas (note:  In Greek mythology, the Titan who supported the heavens on his shoulders), squared his shoulders and crossed the Atlantic to end up in Manhattan, where for another 6 months, he masters the art of acting in a theater course; and then, almost like out of habit, he drops everything and returns home to Stockholm.  “In reality, back then, I started to realize that I wanted to act and make movies.  However, there was a girl waiting for me at home.  You know how it goes: she’s 18, I’m 21, we knew each other for 2 weeks before I left for the States.  I have fantasized about her for half-a-year, talking to her on the phone every day.  Sure enough, at the end, the relationship just didn’t happen”.  On the other hand, upon returning to Sweden , Alexander finally returned to making movies.

The return of the prodigal son was triumphant – in three years he played 12 parts in movies and on TV.  One problem, although the roles were that of a main character, it just didn’t feel right.  “The movie industry in Sweden is small, thus, there was little to choose from in term of roles.  I realized, that even when I hit 40, I will still be offered to play the roles of a college student who has trouble communicating with the outside world, and who dreams of a girl”.  But the “big” movie industry wasn’t waiting for him with open arms ether.  “I played the part of a model-idiot in 2001 Zoolander, but it was clear to me that I would always be in 499th place on the list of extras for small-budget horror movie”.  But, to Alexander’s luck, he was not only the priest of Melpomene (note: Greek muse of Tragedy; an expression that describes actors), but a real soldier, and an authentic Viking.   Those two qualities became very useful to HBO in 2007 in making the mini-series “Generation Kill” about the war in Iraq, and vampire saga “True Blood” – a romantic story, 95% of which was filled with sex and violence.  In the first series, the producer needed a marine, and in the second, a thousand-year-old, but well “preserved” Viking.  Of course, there wasn’t anyone better for ether of those roles.  “In reality, none of the other actors knew about my military service.  I thought it would be rude to show up on the set as a military veteran and tell everyone how to do things”.  On the set of “True Blood”, however, there was no need to “hide” his Scandinavian roots.  “It’s actually not very difficult to play the role of a vampire, the difficult part is not to over do it.  There is one problem though – vampires don’t age, but I do; thus, I will not be able to play Eric Northman for the rest of my life; I guess the Botox can help to extend that time”.

For now, and without any “cosmetic” help, Skarsgård is a star of one of the most popular TV series in the world, sex-symbol and a man-of-mystery – after his break up with Kate Bosworth, there is nothing known about his personal life.  “There are plenty of rumors about those I sleep with, and trust me, I am OK with it”.

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