A Viking Family For Alexander And His Dad?
E!Online has news on casting spoilers in regards to Eric’s Viking dad! Cue Flashback whoosh! (Bare with me, Lost is back. 
)
Alexander and Stellan Skarsgård
Who’s your daddy? That’s the question True Blood fans are asking about Alexander Skarsgård’s Viking vampire this season, as the series plans flashbacks to medieval Scandinavia that explore Eric Northman’s origins and roots. Having already introduced (and dispatched with) Eric’s vampire progenitor, Godric (Allan Hyde), the series is now casting for Eric’s human father, King Ulfrick.
Considering that the role calls for a fluent Swedish speaker who looks like he could be Alexander Skarsgård’s father, the part just has to go to Alex’s real-life dad, internationally acclaimed actor Stellan Skarsgård, right? Here’s what we’re hearing:
We asked reps for papa Skarsgård if he would be playing Ulfrick on True Blood, and they said, “He will not.”
OK, so, bah humbug to that, but if Señor Skarsgård isn’t down for the role, who else would work? The official character description reads thusly: “In his 40s to 50s, warm, a battle-scarred Swedish Viking king, [Ulfrick] is Eric’s father, seen in a flashback to 900 A.D. Though they have a good relationship, there is some tension between father and son, because Ulfrick wants Eric to learn responsibility and behave in a manner befitting royalty…GUEST STAR (47) ACTOR MUST SPEAK FLUENT SWEDISH.”
In lieu of Stellan, fans have suggested casting Max von Sydow, Bill Nighy or Viggo Mortensen. Von Sydow and Mortensen both actually speak Swedish, and Nighy has vampire-genre experience from his work on the Underworld franchise. We like any one of those choices, but who appeals to you?
[Editor's Note: At this point, I would just like to say, SEE! SEE! He IS 1100 years old! *Ahem*]
23 Comments
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Oh, come on! Why not the papa?
He fits the bill perfectly, of course. I don’t know who would be better, but if I had to pick another, it’d be Viggo. I’m not an ageist by any means, but the other two are older than the ages listed. I’m very excited about them exploring more of Eric’s Viking history:)
Lilja, doesn’t Alex always say that Eric’s 1,000 years-old, though? I’m confused.
Lol, I’m gunning for Viggo! I think him and Alex have a slight resemblance.
Alex always says that Eric is 1000 years old…but an extra 100 years or so doesn’t exactly matter when you’re that old lol…In Episode 3, “Scratches,” Eric makes the comment that in over 1000 years he has never encountered something like the minotaur beast that scratched Sookie…so yeah.
In the books, it’s also developed that Eric is older than 1000 years old and probably around 1100. I dunno, I just always knew that the whole thing about Eric being born in 1046 and turned in like 1077 in the BluRays would be retconned. Hehehehe. I was like, ‘That’s wrong!’ lol.
~simba_317
Oh well, it was a nice dream while it lasted…
What about Peter Stormare? I think I like him better than Viggo, actually.
Aww… I’d read the casting spoilers the other day and I was really hoping Stellan would get the part. I’d love to see papa and son together on screen. *goes to corner and cries*
On the positive side, I’m so glad we are getting more flashbacks of Eric’s past and getting to learn more about him. Out of the other three mentioned I too vote for Mortensen. I’d never heard of Max von Sydow before so I typed his name in on wikipedia and it says he’s 80 years old which is quite a bit older than the age they were calling for. As for Bill Nighy I’m not a big fan. He rubbed me the wrong way when I saw him at the Pirates of the Caribbean AWE premiere.
I think I’d go into meltdown if they paired Alex up with Viggo. That’s too much awesome for one screen.
If Stellan Skarsgard doesn’t play the part, I will riot and loot my local IKEA like that girl on Twitter.
LOL
LoL@cherylm, I’d do the same but there aren’t any IKEA stores within a 400 mile radius of me.
I just had a thought….How about Dolph Lundgren? He fits the age, speaks Swedish and was born in Stockholm. Not to mention he’s listed at 6′5 so he’s also tall enough to be Eric’s dad.
Dolph was my first choice too Theresa………..Is he a good actor?
Who gives a crap anyway…………maybe he can be good with a good actor playing with him.
sorry Sylvester.
“I must Break You” LOL
wtf is stellan not doing this? like, seriously? aren’t the skarsgards cluster-fucking ALL over HBO nowadays?
lame.
…Because he’s filming something else right now…ie. Thor…
~simba_317
Hmmmm Alex and Viggo….sounds yummy to me
Stellan would be awesome of course but beggars can’t be choosers right? I think Viggo could completely rock the animal skin and hide boots look and given that 1000 years ago they probably all fathered children in their teens, he would be a believeable age to play Alex’s father.
Peter Stormare is not such a bad idea for the part of Eric’s father. Alex even might have suggested him. Peter Stormare is 6′3″, Swedish and the right age. In real life he’s a close friend of Stellan Skarsgard and he’s actually the godfather of Alex’s younger brother Gustaf. http://www.us.imdb.com/name/nm0001780/bio
Hello all. I’m terribly sorry if I commit some faux pas in posting this here, but I wasn’t sure where exactly to otherwise. It’s a Stellan Skarsgard interview that I feel could be very interesting and I was wondering if anyone could or knows of someone who could translate it. Thank you very much and once again sorry if I got this wrong.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOfeHbciMaU
I’ve never heard of Peter Stormare, but I love Viggo. Stellan would be the perfect choice obviously. Too bad they can’t just shoot around whatever schedule he has.
BTW. This site just keeps getting better and better.
I want *Max von Sydow*. I’d love to have either Bill Nighy or Viggo Mortensen, and Peter Stormare is a great pick too, I’d put him in second place on my list, but would absolutely pick Max von Sydow first. Love, love, love Max von Sydow! Even if you don’t think you know him, you probably do. Either way go watch “The Seventh Seal,” one of the best movies ever made. Easily in the top 10 greatest movies of all time!
I would go for Max Von Sydow as he’s swedish and an amazing and talented actor with a lot of experience on screen….Viggo would be great if he was a bit older because right now in his 50s’ he looks more Alex big brother rather than his father…..so Max I think will do,but I guess the producers would see him as a bit older than the age they’re looking for…
Shame than Stellan was not able to play the role because of Thor…would of been great to see in the show both father and son and surely a special time for them working together….
To whoever was asking about this interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOfeHbciMaU with Stellan, I had our translator watch it and sum it up for you and she said…
He is being interviewed about his views about religion. For about 10 years (i’m not sure exactly for how long) there are so called Free Schools in Sweden founded by tax payer’s money and a lot of these are run by different religious groups. Stellan is much against this. He thinks that tax payer’s money should be used to make the state school system better. But he also says that children who are brought up within a religious groups and are taught that earth is 6000 years old should have the opportunity to learn that there is a different view as well. If religious free schools are allowed to exist these children will not get the chance to learn this.
He also says that he doesn’t believe in God and never has cared much about religion. But that when after 9/11 when he was in Canada and saw the most powerful man on earth telling the world he was put in his office by God, Stellan says that would make you doubt God’s judgement and so either God exists and he’s an idiot or he doesn’t exist which makes him a liar.
He says he has read both the bible and the Koran and he says they are both bizarre books and they give no other reason for believing in God besides terror.
He says there is very little about love in those books. He also says if you want to read about love you should go to Shakespeare and if you want a good role model you should read Bamse (A Swedish children’s cartoon).
Bill Nighy has my vote. The other two just don’t cut it.
Max von Sydow is a great actor but he was born 1929 which makes him a lot older than the 40-50 years old that was mentioned in the casting call.
I think Peter Stormare would be good if Stellan Skarsgard can’t. He did play “Karl Hungus.” LOL
I think Viggo would be great as Eric’s dad. I mean, back then they had kids young, so his age would be perfect. In the books, Eric was turned in his early 20s and had already had 6 kids with Aude, three of whom lived. So he was having kids when he was 16, when he got married to her basically.
~simba_317
Thank you very much for your translation! Just goes to show the quality and effort of this site. Thanks again!