Alexander Skarsgard: True Blood Calling

Ex-child actor plays vampire and soldier

(Published July 2, PDI-Entertainment)

By Oliver M. Pulumbarit

Contributor

At 13, Alexander Skarsgard was a child actor in Sweden who wasn’t comfortable with the limelight. So the son of veteran character actor Stellan Skarsgard quit and spent seven years as a “normal” youngster. But he missed acting, so he eventually moved to New York for theater studies.

Alexander recently appeared as Sgt. Brad “Iceman” Colbert in the HBO miniseries “Generation Kill” and as enigmatic vampire Eric Northman in HBO’s ongoing series “True Blood.” He spent a break from shooting new episodes to go on vacation with family and friends in Sweden. He also found time to promote the two shows. Following are excerpts from a roundtable phoner with the actor, arranged by HBO Asia.

How open to interpretation is your vampire character? Did you look at screen vampires for inspiration?

Yeah, when I did my research, I re-watched movies that I’ve seen, like the old “Nosferatu” with Max Schreck from the ‘20s, Bela Lugosi’s “Dracula,” and Werner Herzog’s “Nosferatu” from the ‘70s. Obviously, Eric Northman’s quite a different character. But diving into that old culture of vampirism was to get my creativity and inspiration going, basically. When you create a world with vampires, it’s up to you if you wanna do the whole thing with crosses or garlic or what happens when a vampire meets the sun. We hung on to a couple of those, but some of them we just dismissed. So it’s very open to interpretation.

How much did playing “Iceman” Colbert affect the way you looked at war and the US Marines?

My take on the war in general didn’t change much. My opinion was, it was a mistake to go into Iraq. That has not changed at all. What you see in the media is very polarized, very censored in a way, what’s going on in Iraq or Afghanistan. So for me at least, this was the first experience where I actually got to see it from the perspective of the boots on the ground, what the soldiers went through on a daily basis out there.

But some of them are just kids, with dreams and hopes, and families back home. Also, a guy like Colbert, one of the senior guys, he really believes in what he’s doing and coming into Iraq. He has a mission, he knows how to execute it… and he really believes this is a good cause. Being Colbert the leader, he had to stay focused and keep his guys motivated. And for me, as an actor, it’s a very interesting thing to play on.

Describe your bond with your “Generation Kill” costars, and how it developed.

We were so isolated. Being out in the Namibian desert was so surreal. It felt like you’re stuck on a different planet. Suddenly, you embark on this journey; you’re gonna be out there for seven months with people that you’ve never met before. You’ve got a huge script in your hands with tons of words that you don’t even understand and you have two days to make them your own and be this character. Then you see all these big marine guys, “All right, get ready for boot camp!” Then you’re out running and, “What’s going on?” It was scary and you felt like a little kid.

People would really open up when they’re bored; you sit around and bulls--t. In just a few weeks, I knew more about these guys’ family lives than I knew some of my friends’ that I’ve known for years!

And that made acting much easier?

It really did. In a way, I think it was good that we were that isolated because the guys we portrayed were also isolated and in an environment that was new to them. If we had shot this in California, in the desert outside of Los Angeles, they could just drive back to their families. I think it would have been a completely different experience.

“Generation Kill” is currently airing every Sunday on Max. The first season of “True Blood” recently aired on Max, and reruns will air starting July 11.