Alexander Skarsgård Reveals What Is 'Intimidating' About New Role

For many Americans, the HBO series True Blood, which aired from 2008 to 2014, was their first introduction to Alexander Skarsgård. While he’d appeared in many films before then, including Generation Kill and Zoolander, the brooding Eric Northman quickly mesmerized audiences. While we eventually got to see a softer side of Eric, it was the smoldering, unpredictable Eric that drew us in.

Since then, Skarsgård has played some “good guys,” such as Lincoln in What Maisie Knew and Michael in Melancholia, but the Swedish actor prefers the darker, more complicated characters. He admitted that he found his upcoming role in the romantic fantasy film Wicker “intimidating” and harder to connect to.

“I tend to be drawn toward more conflicted characters with more internal turmoil and darkness,” Skarsgård said during a Q&A at Wicker‘s premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, per Awards Buzz. “And to play this good-hearted, good-natured, sweet, morally righteous character was scary to me. I’m not really comfortable doing that. I don’t have anything to tap into when it comes to that. So it was a stretch as an actor.”

Despite this, Skarsgård didn’t hesitate to accept the role.

“I thought it was an incredible script and I thought it was —  it is a fable — but it’s also an allegory,” he explained. “It’s a story about our society, but without being heavy-handed or didactic or preachy.”

“It was so funny and sweet,” he added. “And obviously a very interesting character to play.”

The film centers around a fisherwoman, played by Olivia Colman, who lives in a village where she’s constantly ridiculed. She goes to the basket maker (Peter Dinklage) and asks him to make her a wicker husband. Elizabeth Debicki also co-stars, playing one of the townspeople who is cruel to her.

Along with finding his inner good guy, Skarsgård realized that, due to the prosthetics that covered his face, he had to “exaggerate everything” to show his character’s vulnerability. “That kind of contradicts your instinct as an actor,” he said.

“So it felt ridiculous, but it was just about trusting these guys,” the Big Little Lies star said, gesturing to the cast. “When they came up, and they’re like, ‘Can you just give us a bit more eyebrow action?’ I’m like, ‘Okay.'”

“But yeah, it was definitely a new, different experience for me,” he added.