Stellan Skarsgård: “I’m falling behind"
He’s about to become a father of eight, he’s secured the future of Sweden’s acting business through his sons and he’s faithful to Stockholm though he rarely makes any movies in Sweden these days. In a candid interview with daily Expressen, Stellan Skarsgård talks about what it feels like to have his sons following in his footsteps (Alexander is already a Hollywood star, Gustaf and Bill are doing great as actors in Sweden, and Valter has just gotten his first major part in a movie called “IRL”).

“I’m jealous, they’ve already surpassed me,” father Skarsgård says. Of his soon to be eight children, only three have chosen a non-acting career. Skarsgård, who had a part in the U.S. version of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”, is disappointed that film wasn’t nominated for an Oscar: “It is an amazing film, and Fincher (the director) did a great job. But that’s how the Oscars work. I think there were many films that were much better than ‘The Artist’ (awarded an Oscar for Best Film).”

Read more on Skarsgård in our original portrait here Stellan Skarsgård: Man of Character

Skarsgård has just finished making a movie version of Romeo and Juliet in Italy, and later this summer he’s going to film the already much-discussed “Nymphomaniac” with Lars von Trier. But before that there’s another film, set in Scotland. “Then it looks like I’ll be making an American movie in the fall, but nothing’s signed yet so I can’t say anything about it.” Nothing Swedish? “I don’t get a lot of material from Sweden, I get more from Denmark and Norway. In Sweden they do a lot of police movies, and they don’t have a lot of good parts in them. The Danes make more movies about human problems, and four of my best parts have been Norwegian.” When asked if he’d like to work in Sweden, Skarsgård says yes. “It would be nice.” He doesn’t believe Swedish filmmakers view him as unreachable because of his star status. “Not at all, because I do get offers. It’s just that they want me to play the bad guy in low budget movies. And those can’t really compete with the bad guy parts I am offered from the other side of the ocean.”