Stellan Skarsgård on his first meeting with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon for ‘Good Will Hunting’: “We went out and got drunk”
Stellan Skarsgård is one of the most enigmatic and mysterious actors of his generation, with a somewhat evasive presence in the industry despite starring in some of the most critically and commercially successful films of all time.
Whether it be his role as a loveable rogue and distant father in Mamma Mia, or his frequent collaborations with Lars Von Trier, the actor is part of an elite calibre of actors, given his equal presence in mainstream and independent cinema.
While some might just know him as the fit dad from Mamma Mia, others know him for unflinching and disturbing performances in films like The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Dancer in the Dark and Melancholia, with a unique affinity for dark subject matter that makes him the perfect fit for the infamous Dogme movement.
However, while he was worked all over the world, there is one Hollywood film of his that is perhaps most beloved, with the actor recently sharing a behind-the-scenes story that offers an intimate and surprisingly hilarious insight into the collaborative process between him and his co-stars.
Good Will Hunting is one of those movies that can warm and break everybody’s heart, with a devastating and heartwarming story that follows a genius mathematician working as a janitor at MIT. His talents are soon discovered by one of the professors, and he battles against himself while trying to make a better life for himself.
It marked the beginning of another dramatic twist of genius from Robin Williams, with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon also rising to fame through their early masterpiece, which saw them become the youngest ever winners of the Academy Award for ‘Best Original Screenplay’. But for Skarsgård, his role in the film was as much of a surprise to him as to anyone else, with the actor describing the unlikely interaction that led him to join the project.
The actor explained, “I was shooting at Rhode Island with Spielberg. I got this call, they wanted to see me in Boston, so I was sent down a limousine and I travelled up there, and I met those guys and read the script in the limousine and it was very good. We talked about it, and we read and sat down and we changed things immediately, and everybody was so excited and the collaboration was so vivid. And then we went out and got drunk and that limousine had to wait all night.
“We were in South Boston, which was at that time very dangerous. And we had this big limousine standing outside of those seedy bars, but the limousine eventually delivered me to Rhode Island again. I liked them very much. It was obvious that they were very talented, and it made me very happy later on when the film was such a success”.
Skarsgård’s character is also renowned for his conversations with his former colleague, played by Robin Williams. It was fun working with him, as it looked, with the actor saying, “Robin Williams, he’s a fantastic man. He’s like he has three brains working high speed at the same time. And there are funny things coming out at all time. I think it’s a sort of security thing because he’s not that funny when you’re alone with him, but when more people come, he becomes more funny”.
Who knew that this role came about in such a serendipitous way, with it sounding as though it all happened very quickly as Skarsgård was swept into a limo and suddenly brought into the folds of this now iconic production. The image of Skarsgård being bundled into this limo and reading a screenplay while the writers watch over him is quite hilarious, and one that makes the eventual success of the film all the more sweet.
