The scene that “embarrassed” Stellan Skarsgård: “My entire organism revolts”
You might not think of Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård as a big-budget blockbuster actor, but the truth is he is one of the highest-grossing movie stars in history, with a jaw-dropping $11.3bn in total box office to his name, thanks to massive franchises including Marvel’s Avengers and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Aside from having seemingly endless offspring all of whom have followed him into acting including Bill and Alexander, the elder Skarsgård has been busy on the big screen for decades, appearing in Oscar-winning fodder as far back as 1997’s Good Will Hunting.
But he has also done plenty of work on the small screen too, notably to award-winning effect in the Star Wars spin-off hit Andor and the nuclear drama Chernobyl in 2019, which has since gone down as one of the finest pieces of television in history.
Skarsgård played the Soviet deputy chairman Boris Shcherbina in the HBO production and picked up a Golden Globe ‘Best Supporting Actor’ award to go with the ‘Best Limited TV Series’ gong won by the show itself.
His previous role was for the BBC a few years earlier, a detective series based inside the Metropolitan Police in London, with Skarsgård playing the titular character, River. Written by the Oscar-winning The Iron Lady’s Abi Walker, the six-part series was very well received by critics and Skarsgård won acclaim for his portrayal of the detective suffering with grief after a loss.
Filming the show came with some drawbacks for the Swede however, forced to film scenes that went outside his comfort zone as the female love interest tries to drag him into the world of the living, including doing things like karaoke.
Skarsgård said of the awkward moments: “Those singing and dancing scenes? I did not enjoy them. I was really embarrassed. But this profession is constant humiliation. My entire organism revolts at the thought of doing karaoke. I can’t do it. And I’m a bad singer.”
Luckily for him the series only lasted one season and the actor moved on to a British-made John le Carre thriller called Our Kind of Traitor. After Chernobyl a few years later, Skarsgård moved firmly into big budget territory, following up his earlier Marvel appearances with Thor: Love and Thunder and a major role in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune parts one and two.
He plays Baron Vladimir Harkonnen in the movies, which together have grossed over a billion dollars at the box office. He won’t be seen in the third movie however, which is due for release late in 2026.
This year Skarsgård has received considerable acclaim for the comedy drama Sentimental Value, which is tipped for awards season success next year. A Norwegian production directed by Joachim Trier, it tells the story of a pair of sisters hoping to rekindle their relationship with an egomaniac film director played by Skarsgard.
In a twist of fate, Skarsgård may well go up against one of his sons when it comes to awards season glory, with Alexander Skarsgård getting a lot of praise for his performance in Pillion, the British gay biker gang movie that also stars former Harry Potter actor Harry Melling. The drama has caused some controversy due to its explicit BDSM scenes, but has also won the Cannes Film Festival prize for ‘Best Screenplay’.
