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‘Murderbot’ beginning: Alexander Skarsg\u00e5rd’s killer robot names itself<\/p>\n
Alexander Skarsg\u00e5rd’s security robot sets itself free and names itself in this clip from the AppleTV+ series “Murderbot.”<\/p>\n
Alexander Skarsg\u00e5rd<\/a> revealed how his first taste of fame as a teenage TV star in Sweden turned him off from acting for years.<\/p>\n The “True Blood” alum, 48, opened up on the July 21 episode<\/a> of the “Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard<\/a>” podcast about feeling “incredibly self-conscious” after his breakout role in the 1989 Swedish movie “Hunden som log.”<\/p>\n “It was rough. I didn’t like being recognized. I didn’t like going to school and kids at school being like, ‘I saw the movie!'” Skarsg\u00e5rd told Shepard and cohost Monica Padman. “My confidence was down the drain.”<\/p>\n He continued: “I was like, ‘This is terrible. And I’ve (only) done one 50-minute made-for-TV movie. I don’t want to keep doing this.'”<\/p>\n That was nearly the end of his acting career, which has since seen Skarsg\u00e5rd earn Emmy and Golden Globe awards.<\/p>\n “I retired, threw in the towel at 13,” he added.<\/p>\n Alexander Skarsg\u00e5rd on his first role: ‘Classic case of nepotism’<\/p>\n Skarsg\u00e5rd first acted as a 7-year-old in 1984’s “Ake and His World.” This happened due to a “classic case of nepotism,” he admitted on the podcast, explaining that his dad’s friend, the late actor and director Allan Edwall, offered him the gig.<\/p>\n Skarsg\u00e5rd’s father is Stellan Skarsg\u00e5rd \u2013 of “Good Will Hunting,” “Mamma Mia!” and “Dune” fame \u2013 and three of his seven younger siblings \u2013 brothers Gustaf, Bill, and Valter Skarsg\u00e5rd \u2013 are also actors.<\/p>\n “Even though my dad was an actor, my younger brother, from when he was like 5, 6, he was adamant about ‘I’m going to be an actor.’ And I wasn’t,” Skarsg\u00e5rd said on the podcast. “I’d done a couple of odd jobs here and there, but it wasn’t like I was pursuing it.”<\/p>\n “It wasn’t a difficult decision,” he explained of quitting acting as a teen. “I was like, ‘I don’t want to be an actor; I just want to drive a Saab. So I just kind of stopped doing it.”<\/p>\n He went in the opposite direction from his “bohemian” parents and eventually enlisted in the Swedish Navy.<\/p>\n