Three years after Stellan Skarsgard suffered a significant stroke, he opened up about how the medical emergency has created challenges in his acting career.
“I found a way,” Skarsgard told Vulture about how he remembers his lines in an interview published on Wednesday.
While reflecting on filming the 2024 movie Dune: Part Two, he said, “They have earpieces where you have a prompter that says the line. It’s not enough because I have my rhythm. They have to say their line on top of my line for me to be able to answer it. They have to say it very fast, very neutral. It takes a lot of training for that guy.”
Skarsgard added that his stroke happening in between seasons of the Star Wars drama Andor and the two Dune movies “was perfect timing.”
“You might say, ‘Oh, you’re lucky. You don’t have to learn your lines.’ There’s more work now than there was before,” Skarsgard explained. “Suddenly, I can’t come up with names. I can’t follow a thought or make an argument that spans several sentences that gets to the point — that, then bang! That is extremely frustrating. But on the other hand, I’m alive. I can work.”
Skarsgard also admitted that his stroke made him “really scared,” though he hasn’t let the experience stop him from acting. He will next appear in the movie Sentimental Value, which he also executive produced. He stars in the movie as a film director seeking connection with his estranged daughters (Renate Reinsve and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) as he makes a film about their lives. Sentimental Value will be released in theaters on Nov. 7.
“I’m not afraid of dying,” Skarsgard added. “But I am afraid of not being capable of living. That is a fear. And being boring.”
He also said that being “boring” has always been a fear of his, even in his personal life. “With all my eight kids, there’s one thing I’ve been afraid of every time I have a new kid,” Skarsgard said. “Not that they have Down syndrome or they’re autistic … that they’re boring. Luckily, none of them were.”
Another topic that Skarsgard touched on in the interview was parenthood, and he was asked if he considers his children Alexander, Gustaf, Sam, Bill, Eija, Valter, Ossian and Kolbjörn to be “nepo babies.” Skarsgard insisted they were not despite six of them going into acting. “I consider myself a nepo daddy because I get so much goodwill and maybe jobs because of them,” he quipped.
Skarsgard added that criticisms around nepotism in Hollywood are “such a bullshit,” arguing that “nobody would hire you, at least not for anything good, if you’re not good enough.”