{"id":136890,"date":"2025-11-13T04:04:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T04:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/136890\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T04:04:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T04:04:09","slug":"sentimental-value-star-stellan-skarsgard-on-making-serious-art-soft-porn-and-souffles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/136890\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Sentimental Value\u2019 Star Stellan Skarsg\u00e5rd On Making Serious Art, Soft Porn And Souffl\u00e9s"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFew actors have had a career quite like Sweden\u2019s Stellan Skarsg\u00e5rd, who became a big Scandi star in his late teens, blundered briefly into softcore porn, then nearly gave up TV and film altogether for theater. Something pulled him back, however, and the 74-year-old is now one of the most sought-after actors in the world, routinely popping up in mainstream Hollywood films, starting with 1990\u2019s The Hunt for Red October. But, somehow, Skarsg\u00e5rd never sold out; it\u2019s hard to believe that the same man who made six dark films with Danish enfant terrible Lars Von Trier<\/a> also dad-danced in both of the Mamma Mia! movies.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Joachim Trier<\/a>\u2019s Cannes hit Sentimental Value<\/a>, which won the festival\u2019s Grand Prix, Skarsg\u00e5rd plays Gustav Borg, the estranged father of stage actress Nora (Renate Reinsve<\/a>). Once a famous arthouse film director, Gustav has fallen into semi-obscurity, and suddenly comes back into Nora\u2019s life with a highly personal project that he thinks will bring him back into the public eye.<\/p>\n

\n\tCo-written with Eskil Vogt, the psychological family drama that follows is Trier\u2019s best yet, reuniting him with his Worst Person in the Worid star Reinsve and adding a powerhouse trio of performances by Skarsg\u00e5rd, plus Inga Ibsdottar Lilleaas as Nora\u2019s sister Agnes and Elle Fanning<\/a> as Rachel Kemp, an American actress being courted by Gustav in case Nora decides not to do it.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn real life, Skarsg\u00e5rd is a rather more successful father; indeed, of his eight children, six have become actors too, the most famous being Alexander Skarsg\u00e5rd, who turned heads this year with the festival hit Pillion (proving that the apple doesn\u2019t fall far from the tree, Skarsg\u00e5rd Jr. played a charismatic leather-clad dom in Harry Lighton\u2019s sexually explicit gay S&M love story).<\/p>\n

\n\tBut even being a grandfather now hasn\u2019t been enough to slow Skarsg\u00e5rd down, and the sheer diversity and quality of his work makes it all the more remarkable that \u2014 aside from a Golden Globe for HBO\u2019s acclaimed mini-series Chernobyl (2019) and a Fangoria Chainsaw Award for the not-so-acclaimed Exorcist prequel Dominion \u2014 Skarsg\u00e5rd\u2019s mantelpiece is remarkably light on gold statuettes. With any luck, Sentimental Value could be the film that changes that.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: How did you get involved with Joachim Trier and Sentimental Value?<\/p>\n

\n\tSTELLAN SKARSG\u00c5RD: He called me. But I had been waiting for him to call \u2014 about anything \u2014 for quite a while. He called me and said he wanted to meet, in Stockholm, so I said, \u201cYeah.\u201d I knew it was about his new film. I would have said yes immediately, of course. But we waited, and we walked around each other like two sniffing dogs, sniffing up each other\u2019s asses. And then we had this meeting<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: How did it go?<\/p>\n

\n\tSKARSG\u00c5RD: It was lovely. I\u2019d never met him before. He\u2019s such an endearing person, and beautifully intelligent too. So, we just talked in general and then I accepted the part. I would have signed on to anything, but that script was just so special. You remember the house in the film? One of the main roles is played by the house, And that was already in the script, it opened up the whole story to me. It was very playful, and very cinematic. it showed his approach to the subject matter, the kind of lightness that the film has. Even if it\u2019s dark, sometimes. I mean, it deals with suicide, and big, serious problems like that, and does it seriously. But it maintains a lightness in it.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Joachim has been on American TV lately saying that he wanted you to play the character because he\u2019s such an asshole, and audiences had to like him.<\/p>\n

\n\tSKARSG\u00c5RD: [Laughs.] I warned him a little. I said, \u201cDon\u2019t make him a stupid asshole.\u201d Because, of course, younger people, when they try to imagine an older man, they think they have problems bending down, that they have aching backs, that they don\u2019t know how to handle a cell phone and stuff like that. [Being old] is not like that, so he took out all those sorts of funny quirks, because he wanted to make this man full, living human being.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: What did you bring to the character?<\/p>\n

\n\tSKARSG\u00c5RD: What I brought was life and nuance. That\u2019s my only job. I want the director to have total control. And Joachim is like that; he has total control. Like all directors, he is very good when it comes to planning things. Everything is beautifully organized, and he casts the best people, not only in the main roles, but as runners and everything. Everybody is treated very well, everybody\u2019s gentle on the set, and it\u2019s a wonderful atmosphere. And then, on the set, on the days when we shoot, he leaves you alone. He doesn\u2019t say much. Some takes are overactive, some takes are underactive; some takes you have a new idea, and you present that idea, and he lets you do it. And then he has full control over the toning of it, over choosing the takes. So, he creates the part, in a way, because, from the material he had, he could probably have cut together my character as a sort of maniac, crying, and screaming. But he tones it, and he does it very well.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Stellan<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tStellan Skarsgard<\/a> and Renate Reinsve in \u2018Sentimental Value\u2019 <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNeon\/Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Was it a help or a hindrance that the character was a movie director? Because you\u2019ve obviously worked with a lot of movie directors.<\/p>\n

\n\tSKARSG\u00c5RD: Yeah. Well, the first instinct was, of course, revenge. [Laughs.] But, no, it didn\u2019t matter. I mean, it doesn\u2019t really matter what kind of profession he has, if it\u2019s a baker, or it\u2019s a bus driver, or an actor. But what was important was that he was an artist, because the conflict for an artist is much harder than for anybody else, because his job is him. He can\u2019t separate himself from his job. And combining that with being a present father, for instance, is very hard. I mean, you have to realize that if you sort of reduce the artist in you, you reduce yourself, and then you will become a different person, and maybe not as likable, and maybe your wife will divorce you.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: You\u2019ve been very vocal about some of your directors, including Ingmar Bergman<\/a>. Did any such thoughts bubble up into this movie, or did you try to resist that?<\/p>\n

\n\tSKARSG\u00c5RD: It was very easy to resist, because I didn\u2019t care. I just wanted to make sure Gustav understood his work \u2014 his sensibility in his work is fantastic. He listens, and he can describe emotions beautifully. I wanted him to be that kind of director. But he is incapable of doing it in his personal life, because one\u2019s personal life is much more complicated, and you don\u2019t have the limits of an hour and a half screen time. You have an indefinite amount of complications. So, of course, most of us, in a way, flee from it to our arts.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Had you worked with Renate before?<\/p>\n

\n\tSKARSG\u00c5RD: No, I hadn\u2019t, but I really hope I work with her again. Every feeling, every nuance, it sort of shows in her face. Even if she blushes. She\u2019s vibrant, full of life. So, it\u2019s like looking at life\u2019s origin, the fountain of life. And she is such a good actor. You feel like you\u2019re in a jam session with her, because everything she does, you pick up, and everything you do, she picks up. And you start this dance, this jamming session, and it\u2019s wonderful. I mean, every scene becomes much richer. But the thing is, in this film, it was about not having contact, not having a relationship. But we found a way, one that was very fruitful, to play it. We played it all the time. We had one scene where we had contact \u2014 we\u2019re standing outside the window smoking, and we have no dialogue. But it worked. During those few seconds, you see the love between them.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Was it a hard character to get into? Because you have a very close connection with your children. How did you get into this headspace of a man who has no emotional contact with his children?<\/p>\n

\n\tSKARSG\u00c5RD: Well, it wasn\u2019t hard at all. I played my worst fears. And all those scenes where he\u2019s really trying\u2026 I played him like he really wants to reach her and make contact with her. And you feel it, but he\u2019s incapable of it. He\u2019s stumbling. He\u2019s very, very clumsy. And at the same time, he\u2019s holding himself with this big posture and these big, big expressions. But he loses, and loses, and loses. Every scene with Renate, he loses. And it\u2019s fun to play someone who\u2019s not used to losing, who\u2019s used to controlling even the minutiae of feelings, and he now can\u2019t do it. It\u2019s very common.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: It must have been also very difficult for you to play somebody who\u2019s out of favor, because you\u2019re always working. But Gustav is a man whose career is on the skids and he\u2019s trying to make a comeback. Again, how do you put yourself into that headspace?<\/p>\n

\n\tSKARSG\u00c5RD: Well, since 1989, when I stopped at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, I\u2019ve been working four months a year. I\u2019ve been changing diapers eight months of the year, wiping asses and stuff, and doing homework. But you can\u2019t do your art by yourself. You have to have other people to give you the part, or you have to form a theater company or whatever. When you haven\u2019t worked for a while, even if it\u2019s voluntary, you feel it comes creeping up on you. I mean, I\u2019ve always had work. I\u2019ve never worried about my future, but I\u2019ve been worried about not working\u2026 I\u2019m like, \u201cWhy can\u2019t we start [shooting] today?\u201d Because I need the stimulus I get from the set.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Why did you want to become an actor?<\/p>\n

\n\tSKARSG\u00c5RD: I didn\u2019t want to become an actor; I wanted to become a diplomat.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: You could have been a good one!<\/p>\n

\n\tSKARSG\u00c5RD: I started in theater and did a television series that became very famous when I was 16 years old. And even after that, I still didn\u2019t want to become an actor, I wanted to become a diplomat. But, of course, that was a stupid idea, because being a diplomat is not what I thought it was. I thought it was someone who travels the world and creates peace. And most of them don\u2019t. But, the theater, it\u2019s addictive. And I became addicted to it. Or I mean, any kind of acting, any kind of expression. So, I just continued to work as an actor. I still haven\u2019t decided what I should do when I grow up, but I\u2019ll wait and see.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Your early film career is quite interesting. There are some racy titles in there. How did you get into movies?<\/p>\n

\n\tSKARSG\u00c5RD: In a way, my first thing I was doing, as a child, was theater. And I did a TV series in Sweden called Bombi Bitt och jag, which was a sort of Swedish Huckleberry Finn. We had only one TV channel then, and so you became extremely famous overnight. And then I eventually quit school because I got offers from theater, and I worked in the theater for several years. I was very poor. The first sort of semi-pornographic film I got, Anita: Swedish Nymphet, was very innocent in a way. It\u2019s not even a pornographic film. But it was a film that was being sold because it featured naked bodies, yes.<\/p>\n

\n\tI met the director in his library. He had a lot of books, and he talked about the importance of the material. He said, \u201cIt\u2019s about a nymphomaniac, and it\u2019s about what it means to be a nymphomaniac.\u201d I was fine with that. I had no problems with sexuality, or nudity, or anything, because I had an extremely free upbringing. And also, I\u2019m Swedish. [Laughs.] So that was not a problem. I was 20 years old, I think, and I really couldn\u2019t believe that anybody would exploit somebody else\u2019s nudity. That was a foreign concept for me.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut anyway, I did that film, and I realized that maybe it wasn\u2019t about the psychology of a young girl, it was about something more carnal than that. And I did a couple more. On the second one, it became really obvious, because the director wasn\u2019t even pretending anymore. But he had a very nice house, and he held very nice dinners, so it wasn\u2019t all bad. But eventually, I\u2019d had enough of it. And I didn\u2019t do any more films for a while. I think it was camera fright, in a way, but I can\u2019t blame him for that. It was my own fault. So, I didn\u2019t do film for several years. I worked in the theater all the time, but then eventually I went back.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Skellan<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSkellan Skarsgard and Emily Watson in Lars Von Trier\u2019s \u2018Breaking The Waves\u2019 (1996)<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober Films\/Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Do you think your life would\u2019ve turned out differently if you hadn\u2019t met Lars Von Trier? Because Breaking the Waves seems to be a big watershed moment for you.<\/p>\n

\n\tSKARSG\u00c5RD: Of course it would\u2019ve been different. And especially because he\u2019s lovely as a friend, and he\u2019s fantastic as a director. He has revolutionized cinema, but he also revolutionized my life\u2026 When I talked earlier about acting, it is because of him. I\u2019m drawn to lack of pressure, to freedom. And then I can go and play whatever I want. But, for me, the first thing I try to figure out is not what is my role, it\u2019s who is the director? What does he want? Because when you do the kinds of films that I do, the arthouse films, it has to be the director\u2019s film. Nobody else\u2019s film. And he has to be as brave as possible, and he has to be as courageous as possible. Because all art of any importance, it has to have a sender. It has to be one person that does it. Or, like the brothers Dardenne, it could be two people.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Your career seemed to take off in the late \u201990s. And you continue to be, as do your sons, in almost every film ever made. Were you aware of that, and how do you feel about the Hollywood movies that come your way?<\/p>\n

\n\tSKARSG\u00c5RD: I feel good about them. I can\u2019t think of any actor that\u2019s had more fun than me. I mean, I\u2019ve done the weirdest and darkest films, and I\u2019ve done the lightest, and most souffl\u00e9, cake-y films. I vary my diet all the time. And I made a lot of films. I\u2019ve been able to raise eight kids.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: You went from Mamma Mia! to Nymphomaniac in the space of five years. You must be the only actor that has that kind of resum\u00e9, who can go from light to dark in such a way.<\/p>\n

\n\tSKARSG\u00c5RD: It\u2019s wonderful!<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Amanda<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAmanda Seyfried and Stellan Skarsg\u00e5rd in \u2018Mamma Mia!\u2019 <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUniversal\/Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: What is the film you mostly get recognized for?<\/p>\n

\n\tSKARSG\u00c5RD: It depends on who I\u2019m talking to. I talk to young and smaller girls, and it\u2019s Mamma Mia!. And older girls, they\u2019ve seen maybe River, a TV series I did for BBC. A lot of people mention, of course, the latest ones, and now it\u2019s been Andor for a while. I\u2019ve made so many films, and so many different films. I mean, I don\u2019t think that anybody who\u2019s gone to a cinema in the last 40 years has missed me. No matter what kind of films you like, I\u2019m sure I\u2019ve shown up somewhere.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: You\u2019ve made a lot of cutting-edge films, but this year it was your son Alexander who had a cutting-edge film in Cannes. How did you feel about Pillion? Did you feel like you were passing the torch?<\/p>\n

\n\tSKARSG\u00c5RD: I couldn\u2019t see it in Cannes, because I had too much to do, so I saw it in Telluride. It\u2019s the only festival where you see films. So, I saw it there, and it was fantastic. It\u2019s so lovely. And what I\u2019m also very happy about is that Alexander is so free from the burden of conventions. He goes for the right things. He makes the right choices.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Are you still in touch with Lars Von Trier? Is there any chance of him working again?<\/p>\n

\n\tSKARSG\u00c5RD: The last time I talked to him, he was doing a version of La Jet\u00e9e, the silent film [by Chris Marker, 1962]. It was the same concept [using still images], because he thought he could do it at home. But since then he\u2019s been much worse. I haven\u2019t spoken to him directly, I\u2019ve spoken through mediators, and I send him text messages now and then. Sometimes I get an answer, but it\u2019s very brief.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: What are you doing next?<\/p>\n

\n\tSKARSG\u00c5RD: Well, as I said at the beginning, it\u2019s very hard to find young people who can write parts for old people. So, I\u2019m waiting for a role that is not crippled, that doesn\u2019t have dementia, and that doesn\u2019t have any problems at all with opening an email.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: You\u2019ve done a lot of fantasy movies lately, some Marvel, you did Dune. Does that appeal to your sense of play? Because one would imagine those films are pretty intense, and there\u2019s not much freedom.<\/p>\n

\n\tSKARSG\u00c5RD: I\u2019m a big reader, but I\u2019m not a big reader of fantasy or science fiction. But that\u2019s because I don\u2019t need the extra complications of [having to imagine] life on another planet, or another fantasy world. I mean, there\u2019s brilliant stuff. Like 2001, that\u2019s fantastic, of course. But because I\u2019m an actor, I\u2019m more interested in the micro, or in the big explosions of the human mind.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Obviously, you\u2019re playing a director in Sentimental Value. Have you ever directed, or is it something you\u2019d still like to do?<\/p>\n

\n\tSKARSG\u00c5RD: No. Most actors, I think that we think that directors are more respected than actors, because they\u2019re sort of \u201creal\u201d artists. They\u2019re real artists because they can make the film from scratch and make it their own. But I did write a script, together with a friend, and we got it financed. Almost all of it was financed. And then it was taken over by a producer, a big producer in Sweden. Two years went by and nothing happened. And by then, I was so bored. I don\u2019t have the stamina to be a director, actually. Or the conviction, or the manic side.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: What was the film about?<\/p>\n

\n\tSKARSG\u00c5RD: It\u2019s a true story. It\u2019s about a Russian balalaika player that is stranded in Sweden during the First World War, and he has an affair with, or rather falls in love with, a young girl. First, the girl falls in love with him, because she\u2019s only 16, and he\u2019s 35, and she falls in love with him like 16-year-old girls do. He\u2019s not interested at the start but becomes infatuated with her. But by then, she\u2019s lost interest in him, because a 16-year-old girl falls in love for two weeks and then it\u2019s over. But the mother is now also infatuated with him, and so it\u2019s a weird triangle. And they end up in a summer house on an island, where he goes crazy and kills the girl. There\u2019s some good scenes in there, and it\u2019s still a good story, but I haven\u2019t opened the script in 20 years.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Would you have played the balalaika player?<\/p>\n

\n\tSKARSG\u00c5RD: Yeah. I was young enough to star in it when I wrote it.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: You made a very good point earlier. For a lot of people, the director gets much more respect than the actor. Has that been a source of annoyance to you in your career?<\/p>\n

\n\tSKARSG\u00c5RD: No, and I think they deserve it somehow. I mean, it\u2019s not easier, but they do create the film, and they should create the film, and the actors shouldn\u2019t interfere. So, you\u2019re a hired hand in a way. But I have a dream that, in a way, you can channel your view of humanity, or of the world, through the characters that you play. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s true, but the self-obsessed artist in me imagines that.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Is there anyone you haven\u2019t worked with that you\u2019d like to? You\u2019ve worked with some incredible people.<\/p>\n

\n\tSKARSG\u00c5RD: Oh, there\u2019s many, and some haven\u2019t been born yet. I want to work with a lot of good directors, but, to me, the combination of director, material, the other actors, and even the crew is also important. I mean, I live on the set. I spend most of my time there. It has to be a pleasant place. And it has to be a place where I can feel creative and safe.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: One last question. When you look back, how do you see the life you\u2019ve led, in terms of your career?<\/p>\n

\n\tSKARSG\u00c5RD: I\u2019m so pleased with my career. I felt very much at home in the level of actors right below [the category of] stars, because I had the freedom to choose whatever I wanted. Because it\u2019s always a job, and I could always do different kind of things. And I didn\u2019t have the weird pressure of being a star, really. And then I\u2019ve had eight kids that are fantastic, and I\u2019ve had time to be with them. I cannot imagine a better life in any way. Of course, you sometimes think, \u201cWell, I could have done that differently,\u201d but, then again, you\u2019re the sum of all your mistakes in your life. And if you\u2019re happy, then you shouldn\u2019t get rid of those mistakes, because they\u2019re all steppingstones on the way to the end of your life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Few actors have had a career quite like Sweden\u2019s Stellan Skarsg\u00e5rd, who became a big Scandi star in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[79209,321,2979,93,61,2980,60,2981,79210,2982,2983,62550],"class_list":["post-136890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-awardsdialogue","tag-celebrities","tag-elle-fanning","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-inga-ibsdotter-lilleaas","tag-ireland","tag-joachim-trier","tag-lars-von-trier","tag-renate-reinsve","tag-sentimental-value","tag-stellan-skarsgard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}