TRUE BLOOD: MEN CASTING (Part 2 Alexander Skarsgård)

Alexander Skarsgard

In the previous post (see it HERE) we have introduced TRUE BLOOD male only cast (even if we made some related comments to Anna Paquin, the female lead character and ).

The purpose being to aknowledge the perfect casting achieved by …… which were great in recruiting handsome actors who are also great performers. Their performances were recognized by the show business industry in the numerous awards they received (see previous post as well : HERE) .

Now let’s know more about an important supporting actor , the Swedish born Alexander Skarsgård.

ALEXANDER SKARSGARD

Alexander Johan Hjalmar Skarsgård was born on August 25, 1976 in Stockholm, Sweden. His father, Stellan was an actor and he was the oldest son of 6 siblings.This handsome blond guy is definitively a tall man with 6 ft 4.

He grew up in Stockholm, on the island of Sodermalm. Family life, he says, was pretty chaotic, the atmosphere very liberal. His father strolled around naked a lot. Aunts, uncles, and grandparents all lived close by. “The doors were always open. On any given night there would be 10 to 15 people around the dinner table. It was very loud, very crazy, there was alot of food and a lot of alcohol, but it was also very loving”.

Alexander Skarsgard in The Dog That Smiled (13 y/o)

With a friend of his father, who was a director, gave him the opportunity to play in movies at a very early age of 7, for few years he was casted in several TV shows in Sweden, and one of them Hunden som log (The Dog That Smiled) made him very popular, girls would hang around outside the house. . But he quit when he was 13 made uncomfortable by this fame brought by the TV series as he was publicly recognized.

He spent his teenage years listening to punk with his friends , getting drunk at the weekends and following his local football team, Hammarby home and away. When he was 19 he applied to do his national service in the marines.

After he finished his natioanl service, he attended with a friend, English courses in Leeds Metropolitan University (UK), they wanted to see real England, they choose Leeds because they both liked Leeds United football team. They had great time and Alexander is still a fan of Leeds United.
Following the English break, he applied for a theater course in Marymount Manhattan College in New York (USA) but after six month he came to Stockholm as he was missing too much his Swedish girlfriend.

Alexander in Zoolander

He was twenty-one and and began to pick up acting jobs. Finally he made his comeback in acting landing in a role in 2001 with the film Zoolander. When visiting his father who was filming in New York, he auditioned for a role and he got a small one in this comedy directed by Ben Stiller.

When he landed in LA to find more jobs. But the reality of the Hollywood cinema hit him hard. He says: “I realized that I wa number 499 to audition for a small part in a bad horror movie, I red so many bad scripts. I was not a snob. I just needed to be connected with the character. I didn’t leave Sweden for that”.

Alexander Skarsgard as Brad Colbert (Iceman) in Generation Kill

The breakthrough finally came in 2007 when he got the role of Brad Colbert (aka Iceman because of his ability to stay cool under fire) in the HBO TV Mini-Series “Generation Kill”. Director Susanna White wanted to cast him but executive producer David Simon at first disagreed due to Alexander’s bad American accent. Finally Skarsgård got the job 36 hours before he had to board a plane for Namibia and join the staff who was filming. They stay seven months in the desert working six days a week. Skarsgård had a coach for the American accent.

Alexander Skarsgard as Brad Colbert (Iceman) in Generation Kill

He was still up with Generation Kill when he auditioned for a pilot True Blood. He was competing for the lead role of Bill Compton , a vampire, but Stephen Moyer, a British actor won the part. But when the vampire’s HBO series got the go-ahead, they called Alexander in Africa to offer him the role of Eric Northman.

Alexander Skarsgard _ True Blood (HBO Series)

Skarsgard was excited by a role of vampire and particularly the one with the attitude of Eric. He said: “I didn’t overplay it. Bring it down. I’m a huge fan of the old vampire movies, Max Schreck in Nosferatu or Béla Lugosi in Dracula. ”

In the season one he was the bad guy, but step by step he was more than the evil vampire and become loyal to the main characters of series, Bill Crampton (Stephen Moyer ) and Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin).

Rolling Stones cover with the 3 main stars of the series : Alexander Skarsgard, Anna Paquin, and Stephen Moyer.

Alexander Skarsgard in True Blood

Sex scene with Alexander Skarsgard in True Blood

Alexander Skarsgard

PRIVATE LIFE

The handsome Swedish actor has a great appeal and since his early casting in the Swedish TV series, he attracts easily girls and women. As a result he had ans still has a very active romantic life dating numerous women.

Today he is with Alex Chung a Fashion blogger, but he recently dated over beautiful women like the actress Kate Bosworth or the model Breanna Sabo.