After completing his service in 1996, Alexander Skarsgård left Sweden and attended Leeds Beckett University in England for six months. He enrolled to study English but admits he did not study much and "had a blast" instead.
Gallery of Alexander Skarsgård
221 E 71st St, New York, New York 10021, United States
In 1997, Alexander Skarsgård enrolled in a theater course at Marymount Manhattan College and moved to New York City.
Career
Gallery of Alexander Skarsgård
Alexander Skarsgård
Gallery of Alexander Skarsgård
Alexander Skarsgård
Gallery of Alexander Skarsgård
Alexander Skarsgård
Gallery of Alexander Skarsgård
Alexander Skarsgård
Gallery of Alexander Skarsgård
Alexander Skarsgård
Achievements
Membership
Awards
Scream Award
2700 North Vermont Avenue Los Angeles, California, United States
Alexander Skarsgård at Scream Awards in 2009.
Scream Award
2700 North Vermont Avenue Los Angeles, California, United States
Alexander Skarsgård at Scream Awards in 2010.
Emmy Awards (Primetime)
777 Chick Hearn Ct Los Angeles, California, United States
Alexander Skarsgård at the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards.
Golden Globe Awards
9876 Wilshire Boulevard Beverly Hills, California 90210, United States
Alexander Skarsgård at the 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards.
Critics' Choice Awards
3021 Airport Ave, Santa Monica, California 90405, United States
Alexander Skarsgård at the 23rd Annual Critics' Choice Awards.
After completing his service in 1996, Alexander Skarsgård left Sweden and attended Leeds Beckett University in England for six months. He enrolled to study English but admits he did not study much and "had a blast" instead.
Corner of Shaftesbury Avenue, Piccadilly Circus, London W1D 7DH, United Kingdom
Alexander Skarsgård, Keira Knightley, Jason Clarke, and Rhidian Brook attend "The Aftermath" World Premiere held at The Picturehouse Central on February 18, 2019
4001 W Olive Ave, Burbank, California 91505, United States
Alexander Skarsgård presented the MTV Movie Awards' biggest category wearing a tuxedo on top and nothing but his tighty whities on the bottom.
Connections
colleague: Lady Gaga
2018
TIFF Bell Lightbox, Toronto, Canada
Lady Gaga attends 2018 Toronto International Film Festival - 'A Star Is Born' Press Conference at TIFF Bell Lightbox on September 9, 2018 in Toronto, Canada.
(A young couple moves to a quaint southern town. Soon thei...)
A young couple moves to a quaint southern town. Soon their perfect getaway turns out to become a living hell when dark secrets and lethal passions spiral out of control. Trapped by a pack of depraved locals led by a ruthless predator, they face a night of agonizing suffering and endless bloodshed.
(A young woman (Brit Marling) infiltrates a dangerous acti...)
A young woman (Brit Marling) infiltrates a dangerous activist group that targets negligent corporations in this sexy thriller that also stars Alexander Skarsgård and Ellen Page.
(A hard-working lawyer, attached to his cell phone, can't ...)
A hard-working lawyer, attached to his cell phone, can't find the time to communicate with his family. A couple is drawn into a dangerous situation when their secrets are exposed online.
(Alexander Skarsgård and Michael Peña star as two struggli...)
Alexander Skarsgård and Michael Peña star as two struggling, corrupt cops who are on the take, roughing up criminals and wreaking havoc through the city in this action-packed, hilarious, crime caper.
(In the billion-dollar game of High Frequency Trading, win...)
In the billion-dollar game of High Frequency Trading, winning is measured in milliseconds. Two cousins from New York will risk everything to beat the market by building a fiber-optic cable straight line between Kansas and New Jersey.
(Get ready to see the new face of American war: 'Generatio...)
Get ready to see the new face of American war: 'Generation Kill.' See all seven parts plus behind-the-scenes specials, and more from this acclaimed HBO miniseries about the elite Marines who spearheaded the invasion of Iraq.
(Ragnar is pitted against Rollo over a land dispute he's t...)
Ragnar is pitted against Rollo over a land dispute he's trying to settle on behalf of King Horik. A deadly fever hits Kattegat putting Ragnar's wife and daughter's lives in grave danger.
(In the not-too-distant future, vampires have come out of ...)
In the not-too-distant future, vampires have come out of the coffin...no longer in need of a human fix. But can a young woman (Anna Paquin) forge a love match with a vampire? HBO presents this drama series based on the books by Charlaine Harris.
Alexander Skarsgård is a Swedish actor. He is best known for his roles as vampire Eric Northman on the HBO series True Blood, Meekus in Zoolander, the title character in The Legend of Tarzan, Brad Colbert in the HBO miniseries Generation Kill, and Perry Wright in the HBO series Big Little Lies.
Background
Alexander Skarsgård was born in Stockholm, Sweden on August 25, 1976. He is the eldest son of actor Stellan Skarsgård and his first wife, My Skarsgård, a physician. He has five younger siblings: Gustaf, Sam, Bill, Eija and Valter, and two half-brothers from his father's second wife, Megan Everett. Among his siblings are actors Gustaf Skarsgård, Bill Skarsgård, and Valter Skarsgård. For most of his formative years, his father was an acclaimed actor in Europe but had not yet achieved the international fame that came after his star turn in Breaking the Waves (1996). Young Alexander was raised under modest circumstances in a working-class Swedish neighborhood as his parents wanted their children to have as normal an upbringing as possible. He began his acting career at the age of eight and continued working in films and on Swedish television until he turned sixteen and decided acting was not the career for him. Life under a microscope lost its charm and perhaps due to the influence of My Skarsgård, his physician mother, he stopped working as an actor, to continue his education.
Education
At age 19, Skarsgård applied to do his national service. He served in the Swedish military for 18 months, in the SäkJakt ("protect and hunt") unit that dealt with anti-sabotage and anti-terrorism in the Stockholm archipelago. After completing his service in 1996 he left Sweden and attended Leeds Beckett University in England for six months. He enrolled to study English but admits he did not study much and "had a blast" instead.
After seven years away from acting, Skarsgård started to consider it again. In 1997, he enrolled in a theater course at Marymount Manhattan College and moved to New York City. He returned to Stockholm after six months, but the time he spent studying theater showed him that he wanted to act.
Alexander Skarsgård made his acting debut in the 1984 award-winning drama by Allan Edwall, Åke och hans värld (Åke and His World). Throughout the ’80s, he worked as a child actor in movies including his portrayal of Jojjo in Hunden… More som log (The Dog That Smiled), which made him a teenage sensation in Sweden in 1989.
Skarsgård moved to New York City to study theater for a year at Marymount Manhattan College and then returned to his native country to resume his acting career. In 1999, a full decade after he quit acting, Skarsgård began pursuing a variety of Swedish film and television roles. He made his American film debut as an airheaded male model in the wildly popular 2001 comedy Zoolander. He then returned to Sweden to write and direct To Kill a Child (2003), an acclaimed short film featured at the Tribeca and Cannes film festivals.
Although he was very successful in Sweden over the next several years, Skarsgård longed to return to the American screen. The opportunity came when he was cast as Marine Sergeant Brad "Iceman" Colbert in the acclaimed HBO miniseries Generation Kill, which was based on Evan Wright's book about the 2003 American invasion of Iraq. The show was shot over seven intense months in Namibia, South Africa, and Mozambique. It received rave reviews, and Skarsgård earned critical acclaim for his performance.
Very shortly after filming Generation Kill, Skarsgård was cast in Alan Ball's HBO series True Blood. He took on the role of Eric Northman, a powerful 1,000-year-old Viking vampire locked in a love triangle with another vampire (played by Stephen Moyer) and a human waitress (Anna Paquin). Skarsgård frequently appeared in the buff in love scenes on the show, boosting his popularity among adoring fans.
Long a critically acclaimed and popular actor in Sweden, his prominent role on HBO's True Blood helped make Skarsgård a full-fledged star in the United States as well. He went on to appear in the American films Straw Dogs, with James Marsden and Kate Bosworth (2011), and Battleship (2012), with Liam Neeson. He also appeared on the big screen for the first time with his father, Stellan, in Melancholia (2011), directed by Lars von Trier.
In 2016, Skarsgård starred in the remake of The Legend of Tarzan, alongside Margot Robbie. While the flick gave him the chance to flex his abs as an action hero, he also flexed considerable dramatic chops the following year in the HBO series Big Little Lies, earning both Emmy and Golden Globe wins for his villainous turn as Perry Wright.
In 2018, Skarsgård starred in the Netflix feature Mute, as a bartender who searches for his missing girlfriend in the futuristic seedy underworld of Berlin, Germany, with help from two Americans, played by Paul Rudd and Justin Theroux. In 2018, he also played opposite Keira Knightley in The Aftermath, a film set in 1946 post-war Hamburg, where he portrays a sensitive German architect, forced to take in a British military couple in his stately home.
(Get ready to see the new face of American war: 'Generatio...)
2008
Religion
Skarsgård defended the morality of the secularist when he described his upbringing: "I grew up in a very secular society. I have atheist parents. My morality never came from religion or from scripture, but that doesn’t mean I can’t have the same values or ethics."
"I’m not religious, but I thank Mother Earth."
Views
In support of International Fund for Animal Welfare’s Tails for Whales campaign, Alexander Skarsgård and True Blood co-star Kristin Bauer posed with their hands as a petition calling for stronger whale protection. Alexander also supports Amnesty International, International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), Human Rights and Animal Rights.
Quotations:
"When I step into a project, I need to feel that there's a challenge, something new, something fresh about it. That being said, I'm kind of attracted to characters with a darkness or a sadness that they carry with them."
"I don't want to sound like a cliché but my hobbies are boating, fishing, lying in front of a fire and drinking red wine."
"All the characters I play are all inside of me in a way, and they're all different, the darkness, the lightness, whatever that is."
"A true artist, in my mind, is willing to fail sometimes, because if you're not brave enough to say yes and follow your gut, it's never going to be good."
"I don't fall often, but I fall hard. And when you fall hard, it takes a while to get up."
Personality
Alexander Skarsgård is a very reserved person. He prefers to keep his private life to himself. In an interview, he once said: "I don't want people to know too much about me. It's easier for people to suspend belief that way. There's a risk when people see you in a part and they're watching Alexander Skarsgard. Also, I learned from my father to keep your integrity and protect your family...there are certain things that you can talk about and certain things you shouldn't talk about."
In October 2010, Skarsgård participated in "Bajen Aid" by donating several items he had autographed and auctioned to raise money for the Hammarby football club.
Skarsgård was the Ambassador for the American team for a Walking With The Wounded fundraising event for wounded soldiers. He trekked to the South Pole against Team UK (Prince Harry, Ambassador) and Team Canada/Australia (The Wire actor Dominic West, Ambassador). A few days into the trek, it was decided that the competition part of the race would be cancelled due to hazardous terrain and weather conditions, so the teams combined forces and continued. Alongside Prince Harry, West and several wounded soldiers, he successfully made it to the South Pole on 13 December 2013.
Alexander Skarsgård is a confident person. He presented the MTV Movie Awards' biggest category wearing a tuxedo on top and nothing but his tighty whities on the bottom in 2016 and said: "I'm from Sweden. We don't wear clothes in Sweden."
Physical Characteristics:
Alexander Skarsgård stands 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 meters) tall. He has light brown hair (he bleaches his hair sometimes) and blue-green eyes. Skarsgård has a tattoo of a green bird on his left leg, that was drawn by his 7-year-old brother, Valter.
Interests
Sport & Clubs
Hammarby IF, footbal, boating, hockey
Music & Bands
Van Morrison, Ebba Grön and The Clash
Connections
Alexander Skarsgård is currently single and rents a place in Los Angeles, California, he still has an apartment near his parents’ home in Stockholm, Sweden.