Alexander Skarsgård

Alexander Skarsgård and Hanna Fahl

In an segment today with Swedish Radio P3 Popular, Alexander talked about Metropia, True Blood, Kristin Bauer, a culinary favorite, fan mail and more…

Listen to Swedish interview here:

Translated Introduction:

H: Now Alexander Skarsgård is with us! Alexander Johan Hjalmar Skarsgård was born on Aug.25, 1976 in Vällingby but grew up on Söder in Stockholm in what you could call a big family. Dad Stellan, Mom My, Alexander and his five siblings and all of his cousins all lived in the same house. When Alexander was 4 yrs old a pre-school teacher took him to a “Our Theatre” and that is how the acting career started. He got his first part in a movie three years later when the 7-year-old Alexander got a part in Allan Edwall’s movie “Åke och hans värld”. Cue to the movie.. “Do you know how it is to be dead? First you lay still, then you get cold and then you get white” As a teenager Alexander considered changing career and went to Leeds to study languages. But he never could forget the lime-light and applied to an acting school in New York. Back in Sweden, the now 22-years-old Alexander lived in the computer room at his parent’s while he did his first big part in a TV-series. It was as Marcus in “White Lies”. This was followed by “the dog-trick” and some other Swedish movies before he got his first part in a Hollywood movie in 2001. His part was as the not too bright model Meekus in Ben Stiller’s Zoolander. Cue to movie - Zoolander… Alexander have said that he was tired of playing harmless, feel-sorry-for-guys, but all of that changed when he got a part in the Iraq war-series Generation Kill and things were about to get even more PG-rated when he got the part as the 1000-year-old Viking vampire Eric Northman in True Blood. Cue to True Blood… Alexander Skarsgård was all of a sudden Hollywood’s new favorite simultaneously as one of our biggest movie stars. Now his current movie is opening in Sweden - he is doing the voices of one of the characters in Tarek Salek’s movie Metropia.

Audio Interview Translation:

H: Alexander Skarsgård, welcome!

A: Thank you very much. H:How long have you been back home in Sweden and for how long are you staying?

A: Since Saturday and I’m leaving tomorrow.

H: What is the first thing you do when you get back to Stockholm?

A: Head straight to mom’s.

H: Does she have something specific she always cooks for you when you get back home?

A: Yes, actually. She usually cooks pork-pancakes.

H: Really?!

A: Yeah.

H: Is it because you like it or because she thinks you like it?

A: Uhm.. no it’s because I do like it. Sometimes I even call her a couple of weeks before I get back and say “Hey, I get back on the 23rd and…”

H: Put the pork pancakes in motion…

A: Yeah, kill the pig… well, yeah that is usually the first thing I do.

H: Metropia opens here in a couple of weeks and , eeehh, is this the first time you do a voice to an animated movie?

A: Uhm…..yes. It is!

H: How do you do this? It seems really difficult to me!

A: Well, I’ve done some sort of dubbing before. It was something American that was being dubbed to Swedish. And it was more about following structured timeframes and following another person’s lips so that what I said in Swedish synched to that. With Metropia we did the voices before, eehhh…and it’s not really an animate the movie. It’s pictures that they have and then they animate the moves. But long before they did that it was just me and Tarek, who is the Director, in a studio similar to this and we had a lot of freedom to just play around and have fun with it. We didn’t have to follow any timeframes and had could change things we weren’t happy with.

H: But had you seen anything from it so that you knew approximately how it would be?

A:Tarek had shown me a little bit. Ehm, he had explained…. Tarek is a very good friend of mine so I’ve been following this project during several years and heard him talk about it a lot and so….uuhhmmm.. long before that…I mean I’ve always been a fan of the entire project long before Tarek asked me if I wanted to do one of the voices. I mean the way they’ve done it and when you watch the trailer you understand that it’s very very different from anything else. I thought it was totally fantastic concept and the story is too.

H: How much say did you have in creating your character?

A: Well..it really was a very creative process in that studio. We had a lot of fun together and talked about the character and if I felt that there was something that wasn’t right we could change it. And I was living in Africa during 7 months while doing another job, that was 2 years ago, so I was only home for a weekend and had only one day to nail this job and this was long before a lot of the rest of the crew was attached to the project and I have one scene with my Dad in the movie so we did that scene that day and then my Dad got to do the rest of his scenes like 2 months later. And it’s very tricky to do a project like this because you don’t do the scenes together but you do them separately. So I did my lines and then Dad listened to what I’d done and added his lines. And then 2 years later you sit down and watch the whole scene between us… And it’s weird (laughs) because you know that you added your lines two months apart.

H: I actually have some of the scenes you do with your Dad and thought we’d listen to them.

A: You do!! That’s really great… Cut’s to Metropia soundfiles.

H: Well, that is what it sounds like…the movie Metropia.

A:Yep.

H:This is the first time you and your Dad are in the same movie?

A: No it isn’t.

H: It’s not?

A: Ehmm… by the way, that is some background check you’ve done on my life. Always fun to find out…

H: Yeah!

A: You found out I was living in the computer room and stuff…

H: Yeah, we know more than you do (laughs)

A: But we were both in “Åke och hans värld”. You had a soundclip from that movie and I did it when I was 7. Ehm, Dad played a sleazy neighbour of someone. (laughs) That’s as I remember it. But the thing was that we didn’t have any scenes together in that so we have been in the same movie before. I also had a tiny part in a thing in Denmark we did some 10 years ago but that was like 20 seconds together so, ehm, this is the first bigger thing where we actually have a scene together.

H: But in this you weren’t even in the same place to do it.

A: No, it’s ironic and funny at the same time. The first job we get to be in together and we shoot our scene 2 months apart. But it was awesome to watch it because I did my parts 2 years ago. Dad did his 2 months later and heard what I’d done so he could listen to it and…

H: React to what you had done…

A: Yeah, so he had that to work from. And I watched the movie for the first time…it’s been screened at different festivals all over. Tarek has been travelling like a maniac for half-a-year now and I was staying in Shreeveport in Louisiana while shooting a movie there up to a month ago and Tarek was at a film festival in Austin in Texas. So I flew over there and that’s when I first got to watch the entire movie. And it was very surreal to finally see it 2 years after you did your lines in a studio and then all of a sudden you’re watching it on a big screene… And above all that scene with my Dad was very hard to watch.

H: Alexander, you are going to be with us all the way to 1 o’clock and we’re going to start pulling questions out of our question boxes. You seem a bit worked up about all this…

A: I’m terrified!

H: But I can assure you that it’ll be just fine and soon I’ll show you that it’s just going to be great.

A: Yeah….?

Cuts to a song…

H: That was Scarlett Johansen and the Relator The time is 20 past 12 and we’re here with Alexander Skarsgård who now is going to draw a question…

A: Yes?

H: Open a box and draw a note…

A: Anyone I want or??

H: Yep.

A: I think this is really freaky… I’m not kidding.

H: You do? Give the note to me. I’ll read it.

A:Ok…

H: I’ll read it. No peaking again like you just did! Well, whatever. This is a question that Birgit Friggebo (Swedish ex-politician) got in 1997. What does the letter you get say?

A: The letters??!

H: Yes. I think we are going to interpret this as the fan letters…I guess you get a lot of those.

A: Oh, well yeah. Uhm… (laughs) well, they’re really not that spectacular. Most of the time. It’s usually a photo they want signed or something like that. And sometimes there’s a gift too.

H: What kind of gifts do you get?

A: In the States I usually get Swedish stuff. They know I’m Swedish so it’s often things like Sweden’s national team’s soccer sweater….eeehhmmm…

H: Like they went to IKEA and got you some lingonberry jam?

A: Yeah. But they … yeah… but it can even be like green and white Bajen-scarves they dug up somewhere and stuff like that, that a girl from like Kentucky sent me.

H: So cute!!!

A: Yeah, it is very flattering. It really is very cute and I’ve got no idea how they get hold of it.

H: Do you reply to the letters?

A: Yes, I do. I do. I mean I don’t sit and write “Dear Tiffany…” I don’t do that. But I sign photos and send back and stuff like that. If that’s what they want. Of course I do that.

H: how does it feel to have a lot of fans?

A: It feels pretty good. But it’s like they said in the intro before and the reason why I quit acting when I was 13 years old. I had a very rough time. I did a thing called “The dog that smiled” for Swedish TV in -89 and since I’m so old this was long before there was 2000 channels on TV and long before Internet, so whatever was on TV everyone watched. You know since there was only 2 channels people saw what was on… Not because I want to undermine the quality of that production but…(laughs)..but I know there was a lot of people who saw it on TV and I had a very hard time handling this. I mean the attention because it happened from one day to another and all of a sudden…

H: But how old did you say you where? 14?

A: No I was 13 in 1989… And that is a hard age in itself. I was a kid on the way to becoming a man with growing limbs a tad clumsy and uncomfortable in my body and… Oh and by limbs I mean legs and arms.. nothing else…My penis was still very very tiny… But it was a tricky age and hard trying to find your identity as it was. And then if you add being in the spotlight like that and read about yourself in magazines and hearing people talk about you in the media or people giggling behind your back was just making me very paranoid. It was so hard for me to handle all of it. And that’s when I felt – wait – if this is how it feels and how it’s going to be, then I don’t want to be part of it anymore.

H: But did you find a strategy to handle it now?

A: No but the difference back then was..Oh, and my parents were enormous back then. They were so supportive back then. Both Mom and Dad. They said “It’s a tough business and if you don’t feel from the bottom of your heart that this is what you want to do, that this is the only thing in the whole world you want to work with, it really is better that you do something else. Because it is a hard business, there’s no denying that.” And that is something I’m very grateful for today, them saying that, because it allowed me to find my way back on my own terms. For 7 years I did something different. I moved to Leeds, did my military duty in Sweden, just fooled around and got a distance from all of it all. And then when I was 20 I felt that I missed acting very much.

H: You’re legs and arms had grown…

A: Arms and legs were done growing. Penis still very small…But I felt I still wanted to give it another shot before I close that door completely so I applied to an acting school in NY and immediately felt when I started that I had missed acting enormously and that I was doing the right thing. And as far as the attention around it concerns, I just decided that I should feel it was something positive instead. And if someone approaches me for an autograph or is some girl in Kentucky orders a scarf from Hammarby and send it to me in Los Angeles…That is something beautiful and something flattering. I mean that she puts so much time and effort on getting me a gift is something I should feel great about instead of feeling paranoid and that it’s something negative. I simply learned to feel that it’s great that I can reach out and affect people enough.

H: I’m a frequent on Internet boards and read a lot of TV sites. And especially the girls that watch your shows are like “whiiiiiiiii…Alexander Skarsgård”.There like completely crazy for you. You’re like their new favourite above anything else in the world. They love you.

A: Yes, I have done… I never surf into those blogs. There are fansites and stuff like that. I think if I did that would drive me crazy. One scenario is that I’ll read something negative and that will make me paranoid if like it’s about my acting or how I play a character and it will affect how I do my work. And the other scenario is that I’ll read too much praise and good stuff about me which will lead to my ego exploding. So I don’t think anything good would come out of me reading them. I think it’s good for me to stay far away from them. But of course I notice that the Series is doing well. No doubt about that.

Cue to another song….

H:We’re here with guest Alexander Skarsgård and Lena has written to us with a question for you. Here’s what she writes: Hi, What’s it like to speak Swedish in True Blood? Do you decide what to say? And why don’t you teach Pam how to speak it better? I’ve seen season 1 and 2 and can hardly understand what she’s saying. Puss from Lena.

A: Hi Lena…. No seriously, from the beginning it was meant for my character to have a very strong accent because they wanted him to be exotic. The show takes place in the American South and the intention was that the viewer from the very start was going to feel that he didn’t belong and was far away from home. But he was still a Viking and I sort of felt that since he is 1000 years old….

H: He should’ve learnt how to speak English by this time…

A: Yeah, I felt that it would be weird if he had this strong Scandinavian accent.. “Hallåååå, I’m from Sveden…”. You know, he’s 1000 yrs old and has been living in the states for like at least 100 yrs or something like that. So I told them that I’m sure that he’s fluent in English by now along with some other 25 languages and wouldn’t it be sort of cool that since I’m Swedish, my character would mix in some Swedish words every now and then instead of having this strong accent. Because this would still give him the exotic touch. For anyone who isn’t Swedish, otherwise, it would only be his name that would be completely strange but it would make sense if he would talk some Swedish. And well, they bought my idea and started doing that. And then poor Kristin Bauer who plays Pam had to go along with this. And she’s American and doesn’t speak a word of Swedish so she didn’t have it easy. Because it’s all I have are my expressions in Swedish. But she really rocks! She thinks it fun but hard and….

H: Are you never tempted to, like, trick her into saying Swedish cursing words or something really dirty instead of her lines?

A: No, it’s actually the other way around. She tries so hard to get me to teach her something like that. But it’s me who is….

H: You mean, Eric Northman would never do something like that? He would never be that vulgur?

A: Yeah, but there was…We did…there was… I mean we did one scene in season 2 with a flashback to the time in Sweden when my character, the Viking, was turned a vampire. And there’s two complete scenes where only Swedish is spoken. And that was a bit absurd because they left it to me and two other Scandinavian actors to translate the lines since there was nobody else who could do it there and shot the scenes with the director and some 400 crew-member there and they didn’t understand anything of what was said. So there was our golden opportunity to really say whatever the fuck we wanted to without anyone suspecting a thing. But we decided to not run with that…

H: Now it’s time for another note from the boxes.

A: Finally…

H: I can see that you’ve been waiting for the next note…

A: Yep. Longing for it… Right, I’m not allowed to peak at it..

H: Ben Stiller, Expressen (swedish newspaper) 2009, got this question. Does it scare you when you think about what the audience will think?

A: Ehh…Yeah. And that’s the reason I try hard no to think about what the audience will think.

H: How do you avoid doing that then?

A: Eh..I just don’t you know. I try to focus on the work instead and try to be present in the scene I’m doing instead of thinking “in one year when this is out the audience will react to this or that”. If you start thinking like that you’ll be distracted and would completely make me paranoid and…

H: Do you often go to screenings of your work? I mean with an audience attending…?

A: Yeah, well, some actors look at the monitor after shooting a scene and sometimes, at what’s called dailies - a rough cut of the day’s work or scenes during the production….ehm, and stuff like that I never watch. I just can’t watch myself during a production. Partly because of the same reason that I don’t think about how an audience will react when it’s out. It would simply be too distracting for me and I’m afraid it would in some way or another affect how I act and my presence in the scenes as well as my spontaneous gut-feelings in how I decide to the character.

H: Have you ever been really dissed?

A: ehm..noooyeaah…I know…well, I’ve absolutely been in stuff that have been dissed but I haven’t… it’s a magical thing with memory because you can always be in denial about things that are uncomfortable. I’m sure that I’ve read something horrendous about myself that I now sit here and completely deny. No- everything that is written about me is just praise and good things.

H: Have there been some sick rumours spread about you?

A: Yes definitely. I am sure about it. I bet there are a lot of crazy rumours going around about me. But reviews and stuff like that, ehh… damn I can’t think of any right now but of course there have been negative stuff written about me and my acting. That’s for sure.

H: Are you capable to move on from it?

A: Eh, of course it hurts to read negative…I mean if it’s just rumours or something like that I don’t get affected but if it’s…You know if it’s something about how I act or if it’s about how someone thinks the chemistry of a scene isn’t working or that your credibility sucks… you know. It’s all about how you want to be loved by anyone and everyone.

Outkast song plays…

H: Alexander Skarsgård is still with us. And is about to take another note from our question boxes. You can switch to another box this time.

A: Are the boxes different?

H: Yeah, maybe that. You’ll soon find out…

A: (whispering) Oh god this is hard…

H: Who would’ve won… Oh, forgot to say Dolph Lundgren got this question in 2007. Who would’ve won a fight between you, Sylvester Stallone and Jean-Claude Van Damme?

A: Come on! I mean, I know Jean-Claude Van Damme is like 65, but I think he still can kick 4 metres up in the air. I think he’d kick my ass pretty serious, still.

H: Yeah…

A: Stallone - no way. The answer is easily Jean-Claude.

H: Still you look like a pretty muscular man, if I may say so myself. You’ve got a t-shirt on today.

A: Yeah, well.. Have you seen Jean-Claude?

H: No, not in real life.

A: No, well he is like…like an eel.

H: How much do you work on your body?

A: That depends. It depends on what project I’m working on.

H: Have you ever had to change your body radical for a part? Like gain or loose weight or something like that? Like, beef up…?

A: I’ve never had to do a De Niro thing like he did for Ragin Bull when he gained 50 kilos. But I did one…ehh… this Generation Kill takes place during 5 weeks and we shot it in chronological order so we did a total of seven one-hour episodes. And during those 5 weeks, it’s about a real life event where you get to follow a platoon of marines, they lost their food supply after that truck gets blown up, so they lost pretty much weight during that period of time because their food supply was very limited. They lost like 10 kg’s each…Well, you had to - we did work out a lot to get in shape, weight lifting you know before we started - so during shooting we just swam or jogged to lose some weight. It wasn’t an enormous weight drop. I mean it wasn’t like they were dying of starvation at the end but it still was some difference so that is… on a lot!

H: Could you consider becoming fat for a role?

A: Ehm… Yeah. I think it’s hard. Me, or our entire family has a very high metabolism, so I… If I stop working out I will lose weight and become very skinny. My natural body type is rather skinny than fat. So I would have to eat… I would have to pump cream directly into my veins to…

H: Or a fat-suit.

A: Yes, fat-suit is good. But it’s also cool to do like de Niro and gain 50 kg.

H: That is so real to do that for a role.

A: Yes, it is.

H: Take another note.

A: Yes… You can tell I’m really enthusiastic about this, can’t you?

H: Do you hate the notes?

A: No, but I’m so… I’m so nervous that something uncomfortable will come up.

H: Hmm… This question you got yourself in 2000. Nine years ago in Aftonbladet. Actor and chosen by Aftonbladet to the sexiest man in 1999. Are you a subject of many attempts from the opposite sex?

A: -99. Do you understand how old I am? Ohmygod! I’m not even on those lists anymore. Ehm… What was the question?

H: Ehh… Are you a subject of many attempts from the opposite sex?

A: Ehmm… Nah… No not really.

H: What? Of course you must be.

A: Ok.

H: You’re lying!

A: Ok, I admit it…. No but seriously. Really it doesn’t happen a lot.

H: Riiight..

A: Ehmm… Nah… No not really.

H: What? Of course you must be.

A: Ok.

A: It was true when I was young. In my golden days.

H: Did it happen more when you were younger?

A: Yeah.

H: But how did it happen then? Was it like, people coming up to you and slipping a note to you that said “wanna go home and have sex?”

A: No but yeah but… I don’t know. You know, Swedes are more direct when you’re at a club and the girls have had a lot to drink. That’s when they think they’re more charming and that’s when they dare to approach you. So it’s not really happening to me in line at the supermarket. Regretably!

H: Back in -99 you said pretty much the same thing. At clubs it happens. Most of them are nice and I’ve experienced anything that made me feel uncomfortable. It’s just flattering when it happens.

A: Check this robot out!!! 10 years later and I sit here and burp out the exact same reply.. Unbeliveble…

H: Yes. But now that you are back home in Sweden, can you go out and party like before?

A: Yeah. I ride around in my limo all day long…

H: Yeah..and just pick up girls…

A: Yeah, I just sit in it and wave at people… No but of course I live my life just like it always did. There really is no difference. I come back home and I have no flat. I stay with my Mom in her computer room. I hang with my childhood friends. We just hang at Söder and have a beer or two… Really, nothing about that has changed! My everyday life in Sweden when I come home is just the same. But of course it’s more intense now that I’m here compared to when I was living here. Now for instance I get a week here and then probably won’t get back in 8 or 10 months so of course it’s more hectic to get time to meet with everyone I want to see.

H: Power meetings with friends?

A: No, but that’s how it is. There are a lot of people you want to meet and hang with but I really love the life I had here in Stockholm at Söder before I left for USA and it means very much to me to come back to that and back to my childhood friends who couldn’t care less about what the fuck it is that I do. I mean, of course they support me and think it’s great that things are going well but none of them are in acting. My best friends are like carpenters and insurance brookers…They they… well it’s healthy for me to come home to them and just be me and sit down with them over a beer and talk about other things than Paris Hilton.

Cue to song….

H: Alexander Skarsgård is still with us here and, take another note.

A: Out of what box?

H: Your pick.

A: I choose the flowery box.

H: This question was to Winona Ryder in “Damernas Värld” in 2000. Is there a cultural expression that you can’t stand?

A: No, I try to be pretty open.

H: Musical?

A: I try but it doesn’t always work out. If I had to pick one then it would have to be musical, that I find pretty hard to sit through. But like a few, like Hair and such, I find amazingly good. They have really good music but I can it awkward right at that moment when they just start singing…You want to pay attention on what goes on on stage but at that moment I often drift away because…

H: The illusion…

A: Exactly. To be part of it.. and as soon as anyone sings instead of talks…like (Alexander sings) “can you go and get the milk” … that is when they loose me.

H: What do you read? If you read…

A: No, but I feel I got kind of an eclectic mix going on. I try and mix as much as possible.

H: Last book you read was?

A: “Cat’s Cradle” by Kurt Vonnegut.

H: Hmm…haven’t read it.

A: American writer.

H: Was it good?

A: Yes. Terribly good! He is ehh… have you read any of his earlier books?

H: No… no wait. I think I read… damn what’s it called again…

A: Slaughterhouse five..?

H: yeah exactly.

A: Well, he is dead but he was very twisted but incredibly funny and dark and I think his work is amazingly good. I really recommend reading his books.

H: What do you like to watch on TV?

A: I don’t watch TV a lot. I find it hard…I’ve got irregular times when I work so it’s hard for me to follow anything. But I have TIVO, you know when you record stuff on like a box, and I usually watch to Colbert Report. I think that’s pretty fun. It’s on in Sweden now, right?

H: Yeah. On some channel I don’t know which one it is.

A: Yes, well I think he is so hilarious.

H: But when you work as an actor, do you become affected to the point where you can’t watch movies and TV like you used to because you know too much how it’s made?

A: No that isn’t true for me. I can really enjoy watching something still. I find it inspiring to watch something really good. I just finished watching through Deadwood, an HBO series that was on a couple of years ago. It’s about the Gold rush and …

H: Yes! It’s so fricking fun to watch!! I’ve only seen like the first season but…

A: Incredibly hilarious!

H: There’s a hooker in it that so funny…She’s my favourite character. I don’t remember what she’s called but she is very funny.

A: My favorite is the bar owner played by Ian McShane. I think it’s a really really good Series and foremost to watch it as an actor because the characters are so incredible and the dialogue is amazing and the acting is so amazing that I almost feel like I should quit acting because I’m out of their league. That’s how good it is…

H: Maybe you’ll find inspiration for new stuff to add to your Eric Norhtman.

A: Yeah, absolutely. I get inspired all the time from life itself but also from fiction, reading books, watching TV or movies. Absolutely. But there’s also a thin line because sometimes you get very inspired and sometimes it’s so good that you almost get intimidated.

H: Take a new note now.

A: Ok.

H: Panos Papadopilus got this in DI weekend.

A: Who?

H: I really don’t have a clue who this is…Never mind. What is your biggest extravaganza?

A: Ah, is it that dude. The lingerie…

H: Swim-wear guy maybe.

A: Swim-wear guy! Oh well, you mean like when I give myself a treat?

H: Yes.

A: Oh God, I’m so fucking boring when it comes to things like this.

A: But what..like vacation trips is so lame and boring to say, right?

H: Yeah.

A: Yeah. That’s what I definitely never would say.

H: You’ve never like rented a private helicopter just to get to a fancy party? Or something like that? No?

A: I get so… I get so… And then I get so proud to be Swedish and I get so Swedish because in the states everyone is driving in Hummer’s with gold paint with living fur-animals to keep them warm and stuff like that. And I get so anti everything like that and really get stubborn in a Swedish way and want to show them that I’m against all of that… to the point where I’m almost geeky anti. You know, extremely average (should be lagom but this is a Swedish phenomena//J.). So no, I’ve never rented a helicopter to ride in to a party or something like that.

H: Well, you know this hour is almost up and it’s time to bring out box number three.

A: really…

H: Yes. This box contains questions that other celebrity guests have written.

A: Oh Ok.

H: So you are going to draw one to answer and also you get to write a question and put in.

A: Ok.

H: And while you do that, we’re going to listen to your requested song which is Kenta with the hammarby Anthem.

A: Yeah.

Cue to song…

H: Alexander Skarsgård’s request with Kenta “Idag är jag stark” (today I feel strong//J.) because Hammarby is your soccer team Alexander.

A: Yes it is and it might seem like a bad idea to play this song when we just lost our place in All Svenskan but now it’s…when the going gets tough the tough gets going. We just have to start from the beginning again and..

H: From an underdog-perspective…Can actually be a good thing for the team spirit.

A: Yeah and in the 90’s when I started going to the games and grew up in the Stadium, it’s always been horrible. You know they played another bad team at some muddy stadium and lost by 2 goals. So it’s just in recent years that Bajen has been pretty good and played in All Svenskan so…

H: It’s back to the roots?

A: We need to go through this in order to become something better and now it’ll show us who the real supporters really are.

H: Now you have to pick a note from the box number three. Go on.

A: Ok.

H: No, this you’ll read.

A: Oh, ok. Would you rather kill someone and do time in prison than….. no, would you rather kill someone and get away with it or do time for a murder you didn’t commit? And it’s Veronika Maggio that wonders. Yeah…well…

H: Very hard question!

A: Yes, very hard question!! I’m not sure I’d be able to kill someone. I don’t think I could do that. It depends of course what the circumstances are…but if it’s just to go out and kill anyone in cold blood, that I wouldn’t be able to do.

H: So then your answer is to do time for a murder you didn’t commit?

A: Yes..

H: Take into account that the real killer walks!

A: I’m aware of that. And afterwards it makes one hell of a script for a movie…

H: Anything for art…

A: Right! First do them 20 years or what you get…

H: Yeah if it’s in Sweden. But if it’s in USA you might get the death penalty, you know.

A: Yeah…yes… well, no I would not be able to just kill someone just like that. Unless it wasn’t a life and death situation and I was forced to, like, defend someone in my family or myself.

H: So we’re still at doing time?

A: yes, still at doing time…

H: You’ve written a question too for the box. What’s did you write?

A: No but this… this…it’s pretty much the same theme as Kenta’s song that I requested and what us Bajen supporters have been through the recent weeks, so my question is “How did you deal with the pain when Hammarby lost the place in Allsvenskan?”

H: How did you deal with the pain?

A: Eh, no but I went… It was a couple of different phases… Anger and then denial and confusion..

H: Five stages of grief…

A: Hahaha… actually just like that. And then the last phase was when I was sitting with my friends and just hugged and cried. There were a lot of phases but now I try to see…

H: Have you reached acceptance?

A: Yes, actually I’m at acceptance now. I think, being the true optimistic I am in order to be a Hammarby supporter, and given the history of the team always being the underdog with the most dedicated supporters but not always the best team.. So again I try to see only positive things and feel that it’s probably not so bad to start from the beginning and get a chance to build something new with players that really burn for this and hopefully a coach, if we can find one that wants to take on the team.

H: Oh my god, I’m sorry but I really can’t relate to this. I sit here watching your mouth and I see it moving and I hear the sounds coming out but I still don’t get anything of what you’re saying but…Good for you that you have a hobby Alexander Skarsgård!! Thank you so much for coming here today and I’ll let you leave the studio now. What are your plans for tonight?

A: I’m having dinner with all of my childhood friends tonight. I’m really looking forward to that.

H: Sounds great!

A: Yeah.

H: And then it’s back to LA for you…

A: Yes, I go to London on Saturday and then on Tuesday it’s back to LA.

H: Los Angeles.

A: Yes.

H: Thank you so much for today.

A: Thank you for having me!

Video Translation Excerpts:

If someone wanted to be home Friday night and watch a movie, any recommendations?

A: You should go see Apan (The Ape) a Swedish movie I saw this week.

Why did you like it?

A: Well, it is very disturbing to watch, so it is not a good first date movie (laughs), but I was impressed by Ollie Sarri and it was on my mind for a long time and what he went through, really terrible. Uhm, so I think you should go out to the movies and see something Swedish. It will be worth it.

Thank you

A: Thanks

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