Gustaf Skarsgard Print/Interviews/Articles 2013-2014

[christine73]

[christine73]

A couple more from the UnTitled Project shoot:

AnaLiz wrote:
New pics of Gustaf! According with the photographer Elisabeth Toll's facebook, "I photographed actor Gustaf Skarsgård as a secret agent for Un-Titled Project in Stockholm! Styling Nicole Walker, grooming Kristina Kullenberg, my assistant was Aron Heinemann and my faithful car played a role as well."

[christine73]

Posted by Kayleigh

cafe.se July 2014
So, I've got the full article and I try to upload it here but it will take me some time and I have split it up to about 5 transactions......

part 1

[christine73]

[christine73]

[christine73]

posted by Sabermom

Translation of Gustaf's July 2014 Café Article

Wicklow, September 26, 2013

The tied up Viking ship bobs majestically down the water's edge. The fog is unbelievably thick, as if imported from a vintage horror film. Fire light, whispers, and crackles.
I got this feeling, comes a voice. On the summer day when you were gone. Icona Pop's "I love it" streams from a transistor radio. A craftsman draws out his drill and comes to grips with a pillar. The set must be prepared for the next scene.
Gustaf Skarsgård, 33, wades forward through the sideways rain, throws out his arms towards the sky's running watercolors, and gives a sly Floki grin.
"Welcome to hell!"
Hell is possible to take in. The place is rather reminiscent of a kind of Dark Ages on steroids and is at the same time completely idyllic: valleys are deep, grass nearly flamboyantly green.
Gustaf is filming episodes seven and eight of season two of Vikings. There are always two episodes going at a time, in a twenty day period. In total, it takes around five months to film the whole season.
"Another day at the office. Very wet. There's always lots of waiting during filming, but here it's lots of waiting in the wet."
I'm clearly not dressed for this weather - my outfit includes slim jeans, a thin coat, and a poseurs cap from an American baseball team for which I have absolutely no affinity - which causes actor Alexander Ludwig much glee. He nudges Gustaf, draws his sword and points at me. "If you and Johan Renck fucked, this is what the son would look like."
Gustaf punches Ludwig on the shoulder. The Canadian plays Björn and was earlier seen in The Hunger Games.
"He lives in LA. That's why he's so enthusiastic about stuff. Isn't this awesome?" Doesn't this fill you with awe?"
If you want to elaborate further on hybridized love children, Gustaf Skarsgård's character Floki could be the result of a night between Herman Hedning and Prodigy singer Keith Flint. He has baggy clothes, wide eyeliner under his eyes, and thin hair that shadows his temples and culminates in a water logged little cloud at the front of his crown.
"Positions, everyone!" screams a man with an important appearance and headphones around his neck.
They film a low-intensity scene in which series lead character Ragnar Lothbrok (Travis Fimmel) sits at a table and eats chicken in the way that one apparently ate chicken then - he wedges it between the molars and tears away the meat in bits.
Gustaf's task consists mostly of glowering sourly in the background and eventually getting up to go away. A procedure that was repeated ten times before director Kari Skogland felt satisfied.
Vikings is a co-production between History Channel and HBO, and plays on TV4 in Sweden. The first season has done well in America, with the premiere episode drawing 6 million viewers. All outdoors scenes are filmed in scenic Wicklow, a few miles outside Dublin. The rest is filmed in the Ashford studios, the country's biggest, with it's 3000 square meters, also located in the area.
Gustaf Skarsgård has excelled at home for a long time with films such as Evil, Patrik 1,5, and Kidz in the Hood (for which he won a Guldbagge), but Vikings is his first major international role. He portrays the boat builder Floki, an eye catching figure, to say the least.
"Such an eccentric character gives license to do so much. The more I let go, the funnier and better it becomes. It doesn't work to half-ass it. In an ensemble with twenty people, it is cool to have a role that sticks out. "
It is true that it's not news that screenwriters are king in the tv world, but in Vikings it is even more acute - Michael Hirst produces, writes everything himself, and works as showrunner. He says that Gustaf Skarsgård was one of the first people cast to the project and describes the decision as "a no-brainer".
"Gustaf embraced Floki totally. Some actors help to write the character because they push them in a certain direction. Floki obviously has bipolar features, but Gustaf made him even more extreme than what I originally thought and I just went with that. He is an incredible actor. The real deal."
Donal Logue, who portrays King Horik and earlier played the long-haired and labile FBI agent Lee Toric in the sixth season of Sons of Anarchy, says that Gustaf Skarsgård is one of the best actors he's ever worked with.
"He takes his work seriously. To work with someone like Gustaf gives one permission to say 'You know what? I care deeply about what we create here.' It can feel embarrassing to say that you really care about a fictional world, and sometimes one works with actors who dismiss that completely. Gustaf is a complete inspiration on the set."
They sit in a tent, nestled around a radiator, waiting for the next scene. One Viking fiddles with a MacBook, another reads The Son by Philipp Meyer.
Today is the holiday "Arthur Guinness' Day" in Ireland, because the population clearly needs yet another reason to drink Guinness. Work morale is understandably high on set, but in general there is a haze of intoxication over the four leaf clovers.
"We keep our spirits up with spirits," says Gustaf.
"God, that's a great new slogan for Ireland," agrees Donal Logue. "'Keeping spirits up with spirits."' We've had some jolly times here.
"But we never party before work," points out Gustaf.
"The problem is that you don't consider prescription medication partying," jokes Logue. "I told you it's for my bad back."
"Nah, that doesn't fly here, California boy," smiles Gustaf. "Weed's still illegal 'round this neck of the woods."


Stockholm, February 13, 2014

He barely manages to sit down before the waiter appears and spreads meats, olives, and fresh baked ciabatta over the table. Gustaf Skarsgård isn't just a local at this Italian restaurant in Södermalm - he seems to be a local with a Central Perk self-clarity.
When the waiter holds up two flasks of Peroni, he says, however, no alcohol tonight.
"I feel so much better that way. Haven't drank in three months."
-You've just come home from Ireland. How was that?
"Yeah, that's Dublin, you know. One works hard during the week, parties hard on the weekend."
-Was it there that you stopped drinking?
"No, that's where I drank."
He swallows a bit of truffle salami with Viking appetite intact. In Sweden, Gustaf is currently in the SVT drama Ettor och Nollor, director Johan Renck's dark story of the Gothenburg underworld. Gustaf plays crimelord Karl Nilsson, with a west Gothenburg accent broader than Avenyn. A roaring performance in a series that quickly became divisive.
"It's had lots of criticism and I have had lots of criticism," he sighs. "It is so ridiculous, uncool, and mean that one doesn't like something that is so independent. People don't understand that the broad Gothenburg accent was my artistic choice. That I chose a sixty year old man with a super rough accent as a dialogue coach."
-Do you often read the criticisms?
"I read everything."
-It's liberating to be with someone that recognizes this.
"I'm all for it. Otherwise I would just sit and reflect on what I've read and what people think. It's good for me to do it. And just this time, Johan Croneman can go to hell."
In two days Gustaf Skarsgård will travel farther, to LA. Have meetings, go on auditions, link contacts.
He waited significantly longer than many other Swedish actors to go over and pursue dreams, but now Gustaf also finally goes to try his luck with the world's largest film market.
"Everything is just politics there. I don't know how many roles I've been passed up for before I had enough name value. Roles that go to some Gregory Johnson one's never heard speak of but who did a tv series in Omaha that was seen by four million people. In spite of the fact that producers wanted me."
-Sounds frustrating.
"That's how the world looks there. Some are better at thinking career-wise, but I don't want to have that attitude toward my work. For me, acting is not a means to an end. It's not possible to reach sometimes. I have always wanted to have a long career, but it's not about earning millions or making the magazine covers. They can't even disguise it there. They pat you on the head: 'Yeah yeah, you're very clever and very political and very genuine - but take a look at this script because here you can make money.'"
-Are you affected by that?
"In the beginning I was confused and thought maybe I was just looking for money and pussy. But life isn't a rep stage, it's not just about who climbs highest. That city is so fixated on that. People there are always curious how jealous I am of Alex. I am not jealous of his money, but now that he'll play Tarzan, I've become jealous that he gets to do such a physical role. That's what I become jealous about."
Gustaf orders a spaghetti vongole and an alcohol free beer with the patented frankness which can seem a little intimidating at first but after a while mainly feels clear-headed and liberating.
"The first time I was over there, I auditioned for a lot of shit that I'd never want to do so that the people casting would get to know me. But for me, it's all so bloody serious, so I tried my best with pitiful material and still didn't get any roles. It was like a triple humiliation. Quarter to five ragged, you know. 'OK, fuck it, I'll make a move on this girl' - and she'd shun me also."
-Are you a little ambivalent towards Los Angeles?
"Not a bit. I'd really like to work there. I also want to win an Oscar. However, it has to be more on my terms - otherwise I'd be happier at home."
-According to your approach, Stellan must have had an optimal career. High status, mostly good roles, long career.
"That's what it should be about - longevity. He is my idol in so many ways. It is nice to be able to say that now that I've broken off and began on my own. Not in everyone's eyes, because that I'll apparently never become, but at least in my own eyes. Dad and I are best friends. I'm so incredibly proud of him."
-He had a cool quote on his participation in the ridiculous Deep Blue Sea: "It isn't so fucking dumb to be shark food sometimes." A popcorn film can benefit your career after all. How much shark food are you prepared to be in order to gain more name value?
"It doesn't work like that for me, if we're talking about selling out in general. My quality is that I'm a good actor. It's the only thing I can do in this whole fucking world, but I can do it."
-Have you been thinking about moving to LA?
"Johan Croneman got me to think about it yesterday. Seriously. I emailed a bit with Johan Renck and he said, 'This is the last thing I'll ever do in this country! Fucking restrictive 'Law of Jante' environment. From now on I will only work in permissive environments.'"
He jokes about the Dagen's Nyheter (Day's News) review, but a Los Angeles move is, of course, much more complex than that.
Gustaf's travels west often follow the same pattern. In the beginning, he's incredibly happy. Enjoying the climate and food, chatting with friends - but he soon begins to see cracks in the facade. Literally.
"There are potholes in the roads between all the enormous mansions. There is an upper class in Hollywood that we don't have here in Sweden, a selfishness that permeates the top of capitalism in the world. Surrounded by a huge amount of poverty which is represented by the undocumented Mexicans. I feel panicky about that. If I'm to live there, I'd need to put the blinders on also. I don't want to do that."
-Interesting that you are still so ideological. It must be easier to go to Hollywood and only be an upper class traveler.
"Exactly. And now that's almost more attractive than ever. I come home to Sweden and see that the government is selling out the public. For-profit companies are controlling our prosperity, racism and Islamophobia are running rampant. So I wonder 'Is that what we want to become? Like the USA?' We have imported a whole working class from other countries, which let all "ethnic Swedes" slip up into a kind of middle class. Buy a house, have tech gadgets, live well. Then when it starts to creak in the seams and we can't maintain that standard of living that we've perhaps become accustomed to a little too quickly - whose fault is it then? Well, those who've worked for us for thirty years. 'They took our jobs!' Did they? Take back your jobs then. You don't want their fucking supporting jobs."
-Stellan did a youtube distributed fiery speech against sellouts during the electoral campaign of 2010.
"One must be aware of his own indoctrination. I grew up in the Södermalm schools and there Carl Bildt (Swedish politician from the moderate party, who was Prime Minister from 1991-1994) is a dirty word. It was only when I was twenty that I realized that one is not necessarily evil just because he votes for the moderate party. 'OK, how do they think that they will benefit society if they're voting blue?' Hard mental gymnastics. But later I finally came to the conclusion - 'It's rotten as hell. How the hell can one believe that?'"
-Full transparency: I'm really a little nervous to even mention any of your family.
"I understand. It can be so different from day to day. It's always better if I bring it up myself, because it is, you know, part of my life.
-Have you thought it strange that you all became actors?
"Yeah, I've thought that. At the beginning, Alex wasn't going to be an actor, which was really nice. Later, he came along also and that was clearly irritating. But I wasn't raised in a family of actors - that's something people forget easily. I was raised with a father who was an actor. That's it. For the little siblings I think it was a more obvious choice."
-And for every little sibling that comes, the phenomenon gets more powerful. People think "Oh my God, now there's yet another Skarsgård. There's nothing slowing them down!"
"Yes, and for them, that's ok. As long as they're all happy, I'm happy. I can sit here and tell completely magical stories on my family and on Hollywood stars that would get Jan-Olov Andersson and the other film journalists to come in their pants. But then I become only a gossiping old lady. I am me. If you don't take me for me, then I won't be interested in talking with you."
-Many would contend that you are the best actor of the brothers.
"That is very interesting. On one side, I feel 'Don't talk shit about my family!' But at the same time, it's flattering. Kind of 'Hell, how nice. I think so, too."
He laughs.
"Shall I boast a little?"
-Please.
"Daniel Day-Lewis is a god to me. I received an email from dad that he'd run into Jim Sheridan, the director of In the Name of the Father, and he apparently said, 'I think your son is a fantastic actor. I saw him in Vikings after Daniel Day-Lewis tipped me off on it. He described Gustaf as one of the really great.' 'Shit, Daniel Day-Lewis watched Vikings?!' I thought. I went about for a week thinking about how cool that was."
-What is it really like to grow up with a big brother, Alex, who is constantly named the country's sexiest man? Many can probably relate to the built in complications there, regardless of their career choices.
"As a seventeen year old pretentious film school applicant, it was really easy to dismiss him as a shallow bimbo-whore. And that I did for many years. It took a really long time before he could win my respect as an actor. When I began to do films, I didn't want to do Week's Review. I didn't want to be 'babe of the week' and be compared to my brother when I was appointed to it without my knowledge. However, I feel that I would like it now. Not that there should be snail tracks on the street when I come walking, but because I don't want to restrict my acting. I can feel that perhaps it would be a good challenge for me to do a hunk role. With a good personal trailer and a great fucking toupee.
There's definitely an unhealthy women's beauty ideal. There's also a great deal of unhealthy men's beauty ideals. We're talking, for instance, about the taboo of men's thinning hair. Around 95% of all men lose their hair in their lifetime - and yet one sees an enormous over-representation of full heads of hair in film and advertisements.
That a thin haired man should be, say, thrust into a Dressman's campaign feels unthinkable. There's a greater chance of seeing a grazing centaur in the city park of Gärdet.
"To lose your hair is a deep tragedy in every young man's life," says Gustaf. "First the nascent feeling that it might be happening. One becomes obsessed with others' hair lines. Then it can go to the extent that you begin to feel others' eyes going up and just think 'Don't just stand there and stare at my hairline, you bastard.'"
-You lose not only your hair, but also your self-confidence.
"Yes. When one has this anxiety, it becomes that there is nothing worse than taking off your hat. I've hit both my little brother and my little sister at the club when they've taken my hat in front of people. There was such incredible shame and angst in it. These day's I'm happy to shave my head - but at the same time, I think I look better with hair."
-Everyone would choose hair.
"Precisely. Everyone would choose hair. My greatest anxiety has been how it affects my job. I usually say to Alex, Bill, and Joel (Kinnaman): 'Shall we compete? Become bald - then we can compete. Then we can compare careers. Suck my cock.' It gives a completely different resistance to not be a salable pretty boy. I have to be ten times better. Therefore, I'm fucking glad that I have focused from the beginning on being good, not being famous or handsome. "
-You have brothers with lots of hair. Have you cursed your genetic lot?
"Ah, that can fall out, too. You never know. I believe that I cause them to wake up more in a cold sweat at night than vice versa. 'Did I get the fucking Gurra gene?' I remember when Joel, the devil, when we were ninetween and he said 'Fuck, I wonder if I'm beginning to become thin-haired.' I already thought mine had started to get thinner and just said 'Nah, it's surely not that much.' Ugh, such deep angst. Fucking Robocop...
It's possible to take a Skarsgård from Södermalm, but not Södermalm from a Skarsgård. If one believes the established media picture, in any case. The template is always a working class oriented family with an affinity fro Hammarby - but it is also difficult to argue that it's particularly misleading.
Gustaf's apartment is in the same building as the restaurant where we meet. He grew up in it and today owns it himself. Stellan also still lives in the same neighborhood. "
"I've run around these buildings and alleys since I was little. This here is my base, my roots. I think it's nice to come back here because I dash around so much."
-Because you now choose not to drink, I must ask if you have experienced a problem with alcohol.
Gustaf is briefly silent.
"It's like so: every time I get drunk I go all the way. I lose control and take in whatever is offered. That type of loss of control is one of the strongest symptoms that one is on the way to developing a dependency."
He takes a gulp of alcohol-free beer.
"I started smoking when I was ten, drinking when I was twelve, smoking week when I was sixteen, and taking cocaine and ecstasy when I was nineteen. I have partied ever since. That I've never gone all the way over the edge is due to the fact that there is one thing that is so incredibly important to me: my acting. That I have never compromised."
-Have you gone through any particularly rough periods?
"I had a period of time when I worked at Dramaten and partied four to five days a week. Ended up at after parties until five a.m. with people I barely knew at all, just because there would be drugs. Typical fucking self-destructive rut."
In 2011, Gustaf's mom, My Skarsgård, came out as a recovering alcoholic. She was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1998 and in subsequent years, she used vodka to alleviate her fears anxiety. Now My has been sober since 2007 and holds preventative courses for people at risk.
Gustaf Skarsgård took one of her courses three years ago, just before he went to film the Norwegian Oscar-nominated Kon-Tiki. During the filming, he was completely sober for three months. He lived healthfully, exercised, meditated.
Since then, Gustaf has been off or on. Partying hard or not at all. In 2012, hew as completely clean for a total of seven of the year's twelve months.
"Then I started Vikings and partied there on the weekends. Got myself tangled in destructive patterns. When I cam home this time, I felt, "No, now that's fucking enough." I took mom's course again and realized that I'd developed a dependency. The things we associate with alcoholism - drinking alone, self-medicating with alcohol, on park benches - are prejudices that become reality when the symptoms go incredibly far. It begins so much earlier than that. The problem is that it is hard to motivate yourself to stop before symptoms start to have a major impact on your life."
-Therefore it is, you know, awfully strong of you to be so proactive. Many are obviously not.
"I am such an extreme person. All in or nothing. If I drink, I will submit to it and go all the way. I'm not one to drink four glasses of wine and say "what a cozy evening." I don't have any interest in that. I can have a cozy evening without those four glasses of wine."
-Where did you find the motivation to quit?
"I want to be my best, both as a person and an actor. I have realized that I am best when I feel really good - and second best when I feel really bad. And it is always easier to be sure you feel really bad. So I think that's what the artist's natural destructive nature is: a shortcut to second best."
-You have, of course, talked with My about this?
"She knows that I'm sober. Everyone around me knows. I've seen alcoholism up close and it's not pretty. I was eighteen when she got cancer, which triggered her alcoholism, and I had to take a lot of responsibility for my younger siblings. I do not want to be the person I saw my mom become then. But she is an incredibly awesome person now."
-Do you talk about alcoholism in your family? You're likely to carry the gene and it nearly always moves along the line.
"Absolutely. There is no one who'd spit in the mirror. Clearly we talk and think, but all have their own journey. My uncle had an underground club here in the building and still lives on the floor above me. Zeke's Bar. Arne Anka was born there. I grew up in an environment where partying and smoking weed and spirits were an integral part of life. When I was a teenager and tried to do something rebellious and smoke a little weed, it was dad that taught me how to roll it. Failed. When I was confirmed, however, it did it. That was my way of rebelling."
Gustaf laughs and sets aside his silverware.
"But I still go out. I was out last night. Came home at three a.m. Danced sober. One can learn. I'm a social creature and still like to hang out with people."
-Where'd you go?
"Nosh & Chow. Where one needs to go now that they threw out the Swedish democrats."


Stockholm, April 29, 2014

He may look to have more in common with his Ettor och Nollor character Karl Nilsson when he appears straight from the gym in cut off grey sweatpants, but the Viking transformation is already in full swing. IN a couple of weekes, Gustaf will return to Ireland to start recording the third season of Vikings. His beard and hair are growing out. More Floki this year, folks.
"Third year in a row that I won't get any Swedish summer at all," he notes. "That's the high price one pays to make Vikings."
-How much do you earn?
"I can't go into the figures. I won't become snotty rich from it, but it's good enough for me to be tasteful and picky with my projects when I'm not working on Vikings. I go around the rest of the year."
Ve meet at the café Coffice in Södermalm. The visit to LA went well, he says. This time Gustaf stayed downtown instead of in Hollywood. He describes it as more mixed and real. Fewer "Mexican slave laborers". And he has changed agencies from ICM to Paradigm.
"They are a little smaller. They understand me better: what I come from and what I want to do. It was really cool to be sober in LA. It's easy to live healthfully there. People are so encouraging: 'Good for you!' Here it can be provocative to say that you don't drink. People project their own problems on you. Now I look forward to being sober in Ireland. Instead of thinking 'Hell, I don't have any good scenes this week,' I should think 'OK, now I have a good scene and I'm going to nail it.'"
-Do you have a long term plan for your abstinence?
"Keep going in any case. I have n intention of starting again. Certainly, it would be nice if I could drink three glasses of good red wine with a meal some time. But I don't think I'd be able to keep it at that level. And I don't feel that it's worth taking that risk when I feel so unbelievably much better without it. It's really night and day."
-Do you get recognized from Vikings when you're in Hollywood?
"Sometimes. But I look so incredibly different in the series. I stood and talked to Belgian director Michaël R. Roskam for half an hour - he did Bullhead. At the end, he asked what I did and I said that I'm an actor and working on Vikings. He said, 'What? That's you? What the hell, I just saw that!' The finest compliment one can get."
Gustaf Skarsgård has always put great value on being a versatile actor with a wide range. He's done everything from uncivilized people to monarchs, from Ettor och Nollor to Hamlet.
"The level of Swedish film is often that one should run around and be natural in front of a camera. Build up a fanbase as an individual. 'Yeah, Micke Persbrandt was best to play Micke Persbrandt this time also!' Don't get me wrong - he's a fantastic actor and I'm not criticizing him, but rather what people expect of him. I want to feel that I have the freedom and courage to deal with transformative acting. To go and play myself isn't interesting to me. What people have as private views of me is secondary."
-Yes, you have always been very restrictive with the press.
"Mm. And the risk with having a low profile is that one thereby becomes more vulnerable to other people's opinion pieces. Alex and Sigge, for example, have had fun at my expense on their podcast. They stand unchallenged just because I keep a low profile. Then I feel like: 'Fuck you, fucking bastards' So I may well go out and say for myself who I am.
-What exactly did they do?
"In the summer of 2007, I talked about and read a bunch of poems that I wrote from when I was 18-26. Many are spoken word. They angled it that I had some sort of rap ambitions and had fun with that. I haven't heard it myself, but heard from other people, 'Now they're talking shit on you again.' Alex and Sigge, these professional talkers who only sit and think about people, have 400,000 listeners and suddenly a real impact on what people think about me. I instinctively think 'Ok, I just have to stand up against this.' But it's hard. People are influenced by it. It's gone on so long that people call and say we should strike these people."
-Should you, do you think?
"That's an exaggeration. But it's uncomfortable that folks go around thinking things without ever talking to you. Perhaps that's why I've been so honest in this interview."
-Is this interview a way for you to at least try to actively control the image of yourself?
"A little. If I don't say anything, I leave a big gap for such like these people to explain to others who I am. I don't think that's acceptable. So long as I may be left alone - fine. But when I feel that others begin to tell people who I am, then I feel like "Fuck you". You don't have the right to do so. You cannot say to the people who I am.

[christine73]

posted by AnaLiz

Here are new pictures of Gustaf taken by the photographer Gustav Wiking during his time in the US.




(Source: Gustav Wiking's instagram and his portfolio website)