Hunky Vampire, Alexander Skarsgaard, Has ‘True Blood’ In Real Life, With Father Stellan
Stellan Skarsgard started his acting career at just 17 years old on the Swedish sitcom Bombi Bitt in 1968. Eight years later, he had his first of eight children, Alexander, who was one of the six Skarsgard boys who would go on to pursue acting as their father had done.
Stellan is father to Alexander, Gustaf, Sam, Bill, Eija, Valter, Ossian, and Kolbjorn, six of whom have become actors. Oddly enough, many of their combined roles found themselves on HBO shows like Chernnobyl, Big Little Lies, True Blood, Succession, and Westworld.
With all the unique successes each of them have made, however, competition is never something they have to worry will separate one another, as song Gustaf – known for his roles in Vikings and Westworld – told Schon! Magazine in 2018.
“Luckily, we are different in type and age, so there hasn’t been a lot of competition for specific parts,” he explained at the time. “There is competition to the point that we can actually make fun of it — we’ll keep scores and laugh about it. At the end of the day, we’re in this industry to have fun. […] We’re a very close family, and we’ve always been supportive of one another.”
Stellan added to this joking-type attitude their family feels about competition while talking with The Daily Beast in 2021, saying, “There’s no competition, really. There’s some joking competition at the dinner table, but I know they’re better than me, so I’ve given up.”
This year, though, there is a little bit of competition between Stellan and his oldest Alexander, as both are contenders to be nominees for this year’s Emmys in the Best Drama Supporting Actor category – Stellan for his performance in the Star Wars spin-off series Andor, and Alexander for his part in HBO’s Succession.
Unlike many other children of Hollywood stars, Alexander actually didn’t want to be an actor when he was younger.
Alexander started his acting career young – at 7 years old – and had one other role he landed before deciding that acting wasn’t what he wanted to do. Instead, he enlisted in the Swedish Armed Forces at 19 years old.
“[Joining the Armed Forces] was my way of going off into the unknown,” he admitted to GQ in 2011. “I didn’t want to just be somebody’s son.”
But reuniting with his father in LA set him on the path to being the acclaimed actor he is today.
“I obviously didn’t have representation out there but [my father’s] agent asked, ‘You’re in town, would it be fun to go to an audition? Do you think that’d be interesting?’” he recalled in 2018 on Good Morning America. I was like, ‘Yeah, it’d be a great story to tell my friends back home.’”
He went on to star in Ben Stiller’s 2001 goofy comedy Zoolander. After that, he landed major roles in shows like True Blood, Big Little Lies, and the Nordic drama film The Northman.
Outside of acting, Alexander did admit to some competition he’s always wanted to beat his dad at: having a big family.
Earlier this year, Alexander welcomed his first child with his girlfriend, fellow actor Tuva Novonty.
“I want to beat my dad,” he said in a Netflix interview in 2017. “He had eight, so I better get cracking.”
Now with his first kid born, only seven more to go. And maybe they’ll be actors, too!
Sources:
https://people.com/movies/all-about-the-skarsgard-family/
https://www.gq.com/story/alexander-skarsgard-gq-june-2011-cover-story
