As the Viking vampire in the TV series "True Blood" Alexander Skarsgård has had his real breakthrough in the U.S.. DN Söndags Erik Ohlsson has met a Hollywood Star rookie who still does their own laundry.
There are six hundred churches, informs Alexander Skarsgård as he got his long body into a purple Toyota Prius and gives us a sight-seeing tour in the city that will be his home over the next seven weeks.
Shreveport central parts are remarkable. Town, located in northern Louisiana and is of Malmö's size, has a core where derelict warehouses mix with shiny skyscrapers. In addition, a lot of churches, and casinos. A merciless sun frying the dusty streets. We see few cars, but not a single pedestrian.
This part of Louisiana is hard hit by unemployment. In order to improve the state's economy it has apparently decided to give film companies big tax breaks if they are recording in Louisiana.
Alexander Skarsgård is one of the leading roles in a new version of Sam Peckinpah's drama "Straw Dogs", which is currently being recorded in and outside of Shreveport. The original film came in 1971 and became controversial for its element of ultra violence. Even the new "Straw Dogs" will be a bloody history.
Alex, as everyone calls him, is hungry for lunch and we go to the city's residential neighborhoods where lush gardens interspersed with small commercial centers, "strip malls" as Americans call them.
On the radio, tuned to the local country station KXKS, whimpers Justin Moore presented the benefits of living in an American small town, "Small Town USA".
Skarsgård has been working hard on his accent for the role and thinks it is instructive to listen to country music, "though sometimes it will of course be tentative, some songs are really fucking bad. I walk with a dialect coach to get to the right kind of "Twang". The film is set in Mississippi. I am a hillbilly who speaks the dialect but went to university a few years and was milled by the worst."
Alexander Skarsgård is dressed in simple but stylish clothes: white shirt, narrow gray jeans and black shoes. Straggly beard and trendy Japanese sunglasses that go on and off.
When we had sat down at a table in the boisterous dining room at La Superior, which is filled with holiday luncheon of Mexican families, Alexander Skarsgård continues with great feeling to talk about his current film project:
"I play Charlie, who grow up in a small town in Mississippi. He is a star in the school football team, a bit of the city's king. Charlie got a scholarship to study at Louisiana University and play football. The road to NFL (Pro League) was open, it seemed, but he damaged his knee and may go home after one year. He returned to his old hometown living as a carpenter. One day he was asked to renovate a house owned by his old flame of youthful glory days. She has tried on a career in Hollywood but now temporarily returned to town in company with her husband, a quiet screenwriters. It does fucking hurt Charlie to see their relationship. He perceives his ex-girlfriend is like a real wimp, "says Alexander Skarsgård.
The ex-girlfriend is played by Kate Bosworth, known for her role as Lois Lane in "Superman Returns", while James Marsden is her good-natured husband.
The director thinks that there should be a clear contrast between the ex-athlete Charlie and the LETTERED writer. Therefore, Alexander received additional training at a gym to add on to more muscle.
"I have gone up about eight kilograms before filming. But I'm slim-built, so no real biker muscle", he says.
In addition to muscle building, he learned carpentry and experienced what it's like to work outdoors when it's 104 degrees and the sun shines like God's worst interrogation lamp. It is hot, hot in Louisiana in August.
"It's just getting used to. It is of course soaking wet, but I play the part of a sweaty carpenter so it's okay."
Skarsgård is currently in the schizophrenic situation that he was recording two movies on two continents. At the same time with "Straw Dogs", he works namely in Sweden, with the last shots by Johan Kling "Puss". Both filmings began on the same day, so it has been intensely puzzling to make everything go together.
"Last weekend was noisy. On domestic flights to Visby and taxi to Fårösund for scenes. The trip took 23 hours. But fatigue was blown away when we went on with filming. It is wonderful to work with John, very safe, he has an eye for detail."
Johan Kling made an acclaimed debut with "Darling", a self-absorbed Stureplan Girl and her encounter with a previously unknown social reality. "Puss" is a relationship drama that revolves around some young adults in Stockholm, who runs a theater. Alexander Skarsgård's character in "Puss", he describes as "a fucking eel".
A big city guy who drives the vintage sports car and is interested in 60th century design, which deceives and cheats on his nearest and constantly getting into a jam. Quite far from Charlie in "Straw Dogs". As the roles are so different, they are easier to separate.
Yes, things are going well for Alexander Skarsgård now. He has received much praise for his performance in TV series "True Blood", the most popular show on cable channel HBO at the moment. "True Blood" is a real tall story about contemporary vampires ravaging around in the fictional town of Bon Temps, Louisiana. Alexander plays the thousand year old Viking vampire Eric Northman, long-haired and with substantially sharp canines. Sometimes, he spices up its dialogue with the Swedish expression. Funnily enough, the Viking Eric also linked to Shreveport: the series has him owning a vampire bar called Fangtasia.
"True Blood," whose first season was shown on national television this week, has been something of cult status among American youth. New episodes will begin filming shortly before Christmas.
What explains the show's immense popularity?
"Alan Ball, who directed, is damn talented. He uses every trick in the book, but he never goes over the limit so that it becomes too obvious or ridiculous. I think that's why "True Blood" is talked about so many."
Alexander Skarsgård got a hefty penny when he signed for 'True Blood' third season. How much, he would not reveal, but there is at least enough so that he can seriously start looking at houses in Los Angeles, where he lived in a suitcase the past five years. Five relatively lean years of test filming, meetings, roles of the "almost" got rid of, and regular trips home to Sweden to work and raise money.
"I want to live in Venice Beach. It is one of the few places in Los Angeles, where things are within walking distance. Los Angeles is a strange town and it has taken time to adapt. And I will always have at least one foot remaining in Sweden. But later when I landed in LA, in early August, after having spent the summer in Sweden, where I felt for the first time that this was home for me."
Though "True Blood" filled in Alexander Skarsgård's bank account it is another TV series, "Generation Kill", which paved the way for the movie offers he received. In the filming intervals to "Straw Dogs" to read and meditate upon a script forwarded to Alexander by his agent.
And the Viking vampire in all the glory. But this shows quite clearly that the role of Sergeant Bradley Colbert in the TV series "Generation Kill" is Alexander Skarsgård's even warmer heart. Sergeant Colbert is the team leader of a platoon of marines involved in the invasion of Iraq. The description is based on a book by Rolling Stone journalist Evan Wright, who followed the soldiers as so-called embedded reporter. The series was in the U.S. a year ago and was acclaimed by both press and audience for its realism.
"What makes "Generation Kill" so strong that it is not made any attempt to twist to the whole thing with a love story or some other Hollywood feature, "says Alexander Skarsgård, who received much acclaim for his role interpretation.
The best rating is that many boys and girls who have been in Iraq heard by himself and think we gave a credible picture of what is happening there.
Some helped it secure to Alexander is a sergeant for real - he did national service in the navy as naval base hunters, one of the toughest defense training.
"I was a restless nineteen year old who felt that I should do national service, then there would be a rewarding and challenging. And it felt like I wanted to break off from the safe and comfortable life in the south of Stockholm."
Alexander Skarsgård adds that he has no sympathy for the political game behind the Iraq war, "the invasion was an obvious mistake and based on lies".
Skarsgård corresponds in no way to the distorted image of the vain and flashy Hollywood star. He retrieves his washing himself, expects no sour cream for a restaurant table and when he hits a Washington correspondent, he talks almost prefer if President Obama's difficulties with his health care reform than about their own careers.
"Yes, of course, I try to keep up with the news flow. I try not to miss "Meet the Press" (NBC's current affairs program on Sunday), "he says.
What he is markedly less interested in developing is what it is like to be one of those Skarsgård in acting, Sweden. But it's a bit hard to come by, now that dad's name Stellan and is one of the few internationally established Swedish actors, and a brother (Gustav) that constantly recurs in the leading roles in major Swedish films.
"I have nothing to compare with, I've always been a Skarsgård, right? Sure, I grew up with theater and film, but I never considered acting profession as a separate career path when I was growing up. And I know that where I am now, I have taken on my own."
We must hurry to the hotel, the filming team to participate in this year's event in Shreveport, which happens to fall on this particular evening: guitar hero James Burton (he has played with Elvis, Frank Sinatra and Johnny Cash, just to name a few) have arranged an international gala to raise money for school children's music education. The seventy-year-old Burton, son of Shreveport, have been attracted here by the name Albert Lee, Steve Lukather and Al Di Meola.
The event takes place in the city's Municipal Hall, engraved in music history as the arena where Elvis Presley made his very first gig, on 15 October 1954. Therefore, "The King" honored with a statue outside.
Alexander Skarsgård mingles backstage with furrowed guitar idols, his 194 centimeters makes him all the time visible in the crowd. When Guitar Hero is well step up on stage and delight audiences with fast riffs and solos are Skarsgård at the front of the room among his acting friends, clearly pleased. At irregular intervals, he retrieves a cold cans at the bar - it's free game tomorrow.
When I take a taxi back to the hotel I asked the driver Bren if he knows Alexander Skarsgård. "Mister Skarsgard, oh yeah. He has done Shreveport better known in the world and he is a very talented young actor. Tell him so much!"
Which is hereby made.
