Did Alexander Skarsgård Find It Difficult To Bag Good Roles? ( Photo Credit – YouTube )
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Alexander Skarsgård once revealed that he lost several roles due to his appearance. “I was on a stupid s*xy hunky hot list.” And according to the actor, it wasn’t exactly a career boost. While some actors thrived on their hunky status, Skarsgård believed it put him in a box – one he had to fight his way out of.
The Swedish actor, son of Stellan Skarsgård, spent over 20 years building a career beyond just looking good. His Hollywood debut came in Zoolander, but True Blood made him a star. As Eric Northman, the thousand-year-old vampire with undeniable swagger, he gained a massive fanbase and a reputation.
That reputation, however, came with a cost. In an interview with The Times, Skarsgård admitted, “Starting out in Sweden, there was stuff about being tall and blond. But most people here are tall and blond. Still, after my first job, I was on a stupid ‘s*xy hunky hot list,’ and then people didn’t take me seriously … If you want characters with depth but have been labeled ‘a dude who takes his shirt off,’ you’re not going to get those offers.”
His post-True Blood years proved he was much more than just a handsome face. He won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for Big Little Lies, where he played the disturbingly complex Perry Wright. From The Aftermath to Passing to Succession, Skarsgård carved out a diverse career, proving he could do drama, dark comedy, and psychological thrillers.
Then came The Northman, his most intense role yet. Skarsgård transformed into Prince Amleth, a Viking on a bloody path of revenge. The film, directed by Robert Eggers, was brutal – both on-screen and behind the scenes. In an interview with IndieWire, Alexander Skarsgård described the exhausting battle sequences:
“To shoot it all in one shot means you do this four-minute take, and then a horse deep in the background looks the wrong way and you have to do it all again. You’re so exhausted that you want to cry. You feel like you finally got all the choreography of the fight worked out, but then you have to go again and again and again. There’s always something in the background that wasn’t quite right. The flip side of that is when you finally get it, it feels like winning gold at the Olympics.”
From being typecast as a Hollywood hunk to swinging an axe in Viking combat, Alexander Skarsgård crushed the stereotype. The “sexy hunky hot list” may have tried to define him, but he rewrote the narrative – one complex, gritty role at a time.
