Alexander Johan Hjalmar Skarsgård (born August 25, 1976 in Stockholm, Sweden) is a Swedish actor.
Skarsgård is best known for portraying Nordic vampire Eric Northman on HBO's True Blood, based on the Southern Vampire Mysteries book series by Charlaine Harris, for the entirety of its run.
He's also notable for his work in other HBO dramas based on novels: war drama Generation Kill, and domestic dramedy Big Little Lies, for which he received an Emmy award in the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie category.
An actor in his native Sweden for many years, he's since crossed over into mainstream American films like Zoolander, the 2011 remake of Straw Dogs, Battleship, and The Legend of Tarzan as the title character.
He is the first son of Stellan Skarsgård and the brother of actors Gustaf, Bill and Valter Skarsgård.
Selected filmography:
- Zoolander (2001) as Meekus
- The Last Drop (2006) as Leutnant Jurgen Voller
- Generation Kill (2008) as Sgt. Brad "Iceman" Colbert
- True Blood (2008 — 2014) as Eric Northman
- The Moomins and the Comet Chase (2010) as Moomintroll (voice)
- Melancholia (2011) as Michael
- Straw Dogs (2011) as Charlie Venner
- Battleship (2012) as Commander Stone Hopper
- Disconnect (2012) as Derek Hull
- What Maisie Knew (2012) as Lincoln
- The East (2013) as Benji
- The Giver (2014) as Jonas' father
- Hidden (2015) as Ray
- The Diary Of A Teenage Girl (2015) as Monroe Rutherford
- The Legend of Tarzan (2016) as Tarzan / John Clayton
- Zoolander 2 (2016) as Adam
- Big Little Lies (2017) as Perry Wright note
- Mute (2018) as Leo Beiler
- The Hummingbird Project (2018) as Anton Zaleski
- Hold the Dark (2018) as Vernon Sloane
- Long Shot (2019) as Prime Minister James Steward
- The Kill Team (2019) as Sergeant Deeks
- The Stand (2020-2021) as Randall Flagg
- Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) as Nathan Lind
- Succession (2021-2023) as Lukas Matsson
- Passing (2021) as John Kendry
- The Northman (2022) as Amleth
- Riget (2022) as Halmer's lawyer
- Infinity Pool (2023) as James Foster
Alexander Skarsgard provides examples of the following tropes:
- The Big Guy: He's 6'4'' and naturally slender, but has bulked up for numerous roles to play very physically imposing characters.
- Everyone Went to School Together: He attended high school with Joel Kinnaman and Noomi Rapace.
- Fake American: He's played a few but doesn't normally make much effort to change his accent due to it being naturally less heavy than other Swedish actors.
- Family Business, His father, Stellan Skarsgård, three of his four grown brothers (Gustav, Valter, and Bill Skarsgård) and his sister all have more-or-less successful careers in acting or modeling. The fourth grown brother, Sam, is a doctor like their mother.
- Former Child Star: Subverted. He was a famous child actor in Sweden, but found life as a public figure increasingly awful as he entered his teens. He then took a break from movies and completed high school, went through a stint in the Swedish army and did a semester of college before rediscovering his passion for acting and going to acting school, and eventually began to pick up work again.
- Icy Blue Eyes: Has very pale blue eyes that probably contribute to his being cast as villains or cold-hearted characters.
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Memetic Mutation: The line "Orange Mocha Frappuccino!" was yelled at him often on the set of Generation Kill. - Mr. Fanservice: He has zero issue showing off his impressive physique in roles.
- What Could Have Been:
- He and Charlie Hunnam were the runner-ups for the part of Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe before Chris Hemsworth was cast.
- He screen-tested for the role of Steve Rogers in Captain America: The First Avenger before the casting of Chris Evans.
