EARLY FAME ALMOST TURNED ACTOR ALEXANDER SKARSGÅRD AWAY FROM HIS CRAFT. BUT THE WORLD—AND HBO—SHOULD BE THANKFUL HE CAME BACK TO IT. AS THE HOTTEST COLD-BLOOD ON TELEVISION, HE’S BRINGING DEPTH, NUANCE, AND A LOT OF SEX APPEAL TO THE VAMPIRE ACT
In Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” music video, Alexander Skarsgård plays a slimeball boyfriend who assaults her on a balcony ledge in order to provoke a hidden photographer. She tries to escape, and smashes a champagne bottle over his head, but he tosses her over. Gaga later appears in a Swarovski crystal wheelchair and emerges victorious after she poisons him. As a child star in Sweden, Skarsgård found fame similarly merciless. “It almost made me paranoid, so I quit,” he explains. In 1989, when he was thirteen, the country only had two broadcast television channels, so a single appearance in a movie made a tremendous impact. Today, the 33-year-old star of HBO’s wildly successful True Blood series has gained a wider perspective.
