Stellan Skarsgård was “really scared” when he suffered a stroke three years ago — but ultimately thinks it was “perfect timing.”
“I found a way,” Skarsgård, 74, explained to Vulture about getting back to work despite the setback.
“They have earpieces where you have a prompter that says the line. It’s not enough because I have my rhythm,” he said of how he’s adjusted how he works. “They have to say their line on top of my line for me to be able to answer it. They have to say it very fast, very neutral. It takes a lot of training for that guy.”
Skarsgård’s health scare occurred “between one and two of ‘Andor’ and one and two of ‘Dune.’”
“You might say, ‘Oh, you’re lucky. You don’t have to learn your lines.’ There’s more work now than there was before,” Skarsgård said. “Suddenly, I can’t come up with names. I can’t follow a thought or make an argument that spans several sentences that gets to the point — that, then bang! That is extremely frustrating. But on the other hand, I’m alive. I can work.”
“I’m not afraid of dying,” the star added, “but I am afraid of not being capable of living. That is a fear. And being boring.”
Skargård’s first credited role was in the Swedish television series “Bombi Bitt och jag” in 1968. Over the years, several of his eight children have followed in his footsteps onscreen.
“I consider myself a nepo daddy,” Skarsgård told the publication. “Because I get so much goodwill and maybe jobs because of them.”
He claims he hasn’t had a hand in helping his kids land roles, however.
“It is such a bulls— thing,” Skarsgård continued. “Because nobody would hire you, at least not for anything good, if you’re not good enough.”
The “nepo baby” label has actually affected his son Kolbjörn, 13, in school.
“My 13-year-old, Kolbjörn, the youngest, suffers from that. When his pals at school call him nepo baby, he gets so sad,” the film star explained. “He doesn’t have any friends at school. He gets isolated. Cruel kids — or cruel and ignorant.”
Kolbjörn currently stars in the horror series “Blood Cruise.”
The Hollywood vet, meanwhile, married My Skarsgård in 1975 and welcomed six kids: Alexander, Gustaf, Sam, Bill, Eija and Valter.
After the exes split in 2007, Skarsgård then married Megan Everett in 2009, and the couple are parents to sons Ossian and Kolbjörn.
Alexander, 49, broke out with his role in “True Blood” from 2008 to 2014 and recently had a recurring role in the HBO hit “Succession.” His other standout credits have included 2016’s “The Legend of Tarzan,” “Big Little Lies” from 2017 to 2019 and the new Apple TV+ series, “Murderbot.”
“Luckily, we are different in type and age, so there hasn’t been a lot of competition for specific parts,” Gustaf, 44, who starred in “Vikings” from 2013 to 2020, told Sweden’s Schön! magazine in 2018. “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,” he added. “We’re a very close family, and we’ve always been supportive of one another.”
The “Mamma Mia!” actor also reflected on his talented brood, telling The Daily Beast in 2021: “I’ve had two beautiful wives — and very smart wives — and that’s helped a lot. I’m not going to take much credit for anything.”