Bill Skarsgard: In Sweden, actors are prized as craftsmen, not celebrities
Bill Skarsgard and the other stars in IT Chapter 2 don’t need to promote it at all. IT 2 will be a huge hit no matter what, and despite the runtime. I think movies should be an hour and forty five minutes long tops, maybe two if there’s a lot of story. It’s too much to have to sit in a theater for over two hours at this point, but IT Chapter 2 is two hours and 49 minutes long! (I really wanted to put that in all caps.) Edit your movies! I know that End Game made a bajillion dollars and that IT 2 will as well, but a nearly three hour runtime is so indulgent. Advance reviews are largely positive, but say that it’s too long and falls apart in the last half. Less is more.
Anyway Bill is covering CR Men, a division of CR Fashion Book. I can’t find the interview online, but I’ve found some out of context quotes in other sources.
On acting: Acting is a very expensive way of letting that inner child play again.
On driving around Hollywood with Pennywise makeup on after his second audition: [It was] a metaphor for what the profession of acting feels like.
On how he describes himself: [I’m] a bit strange but definitely not an outsider.
American vs. Swedish actors:In America, stars are taught to say they are boring, but they don’t expect us to believe them. I prefer the Swedish system. It prizes actors as craftsmen, not as celebrities.
[From CRFashionBook via Just Jared and Page Six]
I lived in Germany for a few years and really noticed the difference in how celebrities were treated there. It’s not so much the system as the general culture, which doesn’t hype things like we do in America. Americans can put a lot of emotion, exaggeration and drama into things that Germans see in a more practical, matter-of-fact way. I haven’t spent time in Scandinavia, but I believe it’s similar. Their celebrity culture doesn’t elevate them like we do because their culture is just more low key. German shows were like that too. Their reality shows seemed boring to me because they were more slice of life and not as ridiculous as our shows can be.
As for Bill, I like that he realizes he’s not an outsider, since his dad, Stellan, and his brother, Alex, are both internationally known. You can see that he’s carving a career for himself as a craftsman. He’s not on social media, he’s not hyping himself much, and we know barely anything about his personal life. (He has a one-year-old child with Swedish actress Aida Morberg. He’s been with her for years, but it was hard to find out much about them.) I respect that, as much as I’d like to know more about him. He’s only 29! He could easily be a heartthrob, but he’s focusing on his work. Also, I just realized how telling that quote about wearing his Pennywise makeup is. He feels like he’s wearing a mask in his profession in general, like he can’t be himself.
Here’s a trailer for Villains, Bill’s movie with Maika Monroe (It Follows), Kyra Sedgwick and Jeffrey Donovan. It’s out September 20th and looks amazing! I so want to see this.
These men!!
Embed from Getty Images
photos via CR Look Book and credit: Getty
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