Alexander Skarsgård, the son of Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård, who is himself an actor, has seen fame from an early age.
He was raised as a child actor, but now, looking back, he sees his views on fame were definitely not good.
Explaining his reasons, Alexander said he wanted a normal family life away from the spotlight, where his father worked a normal 9-to-5 office job.
“Hated the fact that my family wasn’t normal. I wanted to blend in. My biggest dream was for my dad to work in an office, a cubicle, wear a gray suit, drive a Saab to work, and have a briefcase,” he told W Magazine.
Amid this, the 49-year-old also said he initially did not want to be an actor. “My father’s an actor, but I didn’t want to be an actor at all, actually.”
But a chance to perform on screen came to him through his father’s friend, a director who needed a child actor.
“When I was 7, my dad’s friend, who is a director, needed a 7-year-old kid for his movie, and I happened to be around. When I was 13, I did a small movie made for television, but it got a little bit of attention and it made me very uncomfortable.”
Alexander said at the time he realized the acting was not his cup of tea after the attention he received for his performances, which made him uneasy. So, he quit the profession for a while.
However, his views regarding the art changed when he entered his early twenties. “When I was 20, 21, I remembered that I quite enjoyed being on set,” he continued.
“I went to theater college in New York and, after a few years, I got my first job in the States. It was Zoolander.”
Alexander’s latest movie, Pillion, will debut in the United States on Feb. 6.