Happy Sad Confused - Alexander Skarsgard, Vol. II

Episode Date: April 27, 2022

Josh welcomes Alexander Skarsgard back to the podcast for a special LIVE event in New York City to chat about THE NORTHMAN, and Alex's career, from ZOOLANDER and TRUE BLOOD, to his Thor audition, to BIG LITTLE LIES, and more! Don't forget to check out the Happy Sad Confused patreon here! We've got exclusive episodes of GAME NIGHT, video versions of the podcast, and more! For all of your media headlines remember to subscribe to The Wakeup newsletter here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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You mean blow up the building From this moment on None of you are safe New episodes every Wednesday Wherever you get your podcasts Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, sad, confused begins now. Today on Happy, Say, Confused, a special live taping in New York City with the Northman star, Alexander Scarsgaard. Hey guys, I'm Josh Harowitz. Welcome to another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused.

And yes, if you weren't able to come out to our podcast taping in New York City last week, I'm happy to say we have here the conversation taped. before a live audience. I feel like I'm not talking about like a classic sitcom tape before a live studio audience. But no, this was a fun night at the Y. We've done a few of these lately.

We got a chance to screen the Northman last Thursday evening and followed it up with a great chat with Alex Garsgaard, who is the producer and star of this film. You've probably heard me talk

about this movie by now. I love this movie. It is a kind of a great fusion of a big ambitious action adventure revenge tale with the sensibilities of an artist like Robert Eggers truly he's got the goods if you know that if you've seen The Lighthouse and the Witch

and he brings it to another level in this film and I just love it. It has at its center, this great performance, this this impressively muscular performance from Alex Garsgaard. He transformed his body because he was a mess to begin with. No, I jest. But he did.

I mean, he's kind of like a beast in this movie. You'll see it. There are some amazing sequences of these extended shots, these oners throughout the film. There are supporting performances from Nicole Kidman and Clay's Bang and Ethan Hawk and Bjork and you tell her joy. And at its core, it is a very kind of personal revenge story about a young man turned into Alexander Scars Gardner when he grows up who is seeking vent. for what he views as a profound wrong inflicted on him and his family. And it's all set against this gorgeous backdrop. They shot it in Iceland and Ireland, and it's just fantastic.

So the Northman is in theaters right now. I will say this conversation, a couple pieces of context, this happened, as I said, after a screening of the film. So we do get into some kind of spoiler stuff in the conversation. If you are, A, if you haven't seen the film and you don't, want it ruined for you in any way, I would advise waiting, waiting a beat, or at least listening with your thumb close to that pause or fast forward button. If you don't care about that sort of thing, I think you're still fine. There's a lot of this conversation that's kind

of in broad terms talking about the film without getting into the nitty-gritty. But if you are spoiler averse, tread lightly, or maybe come back to this after you see in the Northman. And as I said, it's well worth your time. Alex Scarsguard has been on the podcast, but it's been quite a while, so it was great to catch up with him. He, I love his dry sense of humor. I love the fact that he is this like soft-spoken, really humble guy, despite like looking like, you know, a god, pretty much. But we had a good time Thursday night, and he was sweet to share his time with me and the audience at the Y, and I think everybody had a great time and on a crazy night filled with Viking revenge. What more can you ask for? So that's a,

That's the main event in this. Oh, one other note for the podcast. As always, there are a couple visual cues. Obviously, this is something we did in person. So I do show a couple images at one point. Again, I don't think much will be lost. But just so you know, there are a couple of visual cues in this. We play a couple of clips, but you'll be able to hear those. So anyway, that's the, that goes with the territory when you're taping a live event for podcast use. Any other things I want to mention? No, I don't know. Like everybody else, I am drowning in TV and film content. I've been watching The Offer, which has been kind of a fun watch. I mean, anybody that loves film, loves all the stories surrounding the making of the

Godfather. So I'm binging through that one, and it's a fun one, directed by Dexter Fletcher, written by the great Michael Tolkien, and has a great cast. So kind of a guilty pleasure and just like, it kind of goes right through me, but like it's enjoyable because it's, you know, dipping its toe in these famous stories. And I will say Matthew Good, maybe my favorite in the show as the iconic producer Robert Evans. Yeah, that's just foremost on my mind because I've been binging that for the last few nights. Other things to mention. No, I guess that's it. We've got some really cool guests that I've already thanked coming in the weeks to come. I've got a very big event, a premiere that I'm going to be going to and covering in a very big way in the next week or two.

I don't want to – I mean, it'll happen. I'm not going to jinx it here for you guys right now, but you'll know it when you see it. And I will certainly be talking about it here in the podcast and on my social media, Joshua Horowitz. But suffice it to say, you know, I'm a – I'm a jaded guy who's done many a red carpets and event. The one coming up will be one to – remember, I think, and I hope. Anyway, that's the tease for what's coming up. Let's get right

to the main event. Again, this is me and Alex Garsgaard moments after a crowd at the 92nd Street Y has seen the crazy film that is The Northman. Enjoy. Ladies and gentlemen, he likes long walks in the park and naked volcano fights.

It's Alexander Scarsgaard. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for coming out this Thursday evening for just, you know, a nice little rom-com for the family, a sweet one. guys let's give it up for this movie i've seen this movie twice i'm obsessed with it do you enjoy the northman first of all okay um thanks for coming by man this is so this is home this is one of alex's home so welcome back home to new york city thank you very much it's good to be back um congratulations on this one man this is i you know i'm a sucker for a big big swing of a movie and you guys went all

out for this one. I pity the fools that try to do the next Viking film after this. Talk to you a little bit about this. I know this is a passion project for you. I don't know what that says about you, that your passion project is... To fight naked on top of an erupting volcano. Exactly. This is what every boy

dreams of, right? But how far back does this go? As a kid, were you raised on tales like the Northman? A little bit. My great grandfather built a house on an island called Erland in the Baltic, and we've had, it's been in the family ever since, and we go there every summer, and it happened to be a place with almost 200 runestones from the Viking Age, so some of my earliest memories are from

walking around the island with my grandfather and seeing these massive runestones and him telling me about the runic inscriptions and what they um the tales that were told on these runestones about these um intrepid explorers to far away lands and that was obviously quite um exciting for a young boy so uh i think somewhere i didn't want to be an actor at the time like it took 20 years to decide that. But the idea of one day maybe telling a tale about these people would be a dream. But yeah, it took a little while. I mean, this is a film in part about destiny, about fate, and not to get too highfalutin, but it seems like you found the right filmmaker. You found the right match in Robert Eggers. If you guys have seen, obviously, The Witch, the Lighthouse,

a very particular specific visionary of a young filmmaker. Talk to me about like the early days of this collaboration. As I understand that you were meeting about a different project and somehow this came up or an idea of something like this came up. Yeah, it felt like the Norns had decided that this was our fate. So about 10 years ago, Lars Knudsen, who is a Danish-born U.S.-based producer, who ultimately produced this movie with us. Lars and I teamed up with the goal and the intention was to

make a big epic Viking story, but something that was rooted in the old Icelandic sagas, the old Edda poetry and something that would try to capture the essence of those, the authenticity and the because I had really, I'd never seen that on screen before. And something that took the spiritual elements, the supernatural elements seriously and really went into that world. So that was our goal.

But it took, so for four or five years, we were trying to figure out if we should base the story, center it around one of the sagas, or if it should be a combination of the sagas or if it should be, there are also some crazy historical figures during the Viking Age that could be potentially also a great starting point.

So we were basically just trying to figure out, again, a starting point of something to what would be the genesis of this. And then I met out with Rob unrelated to that five years ago and it turned out that he had just, returned from Iceland he was not interested in Vikings he thought it was like a macho bullshit culture and it was like the kind of the cliches and the he was not into it but then he went to Iceland he kind of fell in love with the the the people the country the culture and got really interested in in in Norse

mythology so so I basically met with him at the perfect time where he was fired up about that and I told him on that I had this desire of one day making a Viking movie. He got fired up, and we ended up spending that meeting, not talking about the project we were supposed to talk about, but it said Vikings for two hours. And coincidentally, Lars Knutzen had, this was just as, I believe the witch was still playing in theaters.

It was around that time. I had seen the witch, and I thought it was incredible, and it was very obvious that Rob is all about authenticity, and his attention to detail is extraordinary. and it really did feel like I was transported back in time watching that movie. And again, those were all components that were essential for our movie. So I, again, Lars Knutzen had produced The Witch. So leaving that meeting, I called Lars a meeting, and I said,

I just sat down with Rob. He's incredible, and he's a Viking fan now. He wasn't, but he is now. And I think we should ask him if he wants to do this. team up on this. And that's how that was kind of the genesis of what ultimately became the Northman. It's a gorgeous film to watch. It also

looks like a miserable film to make. It's palpable on screen. You did not, I wonder if there are days when you're like maybe I should have done like the, you know, the James Cameron thing and just shot this in a void in Australia. Yeah, because Rob had done two films. The Witch and the Lighthouse. Two

very small, low-budget, art house. films, the lighthouse is two dudes in a lighthouse. There are no big set pieces. So you can, I wouldn't say that those shoots were easy, but to shoot it on film, scenes with just one long camera move

is doable. No one had told Rob how to shoot an action film. No one told him that you probably need more setups and more coverage. And to do a big set piece like the raid of the Slav village as a wander is

crazy but again no one told Rob so he was like well we're going to shoot it on with Jaron Blaschka his amazing cinematographer and they were like well we're going to do it

the way we work it's on film and it's one long shot and we just kind of plan it accordingly and everyone was terrified but also quite exhilarated because it, again, it's a way of working that is incredibly unique. And again, especially when it comes to a big action movie.

So it was not easy, but also we knew that it wouldn't be easy. So we started prep on those big set pieces several months before the shoot, working with the stunt team and also with Jaron in his camera department, because so much of it is about the relationship between the actors and the camera because we're all running but the camera operator is also running so it's about finding that rhythm

so we can have the right fluidity to those shots and again Rob being all about authenticity it's he chose amazing locations but they're remote and it's we're in the elements and we're out there and it is a blessing and a curse

because it's exhausting and tough but it's also incredibly immersive because when you shoot those sequences the fact it is hard to do it all the way through but it's also quite nice to not have to stop and go because once you're in it and the adrenaline is pumping you don't it's not like oh do this

and then go get a cappuccina and then come back into the rest Like, you're actually going through the whole thing. And you're in an environment that is 360, 100% real. Like, those sets were built on some of them a year before we started shooting the film with Neil Price, who's an amazing Viking scholar, historian, and a team of four or five other world-class Viking experts

that worked with Rob on making sure that the longhouse was built exactly the way a longhouse would have been built with the right type of wood and that the long ship would have the right type of nails like everything was legit which

made my job I wouldn't say easy but definitely easier than it could have been because again like you're when you're in those clothes you know that everything is authentic and you walk around the set and everything is and feels real

when everybody's at the top of their game they're all putting so much heart and soul in blood and tears into every facet from the clothing to the set designs of the shots if you don't want to let down that six minute one or no and also credit to focus and regency for

trusting Rob for investing this much money and on a project like this an art house filmmaker who's made two low-budded movies and also allowing him to shoot it the way he wanted with the team he wanted he had the same

costume designer, set designer that he has collaborated with for years and that is incredibly rare. They often go, oh, you've done a couple of cool indie films come do this movie for us, but we'll give you the team around you.

You're going to shoot it on a sound station. We tell you how to do it kind of on, but that was really exciting for me and again, it is quite rare. Are you considering a side hustle of like a diet book or exercise guide to the to the Amlith body for 2022.

Oh, God, no. I'm so done with that. I mean, look, you're obviously always in shape, but this guy I just, we all just saw on screen, is like a monster of a dude. And I know you transformed for Tarzan in a different way. That took a lot. But this, I mean, what were you trying to get across the physicality?

What was important to you to give off for Amel? with. Psychologically, this was easier than Tarzan because on Tarzan I had to be very lean. So Magnus Ligbach, a friend of mine who I, yeah, one Magnus fans are out. The Magnus heads are out. Yeah. Magnus fan club of one is here. Magnus. Yeah. Magnus is fantastic. And we worked together on Tarzan. And on that one, well, first of all, We'd never worked together before. So that was also, we'd been friends for years, but we'd never worked together. So Magnus didn't know how my body would respond to specific diets or specific type of training and all that.

And Tarsin, I had to be kind of lean, so it was nine months of no alcohol. I do like my beer, and I wasn't allowed any. And no bread, no pasta, no fast carbs, no sugar. I wasn't even allowed a glass of orange juice in the morning. So that was a much stricter diet when it came on the Northman. First of all, we had that almost nine, ten months together on Tarzan, so we could kind of hit the ground running when we started prep on the Northman because we knew each other very well.

Magnus knew how my body would respond to specific types of training and diet. And also the goal was the character's name is Bjornulfur. He's a bear wolf, so it was quite easy. He was just like, all right, just try to look a bit more like a bear. So it was more about just getting a bit bigger and getting a physique that was not as lean as my natural physique and putting on weight. So he treated me to some beers and pasta and bread. So that was a lifesaver. The cast in this film is remarkable.

I'm such a fan of so many of these great actors. from annual Taylor Joy. Ethan Hawks sets the table with Willem DeFoe in the beginning, with the young performer as well. Nicole Kidman, I mean, it sounds insane to say, but like, you shouldn't be surprised by a Nicole Kidman performance at this point. But she's amazing in this, I mean, newsflash. You've obviously worked with her before.

She's got a bright future header. She's doing all right. Yeah. I spot talent, Alex. I think I know something. Just you wait, guys. Remember where you heard it first. Remember where you heard it first.

He's going to hit her stride. But you worked with her on Big Little Eyes. Was she your idea, I take it, or? I think we all agree. As soon as the, so Nicole and I, Big Little Eyes was an extraordinary experience. And, oh, thank you, thank you. But to share that with Nicole was

a very bonding experience because, again, It demanded so much trust in order to go into that darkness mentally and physically. So we're really kind of needed to be there together and to trust each other in order to kind of commit to it the way we had to. So that connection was incredibly strong and one of the greatest connections I've ever felt on a set. So when the first, very early on, even before the first draft, when we started talking about Queen Guzran, I think we all agree that Nicole would be the dream queen.

So after Big Little Eyes, Nicole and I had said, let's find something. Let's do something fun together. That's pretty much what we said. That's kind of what we said. Let's do something again, but maybe next time not as dark and twisted as this. Oh, you fuck that one up, Alex. Yeah, so then two years later, I called us.

Nicole, I found something. You're now my mother, and you try to kiss me, and so it's... Please, I never knew I needed to hear Nicole Kim and scream kill him like I did in this film. It's chilling, and I just want to hear it on a loop the rest of my life. Yeah. No, it was extraordinary, and it was that scene in which she took. tries to kiss me was actually our first scene together and Nicole joined the shoot like halfway through production on she was busy on another project and we were shooting all the big like

set pieces that she's not in and then she joined us and we had that scene coming up and it was just after two months of as much I love crawling around in the mud and fighting but to be reunited with Nicole on a scene that is so beautifully written and in so many twists and turns in that scene was definitely the highlight of the entire shoot. It was incredible. And because we know each other so well and we have established that trust,

it also meant that we could just show up to set and again day one for us together and just jump in and go for it. It's a remarkable scene from both of you. Another remarkable scene I alluded to earlier. This is definitely far and away the best naked volcano fight I've ever seen in a film. Top ten at least, right?

Top five. Be kind to yourself. I watched an interview with Robert Eggers, your director the other day. CG genitals in that fight? Correct me if I'm wrong? Or we're Ken dolls. We've got nothing.

It's kind of creepy. I haven't analyzed. Like, there's nothing. Yeah. Is it as fun to shoot as it looks in the film? I mean, where in the shoot? Did you shoot that? Is that like circled on the calendar?

Like, this is going to be a day or a week? A week. And it was on, of course, as they always do when they plan stuff, they put that at the very end just before Christmas. It's like, oh, the guys are going to be naked and wet because I was covered in blood and sweat. So we're going to hose them down, and it was literally like snowing two of those five days and night shoots. So it was, and obviously not done in a nice, warm studio. It was in a quarry outdoors.

And, yeah, it was definitely quite immersive. and also that's probably the toughest sequence to shoot because unlike the other big set pieces are technically quite difficult but psychologically easy or not easy but at least like again in the raid amleth is bear wolf and he's in a berser state of mind so it's just like that kind of thing this was tricky because it was technically quite difficult, and again, as a oneer.

But it also had to be the emotional climax of the movie. So it wasn't just like, all right, I'm just like a berser state of mind and going for it. You had to kind of find that in the midst of the chaos of all that. All right, you're ready to go deep? We're going deep now. We're going back. We're going back, Alex. You ready?

All right. Here we go. So first of all, we've chatted a bunch over the years. I went back into the archives, and I looked at some of our conversations. I noticed something. I don't know if you guys noticed, Alexander Scarsgaard is very tall, like he's super tall. I want to show you a couple photos. Let's look at this first photo, please.

Look how tall he is. Okay. I don't know if you can tell. Oh, God. Look at that douchebag. Wait, which one are you talking about? What am I doing? Yeah, so the posture.

Let's go to the next photo. This is at Sundance. I was talking to you. Jesus Christ. So do you not know what to do with your body? Like, do you not know how to sit? My God, I'm way too relaxed. You're a little bit professional, dude.

Well, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying... I'm saying that. Okay. But you're doing great tonight. Look at him. We can take it off. We don't need to stare at it.

I'm going to sit up in. God. It's okay. This is an intervention on how to sit. That's basically what this is about. about. There we go. There we go. So, the true Scarsgardians, I don't know, what are your fans called? Do they have a name? Do they have a moniker, the Alexander Scarsguard heads? Okay. You mean my mom? Yeah. Your mom. Yeah. They know it goes all the way back to,

and I believe it's your screen debut in a little movie called Zoolander. Okay I can't think of a better movie To like make your mark in Than Zoolander Will you indulge me Can we look at a clip from Zoolander And tell me what you were thinking

Please, yeah All right Let's take a look at a portion Not the sad part I can't stand Hansel I know right Riding in on that scooter Like he's so cool

And the way Hansel combs his hair Or like doesn't It's like excrease me But have you ever heard of styling gel I'm sure Hansel's heard of styling gel. He's a male model. Well, Earth to Brint, I was making a joke. Earth to Mekis.

Duh, okay. I knew that. Earth to Brinz. I'm not so sure you did, because you were all, Well, I'm sure he's heard of Stalingale. Like you didn't know it was a joke. Ha, ha, ha. I knew it was a joke, Mekis.

I just didn't get it right away. Earth to Brin. Would you guys stop it already? Did you ever think that maybe there's more to life than being really, really, really, really, ridiculously good-looking. I mean, maybe we should be doing something more meaningful with our lives. Like helping people.

Uh, Derek, what people? I don't know. People who need help. Models help people. They make them feel good about themselves. They also show them how to dress cool and wear their hair in interesting ways. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I guess so.

Noah could really help you sort through these important issues. What? Orange Moka Fratapache. I don't know if you guys have seen Zoolander, but it doesn't end well for... No, it does not. For Mekis. I don't know how often you've seen Zuander. I've seen... I watch Zoolander like every other year, because it's a classic.

When you were watching yourself in that, like what memories come... I hadn't seen that. in probably 15 years. So what comes rushing back? I mean, what an opportunity. I mean, obviously, Ben Stiller was a known quantity. You must have known you were in something pretty cool. I was, it was all very surreal because I wasn't an actor, basically.

Well, I just started out in Sweden, but I was in L.A. visiting my dad who was working on a movie and didn't have representation out there. Again, I just started. I was doing a play in Stockholm. And my dad's manager at a dinner one night at the house was just like, hey, oh, you're acting. Let me see you to an audition. Would you like that? And I thought it'd be a funny story for my friends back home. Like, ooh, I'm in Hollywood. I'm going to an audition. And I didn't know what project it was. I knew nothing. I was just like, this is a funny story. And got there. got the sides, read it, and they called, I didn't know what a callback was. So I was like, they called me in the next day.

It's like, can you come back and do it again? I was like, why? I just, all right, well, all right. And walk back into the room, and then Ben Stiller was there. And I recognized him. I was like, all right, cool.

And did it again. And then two days later, they called like, all right, we're going to fly you. I'd never flown business class. We're like, we're going to fly you business class to New York.

We're going to pick you up. in a town car take you to a nice hotel and you're going to like be in this movie and it was absolutely insane two days later we were shooting this and we were shooting this scene uh the following scene in which we're driving down Broadway in a jeep and then we have this gasoline fight um and it was it was incredibly fun we had a blast a really great group of people um but it also kind of distorted my view of or my idea what it was like to be an actor

in Hollywood because it just was it was just too easy. Well and correct me if I'm wrong, but after that you must have been very excited, okay, this is awesome and then years of unemployment essentially right? Yep. Yeah.

No, I went because I was still at a theater in Stockholm so I did that. Again, it was not even two weeks of work but it's so much fun. And then I went back and then my dad's manager said, well, if you want, we can represent you because you're one for one. That's pretty good. But you've got to come out here.

Like when you're on stage in stock, we can't really do much for you. But when you're done with that play, you should come out and we'll send you out for more auditions. And I, a year later, when I was done at the theater, I thought, well, all right, let's go out there and make a two for two. and went out to LA and again with the notion of like you get a phone call you walk in and a movie star is sitting there and then you read a couple of lines

and then you fly a business class somewhere I got this yeah but then reality was quite different because when I got back playing mecas for five minutes in Zuland didn't really like create any waves in Hollywood like were you

are you good at auditions? Is that? I mean, some actors love it. I wasn't very good at it. And I also like, it also made me realize that project like Zoolander, far and few between out there, when you come out as a young actor with no, nothing to, like, I didn't have any cool project. It wasn't like, oh, I was in this Oscar-nominated Swedish movie.

I had nothing. Like my shoulder was very short. It was basically that scene. So it means that you're, you get in on these, called in for these cattle calls, basically, for a jock in a pilot for a sitcom or a, or a, or a, a movie or, you know, boyfriend number four in a horror movie that you don't really like, it's not a fun character, it's not a good project, but you're like, oh, and now I'm auditioning for something that I don't really want and what happens to all the Zoolanders out there like, well, where are those projects? So for several years,

whenever something with potential came up or something that I was thought had some potential, something that was exciting, a character or a project that had some, a little bit of potential, I didn't have a shot. Even if I was lucky enough to get a couple, callbacks, they would always be an established actor who would be like, that's great, I'll take that, thank you. And, uh, because that's how it works out there. Um, so it wasn't until, um, four, four years after, so moving out to LA, um, David Simon and Ed Burns did, uh, who did the wire, they were going to do this limited series called generation kill, um, about the, the invasion and, uh, in, uh, of, uh, of, I

rack and they their style is very documentarian and they intentionally went after unknown so they like it was basically stated like we want some people had done a bunch of things but they didn't want big names at least um and then i went like oh this might be my shot it's funny like we need those projects every once in a while i can't tell you how many interviews i've done with actors successful actors that were like in band of brothers for instance in like two scenes right those like ensembles that were all unknowns yeah and then 15 years later like that's all they needed they needed just some some shot yeah and and that was that was the one that was the pretty much the first on project I got even close to getting and it happened to be something

that I was incredibly excited about I'm always fascinated by the I mean like look you ended up with the clearly the Viking the Norseman that you were meant to be but is there in the Marvel vaults an audition tape of you dressed as Thor? You were up for that. I auditioned for it with every other dude in Hollywood, pretty much. I don't think I, again, I probably wasn't very good. Really? I don't think so.

I don't think so. I remember I met Kenneth Brown. He was lovely. But I think it was like when I was one year into True Blood, it was very, very, early. It was like, so I did Generation Kill and went in Africa for seven months, 07, and then we started True Blood 08. And I think this was like 2009 maybe or something. The auditions for Thor. So I was still very green. And, yeah, I don't think I was very good. I wasn't ready for that. Again, the right role at the right time came. Yeah. One of those right roles, and you just alluded to it, was True Blood. True Blood really. Thank you. True Blood clearly changed things a lot of, for many actors in that cast.

I have one more clip to show you tonight, and it's a clip between you and Anna Pac-Wan. Let's take a look. It's from season four, I believe. I remember everything. Us. Nothing's changed. Except you. I haven't changed.

I'm just more. The other Eric is still here. Mm-hmm. Soogie. Look at me. Can't you see him in my eyes? Yes. So what's a problem?

Bill. When you were about to kill him, I just couldn't bear the thought of a world without him in it. I think it was how I was able to stop you. I love you. I don't want to lie to you. But I can't help it. I love him, too.

How is that possible? Sometimes I think it's... I think that's you've both given me your blood. Maybe it's... Just chemical. You gave yourself to me completely. You are mine. I never promised that.

And you gave yourself. to me completely. Yes, I did. I love you. Damn Bill. Oh, he's getting in the way. Oh, Bill. So talk to me a little bit about just, obviously,

again, a very pivotal point in your career and that relationship in particular, those two characters. is very integral to the series and probably, I would think, a soft spot in your heart working with Anna for all those years. What does that take you back to to think of that relationship and that character, Eric?

It's by far the longest professional relationship I've ever had. Seven years. As an actor, when you freelance, it's a couple of weeks, a couple of months, and then you have this hopefully intense connection and then you move on and you might stay friends, but your, you know, your career will take you in different directions.

So to have this every year for seven years, we did about seven months and then five months off was such a, such a treat because it was an extraordinary group of people not only in front of camera but also behind. We had the same, pretty much the whole, the same crew every year. And that's also something that really treasured, the fact that Larry was our boom-up rate for seven years. And again, like, you make these connections and then you move on. But to have that for so many years was really special. And when we started the show, it sounded so preposterous and crazy.

I got to remember, this was before Twilight. Vampire Diaries. It was like 2008 was the first season. It was very early. So vampire Viking and fairies and everyone was just, this is crazy. So no one knew whether it was going to work or not. So to kind of experience that on shooting the first season and having a blast, but also thinking like Alan Ball is super talented, but there's no way this is going to work. Like people actually don't watch this? And then how it kind of hit the zeitgeist in a way to kind of grow

together all of us, actors and crew was really special. I'm sure you guys obviously are aware of the extraordinary talent in Alexander's family, number of actors, very successful actors. I'm curious, like, do you guys,

like, are you aware of, like, what you guys are working on? Like, does your dad Stelan say, like, oh yeah, I'm going to be Baron Harconin and Dune? Does Bill say, what do you think of Pennywise? Like, do you, like, talk work with each other or is it kind of like do you read the trades or get to see a thing on Twitter and get surprised like everybody else? It's a little bit of both. We're yeah, we're incredibly tight but also terrible at like communicating. So like I will call Bill and I, when I'm in

Stockholm and I'll be like, hey, you want to go for a beer? And it's like, oh no, I'm in South Africa shooting this thing. Look, here's a picture. I's like, oh, that looks crazy. Oh, I've been here for Three months. Oh, cool. So it's and it's like South Stockholm has always been our base, our hub, and I'm the only one living

here. Everyone else is within like two blocks of where we grew up. Sam and August, my two brothers, actually live in the apartment we've lived in since 1980. It was an apartment in South Stockholm that day, when mom and dad moved out, they

divided into two apartments. Gus and his family live in one part and Sam and his and the other. And everyone else is like, again, within a few blocks. So it's kind of our, that's the epicenter of our universe. And then we're all traveling around doing crazy stuff. And then we always come back to that point. I don't know how much of your like taste in film going back was informed by your family. But the last couple of years on the podcast, I've been asking folks for their comfort movies. Like, and often it's something from their childhood or something. It could be in recent years that you keep coming back to. I'm curious.

It's like one, jump out to you. Is there a movie that you come back to if you need a pick me up or if you need some comfort in your life for whatever reason? Yeah, one that stands. So dad had a pretty extensive collection of DVD, no, God, VHS on cassettes growing up. Kinescoops, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it was mostly black and white movies, a lot of Mark's brothers and the old

like Errol Flynn movies. And then I got to see Star Wars, which blew me away. And then, so I was like watching, and dad and mom and my uncle who lived upstairs with his wife, they would have these like Woody Allen nights watched like old Woody Allen like the early Woody Allen movies the bananas and take the money and run like those those more like super comedy stuff love and death was one of my all-time favorites love and death and I was kind of too young to understand it but I was like oh this is funny because they're laughing but but but then I saw and I was a massive fan of Star Wars um but speaking of comfort movies I remember when I saw romancing the Stone, Robert Smakey's.

And it blew, and again, a caveat here, I haven't seen it in probably 20 years. So it's not, I don't know if it holds up, but I remember watching it, and it blew my mind because I was familiar with the concept of comedies from like the old Woody Allen movies and the Marx Brothers and Laurel and Hardy. and the concept of like

action movies like adventure films, sci-fi, like through the Star Wars movies. But this was a movie that had action elements and it was funny. And that blew me. I was like, what? You can do both in the same movie? That's crazy. So it was the greatest thing I'd ever seen. And I would watch it pretty much every weekend. But again, I haven't seen it in many years. I haven't either,

but Zemeckis pick is always a good pick. I'll recommend, if you haven't in a while, Jewel and Nile is not a great film. It's the sequel, but it did give us one of the great music videos of all time when the going gets tough, which features the entire cast. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a good one. That's a good.

Go back on YouTube and check it out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. Let's end with a few questions from the audience. There are a lot of questions about this film and you, so we'll run through a couple, and then we'll all just contemplate what we watched here tonight for the rest of our lives. Good luck sleeping tonight.

Yeah, exactly. you owe them all a lot of therapy bills since this was a passion project what things did you personally feel needed to be in the film if anything you alluded to this a bit but what yeah it's core what was like well it was the the essence of the old Icelandic sagas it was important to capture the the laconic tone of it the the harshness of the landscape and the characters I felt that a lot of not a lot but the few I didn't want the language to be flowery. I didn't want it to be, again, I wanted to be very precise because that's, at the end of poetry, it's all about that kind of, it's very concise. So not too verbose. And an important element was to kind of go beyond

the stereotypes of Vikings and the cliches and take the supernatural element seriously. this is an interesting one because yeah it ran through my brain too the question is would you consider Nicole's character the villain like who is the villain in this story it's kind of an interesting question it's an interesting question and I think it should be left

a question and not an answer because I think it makes for a more interesting conversation so we had the first premiere in Stockholm two weeks ago and that was the first time I saw the movie with an audience and not only any audience, but like an audience of my mom and dad, my siblings, and my childhood friends. It was a very emotional evening, but getting the reactions afterwards was really fascinating because some people, how they interpreted the ending, for example.

Some people saw it very positive and as a happy thing, and some people were miserable. And some people, and again, same thing with heroes versus villains. And I was really intrigued by that. And I feel, I've really, again, this is, we're coming to the end of three weeks of press now. But I've consciously avoided talking about my interpretation of, again, the ending. Is he happy? Has he landed? Is he where he wants to be?

Is he doing the right thing? Who's a hero? Who's a villain? I think it makes for a, hopefully a more immersive experience when you watch a movie. At least I feel that way, the less I know about the characters or where the filmmaker or producer or actor wants me, like, what do you want to take, what do you want the audience to take away from this? I never like answering that because it's like, it's up to you. Like, it's out there now.

So I want to leave that open to your imagination in a way. This is from Camille and Alex. Well done tag teaming on a question. And they have a smiley face on the card, so bonus points for that. So much of the soundscape in the film was built with beating drums and pounding percussion. Was this recreated on set when filming and did it affect your performance? A little bit was on set. The transformation in the beginning of the movie, the ritual, that was all done with drummers on set behind camera to give us the right beat.

for that kind of from Sydney how did you maintain both the physical and emotional stamina during those long takes I think it's just adrenaline you just keep going and going and go and you look at it and see what's not working and then you just go straight back into it and again because we kept going in a way it was less exhausting right then if you go like full throttle and then you sit in your trailer for an hour and then go out. Yeah, yeah. This was just like

chaos till we finally got it. Then you can sleep for a night. Right. Is there a scene when you watch back the film that you take kind of the most pride in or just you can't like believe how it was done and how it was executed and just that you got it to the finish line? Um

um well the the raid was tricky because there's so many components to it. And the raid is, it looks like it's a one, but I think it's two different shots, it's stitched together, is that right? Two shots, yeah.

Yeah. So it's easy. You're walking apart. But that was, there were so many components to that. Yeah. That was, that was tricky. Technically. But again, like we talked about earlier, the fight at the end, the end

fight was more exhausted after that week because first of all it was towards the end of the shoot it was at night, it was cold and not only technically difficult but emotionally

it was very draining. Coming off a project like this do you take a way like that you can enjoy all manners of filming? Because it strikes me, you know, we talked about like Eggers technique, these long takes these very intense, kind of immersive environments.

And then, like, on the flip side of a different kind of immersion, it was something with the Sally the late great Jean-Marc valet sounded like, on Big Little Eyes, a very kind of actor-friendly, loose environment on set, seemingly giving you the space to kind of move where you wanted to move. Do you find both rewarding in their own way? In the future, do you think you'll gravitate towards one over the other? I've never worked like this before

so I'm way more used to the kind of more slightly Big Little Lives was very barely blocked the scenes you show up and you play around with it and it's all handheld and kind of like Larsson Tree works as well it's like he never blocks the scene

it's just like try it we'll see what happens but I've never done a project that was this meticulously planned and so again with just one shot that was it could easily I think at the beginning it's a moment where you have to decide

if you're going to resist it and be like no I'm an actor I need to explore the space I need to find it that would have been a disaster because Rob does not work that way so it's either that or embrace it and see this as a challenge

and try to all right well these are the parameters. This is how Robin Jaron wants to shoot the scene. My job is to try to instill life into this and not make it look robotic. Well, I think it's telling that, because I heard William Defoe do a lot of interviews around the lighthouse, and he talked about how at first

he was very resistant to it. And now, lo and behold, he's obviously an Eggers fan. He's back and enjoys my body as well. And I agree with Willem there. I really decide, I was just like, I don't know, I'm going to embrace this. this is let's see if we can do this and then when it is tough it's challenging but when it works it's it's incredibly exciting and and uh rob is so wonderful to collaborate with um it's not didactic

it's he has a very clear idea and very clear image of how he wanted to to play out but um he's definitely open to ideas um when it comes to the i mean you can't completely changed the shop because again they planted six months in advance so then that would take another six months to do that so but but it i no i i i love the fact that i got to go between first big little license and then this and then right after this was succession which was also very like handheld like that kind of which is super fun and after seven months of this it was great to go and do something where like oh just play around see you know i'm going to end with the most important question of the night. Who is Rex Danger? And is Rex Danger you on

Instagram, Alexander Scars? I'm not on social media. No! No! And this is when the audience revolts. Start throwing stuff. Are you telling me, Fibb, are you whying? No. Who, do you know, you've heard that at, that must have been asked of you in the past. Then who is controlling Rex danger. It's not somebody in the Scarsguard universe. Josh, who's controlling anything? Wow. Going deep. I'll let you evade that one. And I want to congratulate you again. Guys, spread the good word on this film because... Thank you for coming out tonight, guys. I mean, I do want to say, it's a special piece of work, man, and, you know, he talked about it earlier. These are the kind of movies, these big swings. This is a bold kind of vision.

and, you know, spread the good word because we want more of this on the big screen. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Thanks for coming out tonight. Give it up for Alexander Scarborough. Thank you so much, guys. Thank you for coming out. And so ends another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused.

Remember to review, rate, and subscribe to this show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm a big podcast person. I'm Daisy Ridley, and I definitely wasn't pressure to do this by Josh. Goodbye. Summer movies Hello Fall. I'm Anthony Devaney. And I'm his twin brother, James. We host Raiders of the Lost Podcast, the Ultimate Movie Podcast, and we are ecstatic to break down late summer and early fall releases.

We have Leonardo DiCaprio leading a revolution in one battle after another, Timothy Salome playing power ping pong in Marty Supreme. Let's not forget Emma Stone and Jorgos Lanthamos' Bagonia. Dwayne Johnson, he's coming for that Oscar in The Smashing Machine, Spike Lee and Denzel teaming up again, plus Daniel DeLuis's return from retirement. There will be plenty of blockbusters to chat about, too. Tron Aries looks exceptional, plus Mortal Kombat 2, and Edgar Wright's The Running Man starring Glenn Powell. Search for Raiders of the Lost podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.