[Alexander Skarsgård in Empire Bio at Soundvenue's preview of 'Pillion'. (Photo: Sophus Wolf/Soundvenue)]
Alexander Skarsgård in Copenhagen: "A long time ago I made the mistake of googling my name"
Soundvenue.com (x) Jan 21, 2026, Jacob Ludvigsen
Swedish superstar Alexander Skarsgård visited Soundvenue's preview of the irresistible 'Pillion' last week. Here he talked about everything from the film's "fantastic" sex scenes to his wild red carpet outfits and the time he ran to auditions for six years without getting a role.
REPORTAGE. "There must be a lot of interest in the gay biker community," joked Alexander Skarsgård when I told him that Soundvenue's preview of 'Pillion' had sold out in a few hours.
But even though Harry Lighton's debut film comes to the country with great international praise, it was of course primarily the actor's rare public appearance in Denmark that created a rush for tickets and a rather electric atmosphere in the hall.
In short, there were many who were excited to see the 1.94 meter tall Swedish giraffe, and they met a relaxed and welcoming superstar who greeted the audience with a crooked smile and the line: "Davs, Danish jävla!".
[Alexander Skarsgård with Harry Melling in 'Pillion'. (Photo: Reel Pictures)]
Skarsgård plays one of the two main roles in the British film, which is something as unusual as a funny and charming story about a dominance relationship in a gay motorcycle club.
Harry Melling – who has come a long way since Dudley in 'Harry Potter' – plays the shy and inexperienced Colin, who is chosen by the mysterious and divinely handsome biker Ray (Skarsgård, of course) to be his pillion : a kind of benevolent servant who cooks, shops and sucks cock, in short, obeys his master's slightest commands.
The central relationship in 'Pillion' may seem odd, but as was clearly felt in Empire Bio on Wednesday, the story strikes a universal nerve with its both warm and touching portrayal of a young man trying to find himself and his sexuality.
And it says a lot about Alexander Skarsgård that it is precisely this kind of film that he has invested his time and talent in. For indeed we saw him as 'Tarzan' in the blockbuster film from 2016, but otherwise his career has largely been characterized by odd choices and challenging roles that have often played self-ironically against his statuesque exterior.
[Alexander Skarsgård in conversation with Soundvenue's film editor Jacob Ludvigsen in Empire Bio. (Photo: Sophus Wolf/Soundvenue)]
He's been serious and unpleasant in 'Big Little Lies' and 'The Diary of a Teenage Girl', he's gone overboard in Brandon Cronenberg's acid horror 'Infinity Pool' and Robert Egger's Viking epic 'The Northman', he was an endearing and weird Swedish tech bro in 'Succession', and he was really funny in both 'Murderbot' and his cameos in 'Atlanta' and 'What We Do in the Shadows'. Soon we'll see him as a self-absorbed film director in Charli XCX's mockumentary 'The Moment'.
The eldest of Stellan Skarsgård's now numerous acting sons seems, in short, like a man who goes his own way, but as he said in the conversation on stage after 'Pillion', it is something relatively new that he has enjoyed the privilege of being able to turn down roles.
Here are some of the highlights from Alexander Skarsgård's visit to Nørrebro:
About the collaboration with Harry Melling
"We didn't really have time to rehearse because I came straight from other shoots. Harry and I first met two days before we started filming. We were rehearsing a wrestling scene, so we really got to know each other there!"
"We just jumped into it, which was really fun because Harry is a fantastic actor and very generous, so I never really knew what he was going to give me and where the scene was going to go. We didn't want to waste those magical moments by sitting around a table drinking coffee and talking about it. The surprises were going to come in front of the camera instead."
About the cracks in the facade
"I loved when I read the script that there wasn't a big reveal where Colin finds out something fundamental about Ray and there's a big argument. I really hoped it wouldn't be so conventional. And to my great delight, he remained a mystery."
[Alexander Skarsgård in Empire Bio at Soundvenue's preview of 'Pillion'. (Photo: Sophus Wolf/Soundvenue)]
"But we still wanted to have some hints and clues to Ray's past, which would maybe also go against the clichés of this domineering leather biker. We gave him some dorky reading glasses, we made him a little solemn and intellectual, while also just being a dude ."
About the movie's sex scenes
"The sex scenes are pretty amazing, I think, because they all have a meaning to the story. I think sex scenes are generally pretty boring because the tension is in the build-up before the sex scene, and then once it starts, the tension is gone. The amazing thing about these sex scenes is that they bring Colin's story to life: the first blowjob, the first sexual intercourse, the first orgasm. It all means something."
About the members from the authentic Gay Bikers Motorcycle Club in England who appear in the film
"It's a big club, but not everyone is into BDSM, although some of them are. So there are also actors in the film who are not bikers, but part of the London kink scene, and they helped shape scenes like the orgy. They brought their own dildos, and their own lube – and they gave good advice, like 'we wouldn't use that lube, we'd use this one'."
About depicting the BDSM environment in a new way
"Harry Lighton, who both wrote and directed the film, approached the subculture with love, tenderness and curiosity, but also with humor, which I thought was interesting. It felt accessible."
"The love story is set up in some ways like a British Richard Curtis rom-com from the 90s, with a montage and everything. It felt tonally different. This subculture is often portrayed as being constantly shocking and in your face . In the old movie 'Cruising' they go down into the basement and it's scary and intimidating. The important thing here was to portray them as individuals."
About his wild outfits at the premieres of 'Pillion', which have caused both excitement and debate
"A long time ago I made the mistake of reading things online and Googling my name, and I'm not online that way anymore. I don't read anything anymore, not even reviews. I do a movie, a press day or a red carpet, and then I'm on."
"But here it's been about paying homage to the themes of the film for me. And many of the premieres have been with The Gay Motorcycle Bikers guys, and it's been fun hanging out with them, and I've obviously been influenced by the aesthetics of that world. Afterwards we've been out partying, and a gray suit just felt really boring to me!"
About the difficult start to his career
"For many years I couldn't get work as an actor. My first job in the US was three scenes in 'Zoolander', and I spent six years after that going to auditions without getting anything. I lived in LA, but went back to Stockholm to work as a cleaner in a café for a few months, save up money, and then went back to the US to go to castings. But without landing anything. Until 2007 when I got 'Generation Kill' (David Simon's masterful HBO war series, ed.). So for many years I didn't have the luxury of being able to choose – it was just good if I got a job."
"It came gradually, and the last couple of years I've been able to do things that I was really drawn to, and now I'm at a place in my life and my career where I can also take some time off and where I don't have to jump from one role to the next. If there's not something I'm really passionate about creatively, I can wait for the next one."
About going 'Tarzan' on it
"I had a party on it, really. It was an amazing experience, because I hadn't done anything on that scale before. The most fun thing for me is being able to jump from 'The Northman,' which was also a big epic film on a big budget, and then to something like 'Pillion,' or to 'Succession' occasionally, which was also just fundamentally different. 'The Northman' were big set pieces , 'Succession' was playful and fun, and it was liberating after eight months of 'The Northman.'"
[Alexander Skarsgård in 'Tarzan'. (Photo: PR)]
"But I wouldn't say I learned that I don't want to make big studio films, because both 'The Northman' and 'Tarzan' were very satisfying experiences in their own way."
About being able to put up with each other
"The common thread is things that excite me. It has to be a character that I'm really curious about, and then also a group of people that I want to collaborate with. Not just a few months of shooting, but also... So every time I have a meeting with a director, I think: Do I want to spend two months with this person, from pre-production to promotion? We've been traveling with 'Pillion' since May, and it's not even out yet. So you spend a lot of time together, and it's about finding some people you want to do it with."
On getting feedback from his father – and his now deceased grandmother
"He's not like his mother was. She was brutally honest. She was like, 'I saw that movie and you just called it in.' And I was like, 'You're right, Grandma, I did.' My dad wraps it up a bit more, he doesn't say, 'It's terrible.' But then he also has 49 kids, so I don't think he sees everything we're in!"
About having a party with Trier and the end of the world
"The last time I shot in Scandinavia was here in Denmark, one day on 'Kingdom: Exodus'. It was the first time in over a decade that I worked here, and I loved it. I had the privilege of working with von Trier many years ago on 'Melancholia' in Trollhättan, and it was one of the highlights of my career. The film is about the end of the world, but it was like a summer camp where we all stayed in a hotel in the forest in Sweden. Lars was quick: We shot at 9 am, and at 3 pm he was like, 'let's have dinner'. And then there was a party. It was incredible – and by the way, the only time I've worked with my father. We had one scene together."
Presented the idea of making a film featuring all the Skarsgård actors:
"Oh my God."
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'Pillion' has its Danish cinema premiere on February 26th.
[Google translate]