Prolific Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård has opened up about the challenges he’s faced since suffering a scary stroke three years ago.
The 74-year-old Good Will Hunting star, who currently features in Joachim Trier’s newest comedy drama, Sentimental Value, revealed in January that the stroke affected some of his mental faculties, forcing him to utilize new technology now when he films.
Speaking to Vulture in a new interview, the father of eight disclosed that the medical emergency — which happened three years ago, “between one and two of Andor and one and two of Dune” — left his argumentation and language weaker. “I feel that I cannot fight. I can’t have a discussion,” Skarsgård said, admitting that the stroke left him “really scared.”
Yet, in spite of his language struggles, Skarsgård said that with the help of innovative technology, he has “found a way” to act.
“They have earpieces where you have a prompter that says the line,” he explained. “It’s not enough because I have my rhythm. 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.
Stellan Skarsgard suffered a stroke around three years ago (Getty)
(L-R) Gustaf, Bill and Alexander Skarsgård in 2017 at the ‘It’ premiere in Los Angeles (Getty Images)
“You might say, ‘Oh, you’re lucky. You don’t have to learn your lines,’” he continued. “There’s more work now than there was before. 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.”
He further addressed his own mortality, confessing that he’s not afraid of death itself. “I’m not afraid of dying,” the Mamma Mia! actor said, “but I am afraid of not being capable of living. That is a fear. And being boring.”
Skarsgård quipped that “with all my eight kids, there’s one thing I’ve been afraid of every time I have a new kid. Not that they have Down syndrome or they’re autistic … that they’re boring. Luckily, none of them were.”
Six of his eight children have followed in his footsteps, going on to become actors themselves, including his eldest, Alexander (True Blood, Big Little Lies), Gustaf (Vikings, Black Bag), and the It franchise star Bill.
However, he wouldn’t consider them nepo babies. “I consider myself a nepo daddy,” Skarsgård joked, “because I get so much goodwill and maybe jobs because of them.”
