Alexander Skarsgård

Tall, blonde, and handsome, Alexander Skarsgård (birthname: Alexander Johan Hjalmar Skarsgård) is one of the most striking actors to reach the big screen after making powerful impressions on cable series, particularly HBO’s miniseries Generation Kill (2008) and the cabler’s multi-season hit show, on vampires and humans comingling in the Deep South, True Blood.

After this pair, Skarsgård’s movie stock rose considerably. He appeared alongside father Stellan, Kirsten Dunst, Kiefer Sutherland, and Charlotte Gainsbourg in Lars von Trier’s Melancholia (2011), which landed in the main competition of the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.

He appeared opposite Julianne Moore in Scott McGehee’s and David Siegel’s marital drama, What Maisie Knew (2012); followed by the ensemble drama (with Jason Bateman, Andrea Riseborough, and Hope Davis), Disconnect (2012); the drama, The Giver (2013), with Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, and Taylor Swift; Marielle Heller’s acclaimed The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015) with Bel Powley, Kristen Wiig, and Christopher Meloni; reuniting with Riseborough for Matt and Ross Duffer’s thriller, Hidden (2015).

Alexander Skarsgård resumed his role as Adam from Ben Stiller’s Zoolander (2001)—which marked the actor’s American debut—in Zoolander 2 (2016), but his star profile was raised in The Legend of Tarzan (2016), in which he played the King of the Jungle—and the first to do so without a loincloth. His busy big-screen run went unabated in upcoming years, including Kim Nguyen’s thriller, The Hummingbird Project (2018) with Jesse Eisenberg and Salma Hayek; Jeremy Saulnier’s Netflix adventure-thriller, Hold the Dark (2018) with Jeffrey Wright and Riley Keough; Alexander Skarsgård has stayed true to his American roots in quality cable with AMC’s limited series adaptation of John Le Carre’s The Little Drummer Girl (2018) with Florence Pugh and Michael Shannon and guesting in the 2021 season of HBO’s standout corporate family saga, Succession; as well as playing nefarious heavies in HBO’s Big Little Lies (2017-2019, with Nicole Kidman, and the CBS mini-series adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand (2020-2021).

He was part of the distinguished ensemble in Rebecca Hall’s critical triumph, Passing (2021), with Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga, and Andre Holland. He played second fiddle to the big monsters in Godzilla vs. Kong (2021), opposite his Passing director, Hall. Possibly Alexander Skarsgård’s biggest role to date happened in 2022, as the Viking prince Amleth, in Robert Eggers’ Norse saga, The Northman, with Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang, Björk, and Ethan Hawke. Skarsgård’s next project was a starring role in Brandon Cronenberg’s horror-thriller Infinity Pool (2023).

Skarsgård joined the ensemble of debuting director Michael Shannon’s film version of Brett Nevau’s 2022 play, Eric LaRue (2023), starring Judy Greer, Paul Sparks, Alison Pill, Tracy Letts, and Annie Parisse, premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival and released by Magnolia Pictures. Skarsgård played major support to star-producer Kate Winslet in the title role of the WW2 biopic about journalist Lee Miller, Lee (2023), co-starring Marion Cotillard, Andrea Riseborough, Andy Samberg, Noemie Merlant and Josh O’Connor under Ellen Kuras’s direction, based on Antony Penrose’s biography, The Lives of Lee Miller, launching at the Toronto Film Festival and released by Roadside Attractions/Vertical (U.S.)/Sky UK (U.K.)/StudioCanal (France) for a vivid box office nearing $25 million worldwide.

Alexander Skarsgård co-starred with Henry Melling in director/writer Harry Lighton’s British-Irish Queer comedy-drama, Pillion (2025), based on Adam Mars-Jones’s 2020 novel, Box Hill, and produced by BBC Film/BFI/Element Pictures, first premiering at the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section (where it won Best Screenplay) and then released by Picturehouse Entertainment/Warner Bros. Pictures. Skarsgård joined the ensemble as the heavy in director/co-writer Aidan Zamiri’s music mockumentary starring Charli XCX, The Moment (2026), with Rosanna Arquette, Hailey Benson Gates, Kate Berlant, Jamie Demetriou, Kylie Jenner, Isaac Powell, and Rachel Sennott, produced and released by A24 following its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

Skarsgård co-starred with Olivia Colman (who also was a producer), Peter Dinklage, and Elizabeth Debicki in co-directors/co-writers Alex Huston Fischer’s and Eleanor Wilson’s romantic fantasy, Wicker (2026), based on Ursula Wills-Jones’s short story, “The Wicker Husband,” funded by U.K. and U.S. producers (including Topic Studios and Tango Entertainment) and launched at the Sundance Film Festival. Skarsgård led the cast of director/co-writer/producer Nathalie Alvarez Mesen’s 1860s Pacific Northwest-set horror drama, The Wolf Will Tear Your Immaculate Hands (2026), co-written by Sjón, and co-starring Bronte Carmichael and Pernilla August, which was produced by the BFI/Creative Europe/Eurimages.

Alexander Skarsgård starred in director/co-writer Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi’s adventure-drama, The Tiger (date to be announced), based on John Vaillant’s novel, co-starring Dane DeHaan, with lead producers Darren Aronofsky, Brad Pitt, and Dede Gardner (via Plan B Entertainment) and released by producer Focus Features.