Lab Magazine - Fall 2011

Interview by David Fincher

It’s official: Sweden is hot. From the fresh musical stylings of Robyn and Lykke Li to Stieg Larsson’s best-selling Millennium trilogy, right now the world is feeling the need for Swedes and that’s quite alright as far as Stellan Skarsgård is concerned. A Scandinavian native hailing from Gothenburg, the accomplished actor has been embracing that international love for quite some time with roles in "Good Will Hunting", "Angels & Demons", "Thor" and two of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies as crustacean-coated villain Bootstrap Bill Turner. He’s currently keeping his American blockbuster status in check, filming scenes for "The Avengers", but this winter fans will see him return to his homeland in David Fincher’s interpretation of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" – the first of Larsson’s books. Set in Stockholm and the hoary Swedish countryside, Skarsgård plays a suspicious CEO at the heart of the thriller opposite Daniel Craig’s investigative journalist. Fincher was more than happy to catch up with Skarsgård for The Lab and ask him all about his process, their shared work ethic, and of course what they both love about Sweden.

David Fincher: How and where are you?

Stellan: I’m very well. I’m in Sweden right now, but I have a small role in that "Avengers" film so I’m flying back and forth to Albuquerque [New Mexico] for filming, which is an interesting place.

Fincher: That’s a very polite choice of words.

Stellan: Is this a safe line?

Fincher: I think we’re good. I wanted to talk to you mostly about your process, because I would love more actors to be like you.

Stellan: I wouldn’t like that competition.

Fincher: How can you exist with so little insecurity and so much ease? How do you do it?

Stellan: I’m incredibly insecure and afraid. For a couple of years I had total camera fright. I couldn’t function in front of the camera. That was about thirty years ago. Sometimes this panic cloud can come over you then you freeze up – it’s really horrifying. So I spend a lot of energy not being afraid.

Fincher: How does that work? Do you decide I’m just going to go to the office today in my underwear, so to speak?

Stellan: Sometimes I imagine myself without pants on, because if I’m that ridiculous, nothing is dangerous anymore. But basically, I prepare a lot and I don’t spend that much time in my trailer. I’m on the set because I want to become a part of the process of making the film, part of the crew.

Fincher: I loved that and I think it’s infectious for everyone. There’s so little time in the process of making movies to actually spend time making the movie. So being around on set a lot does create community.

Stellan: It also builds the focus around what we’re actually there to do. It heightens the importance of what we’re doing. I feel I’m a part of this huge organism, which is the film crew and the project and that makes me feel safer.

Fincher: It’s funny you used the word ‘importance’ of what we do. I can’t imagine a more nauseating or anxiety-provoking way of making a living than being in front of a camera, but the effect of what you’re doing is the opposite of ‘importance’ because it feels so casual and relaxed.

Stellan: And that’s important, because it might be incredibly important to me but that doesn’t mean that it’s important to the character. What you want to avoid is acting within the lines [of the script] because you don’t have to. The line says what it has to say, but you always have to say something else at the same time, which means that you usually just let go of the lines and end up somewhere where you’re thinking of something else; you see the subtext.

Fincher: It’s the blink between the character expressing himself verbally and what’s really going on that I always find interesting. There are a handful of other people who I’ve seen who are as skilled as you are. You have this amazing internal meaning compass. There were some actors on the set of 'Dragon Tattoo' who could effortlessly destroy the meaning of what was being said. While editing the material, I’ve noticed with your performance you can do five or six completely different ideas [for the same set-up] and yet they all have a beginning, middle and end. It’s like multi-track recording – you might be doing the bass line in one take or the melody with the lead guitar in another and the drums in a third but they’re all in concert with an idea and I find that to be miraculous.

Stellan: That’s what makes it so fun. There are a thousand ways to do it wrong but there are also a thousand ways to do it right. There’s not just one way that is the right way and the fun thing is to be allowed to try different tracks. Many directors don’t have that courage.

Fincher: I want actors to play, especially someone with your kind of virtuosity. There are times when you shoot stuff and you go, I know I have this, and then you keep finding these other interesting nuggets and you think maybe we should try reorienting this scene around that idea. I find looking at the material, there are so many moments that I’m appreciative of now that I wasn’t aware of the complexity of at the time.

Stellan: The other reason I like to do several takes is because you can do it with different temperatures. You don’t know until the film is put together what kind of temperature you really need at that specific point in the film. It’s good for the director to have a lot of alternatives.

Fincher: I try to encourage people to be sort of selfish. I think an actor’s job is to be inside the thing looking out. You should be there and keep responding and we’ll try it in different ways. When I see you on the screen, I see somebody who is absolutely listening to those two people who are off camera; somebody who is absolutely seeing something that is happening right there.

Stellan: Every actor is eager to please and wants to be the good pupil and deliver something of value. Whether you like it or not. a certain kind of tension occurs inside you. You can’t be tense for 20 takes and so by shooting so many takes it breaks down actors who’ve rehearsed too well at home and come with a too solidified idea about how things should be done. They crumble after a couple of takes and that’s nice.

Fincher: Exactly. They know it inside out; you know where you’re going and now I want you to fall. I want you to stumble.

Stellan: When we met [to talk about the film] you said, “This is not going to be fun,” and I asked why, and you said, “Because I sometimes do 40 takes of each set up.” I couldn’t see why that couldn’t be fun.

Fincher: And you made it fun. It was a real pleasure. Even with the green screen stuff where I’m looking at you thinking this poor guy just has green and flashing lights around him and he has to make this whole scene happen. That’s when it must be hard.

Stellan: That’s difficult, but the most difficult thing is when you’re asked to do a scene against a mark on a black box. I don’t know how people do that because to me it is not what I’m doing, it’s what the other person is doing with me [that creates the moment]. Some actors are very skilled and they prepare very well at home – they’ve done it all in front of the mirror – they come on set and deliver it. But it doesn’t matter how skilled they are because to me that’s still just a shiny solo and they don’t really talk to anybody and then the scene dies.

Fincher: Ultimately we’re recording an act of generosity and the generosity has to extend not only from the person who’s speaking but it has to be supported by the generosity of all the people who are listening. And we were making a thriller; it’s a pulpy murder mystery, but you still need all of that attentiveness and generosity from one actor to another.

Stellan: You want to bring as much life and detail to the work as you can. You want to take the genre you’re working with to a level where it becomes interesting.

Fincher: Genre tends to become the excuse for its own limitations.

Stellan: It’s like writing poetry in verse. The verse is the limitation, but you can also lift it to other heights next to the limitation.

Fincher: And you’ve been well despite all the flying around?

Stellan: I’ve spent more time in airports and on planes than in front of the cameras since I last saw you.

Fincher: I try to make up for that. “Well, he had to fly eight hours so we’re going to do at least 100 takes of this first shot!”

Stellan: You’re very generous in that way.

Fincher: I do miss Sweden, I really do. It’s interesting when you come back to Los Angeles which has this mini strip mall culture because the European way of life, and the Swedish way of life, is so much more relaxed.

Stellan: And you can walk everywhere.

Fincher: And the funny thing is everybody leaves Stockholm in summer. They all go out to the country. And it’s so beautiful in the city.

Stellan: I went for two weeks to the summer house we have on an island. It’s got an outhouse and no running water. It was nice but it was very nice to come back to town because everybody is away. It becomes such a slow-paced city. It’s the laziness of the town that I like.

Fincher: It’s stunning. You forget how little oxygen there is in Los Angeles. Being in Stockholm I could ride a bike for hours and you get to LA and you’re gasping. Riding a bike there was fantastic. You can’t do that in New Mexico then?

Stellan: No. You’ve got to have a camel there; it’s desert.

Fincher: Are you starting something right away after Avengers?

Stellan: They want me to do a film in Rio in Brazil but I’m hesitant. I haven’t made up my mind yet but they want an answer in the next couple of days.

Fincher: That last 48 hours when you’re trying to figure out whether to do a project is the worst because you’re rolling the dice.

Stellan: It is. And you’re trying to think ahead and see the possible dangers with the project. But it’s still rolling a dice and the moment you say yes, you immediately think, no, why did I do that?

Fincher: We must sound like whingeing complainers to people outside the movie business, because we’re so lucky to be able to do what we do. But it’s hard when a movie you’ve worked so hard on doesn’t end up being seen or being seen by enough people. Especially as an actor when you have to leave your family for long periods.

Stellan: I shot in Rome once and rented a house up in the hills. I think I had a total of 43 Swedes living there. You can’t just bring your family because then they will be too needy when you come home after 14-hour days.

Fincher: You can’t bring your family because they’re all working – they’re all actors.

Stellan: Now they are. Just within the family we can cast most movies now. When is "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" coming out? December?

Fincher: Yeah, it better come out in December. I’ve never had to put anything together this quickly before. We’re working seven days a week and we only have about two more weeks of editing before we have to turn stuff over and say this is going to be it. I think [your character] Martin is tremendous. I have some narrative things I want to clarify and we still have a few more days of pick-ups to do. Are you still having really long summer days in Sweden?

Stellan: They’re getting shorter now.

Fincher: I couldn’t believe the last night shoot that we did before we left, when we were filming Rooney [Mara] riding up on a motorcycle. When we started setting up for the night exterior, I was timing it with my watch. The sun dipped below the horizon at 11:58pm and rose again at 1:26am and it was unbelievable.

Stellan: I’ve shot in Northern Sweden before where we’ve filmed night for day, because you have the same exposure for 24 hours.

Fincher: We should’ve thought of that. How has everything gone with [Lars von Trier’s] "Melancholia"? Has it done well in Europe?

Stellan: It’s an art house movie, but it’s done very well and it’s very appreciated. People have gotten over the misunderstandings from Cannes I think. [Ed. Director Lars von Trier was declared a persona non grata by the Cannes Film Festival after comments he made at a press conference for the film.]

Fincher: There’s a wonderful picture of you cradling Lars’ head. I don’t know if it was at Cannes or afterward.

Stellan: It was probably at Cannes.

Fincher: It’s so sweet. Sometimes people just need a cuddle.

Stellan: They do. He called me and he said, “You know, Stellan, my next movie is going to be a porno movie and you will have the main lead. It’s the best role I’ve ever written for a man.” And I said, “Do I get to fuck?” And he said, “No”. He’s in a really good mood. He’s had six years of depression and now he’s up and running.

Fincher: It took him being excommunicated for him to get over that. Sometimes you just need everyone aligned against you. Sometimes you need to be vilified; you need people to go, “You have to leave,” to make ?you go, “No, damn it! I belong here.”

Stellan: It’s such a hard job to be a film director and it takes so much courage to be able to push the envelope in filmmaking. Working against all the financial restrictions you have and everybody wants you to make ?a conventional film that just makes money. Sometimes you need a certain level of aggressiveness to take a stand against it, to be able to produce something that is not just mainstream.

Fincher: Maybe to get over his depression he needed to not have the loving bosom of the French film critics.

Stellan: No, but he needed me to hold his head.

Fincher: He just needed your loving bosom. I think that’s the hallmark of working with you. Because this is a job and you sit in a chair and you try and radiate energy and intention and it is a rare thing to have collaborators that are relaxed and flexible and I don’t mean malleable. It’s so lovely to have somebody who comes to work and says, let’s bend with it; let’s go with it.

Stellan: We’re dancing together. Everybody’s dancing together and you can’t be out of rhythm; you’ve got to follow each other.