As the Oscar nominations were unveiled on Thursday, Stellan Skarsgård was huddled on a Zoom call with “Sentimental Value” director Joachim Trier and the film’s cast and crew, based in Oslo, Norway.
Skarsgård was a six hour’s drive away from Oslo at his home in Stockholm, Sweden, when the 74-year-old actor heard his name included among the nominees for Best Supporting Actor. It’s his first Oscar nomination and the first time an actor from an international production has been nominated in the category.
Shortly after, Skarsgård (“Breaking the Waves,” “Dune,” “Andor,” “Chernobyl,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Mamma Mia!”) hopped on the phone while preparing dinner with his wife Megan and his two youngest sons. We talked about how his immediate family has reacted to the happy news.
“Megan,” he asked his wife nearby, “TheWrap is wondering what was your reaction to me winning the Oscar nomination?”
“I’m just really delighted and a little teary-eyed, to be honest,” she said.
“My wife’s a little teary,” he said. “And my youngest son just shouted, ‘Congratulations, Dad.’ So I got support of my family.”
He does, for sure. Skarsgård is the patriarch of an acting dynasty, with several of his eight children (including Alexander and Bill) successful as actors. In “Sentimental Value,” he plays an absent father, a role that is not autobiographical – though he’s remarked to Stephen Colbert recently that his son Gustaf asked Skarsgård whether he recognized himself in the part. “The eight kids see the movie in eight different ways,” he said.
And though “Sentimental Value” contains some hard truths, Skarsgård’s performance shines with his trademark lightness of touch.
“For me, it’s so wonderful to be asked to use your entire palette of colors for a role,” he said. “Because then it makes a full person and gives him life. This sad character is very funny, especially when he’s trying to desperately reach out to his daughter that he loves.”
Best Actress nominee Renate Reinsve plays the daughter who Skarsgård’s character is attempting to reconcile with.
“But he’s doing the wrong things,” he said. “He’s saying the wrong things, and it’s so clumsy, emotionally. And that is funny and it’s extremely tragic at the same time.”
The actor didn’t know about the history he made as the first performer from an international production to ever crack into Best Supporting Actor.
“Oh, wow, I didn’t know that but it’s lovely,” he said, then added with a laugh, “I didn’t deliberately do it. But as far as I can remember, there was only one Scandinavian nominated before and that was Max von Sydow. So it’s such a small chance that this kind of thing happens. I’m so happy for my fellow actors, my wonderful peers, in the film, too.” (Indeed, von Sydow, who was nominated twice, was the only other male Swedish actor ever honored at the Oscars.)
And it is appropriate that Skarsgård has become the actor to score that milestone in the supporting actor category, given his decades-long dedication to working as a piece within a larger cast.
“I’m an ensemble actor, totally,” he said. “I always have been. I don’t do solos. My favorite thing is being a part of the big group and we all make a film together.”
