I have to be careful because there is something destructive within me, I think, and I can have a tendency to just search for the kicks. I can't really get too close to someone who's too destructive, or too dark, because then I might go down the rabbit hole myself.
Alexander SkarsgardI don't fall often, but I fall hard. And when you fall hard, it takes a while to get up.
Alexander SkarsgardBeing followed is weird, that people want to discuss where I ate lunch or what I wear when I go to lunch... the private life is just gone.
Alexander SkarsgardWhen I'm on a plane, people know where I'm going before I even know where I'm going. People know where you had lunch yesterday, or who you had lunch with. So, trying to avoid sharing everything with everyone is my way of keeping something private in my life.
Alexander SkarsgardIt was such an amazing experience to be able to spend nine days on a boat with these Greenpeace people. Some of them were scientists and some were crew members working on the ship. Just to hear their stories, like what drew them to Greenpeace in the first place and what they've been through. Every single second of the day they work to save the planet, which makes me as an actor feel quite insignificant.
Alexander SkarsgardLife is crazy. You travel and you're busy and there's so much going on that it's important to have the moments where you can breathe and you can just be present with the person or the people that you're there with.
Alexander SkarsgardTo turn off your phone when you go to your country house or you're on vacation for a few days is important. I turn off my phone and just check it once a day. I turn it on and, if it's an important message, I'll call back. Otherwise, it can wait.
Alexander SkarsgardWhen you meet a director who wants to remake a movie, you have to ask, does he or she have an interesting vision and idea, something that intrigues you - is there a reason why we should do this?
Alexander SkarsgardIf you are with someone who is awesome and having a good time, you can sit at a bus station and still have fun.
Alexander SkarsgardYou can never connect on a deeper level if you idolise someone - you don't see the real person.
Alexander SkarsgardI'm an actor and I love to find new collaborations and new characters where I can grow as an actor and human being.
Alexander SkarsgardWhether I'm interested [in something] or not, step one is read the script and figure out if a character is someone I'd want to explore or not.
Alexander SkarsgardFor me, creatively, I'd suffocate if I played the same thing, over and over again. I want challenges. I want to sit down with a director and be like, "I've never done this before, but it's going to be exciting. It's scary, but really thrilling, so let's do it!"
Alexander SkarsgardI spent two months in Fredericksburg, Texas, when I was 8, while my father shot a movie, and I loved it. I just embraced the whole cowboy culture. I got myself a pair of awesome boots and a cowboy hat.
Alexander SkarsgardI like to dress up and put on a nice suit for a party or a special event; I do enjoy it, but on a daily basis I wear stuff that I feel comfortable in.
Alexander SkarsgardIf you're a great documentary filmmaker, it doesn't necessarily mean that you're a great narrative filmmaker. There are fantastic documentary filmmakers that can't direct actors. You don't have to do that in a documentary, if it's a real documentary.
Alexander SkarsgardAs an actor, what's interesting is what's hidden away beneath the surface. You want to be like a duck on a pond - very calm on the surface but paddling away like crazy underneath.
Alexander SkarsgardThere's something I love about how stark the contrast is between January and June in Sweden. In a way, I feel that time doesn't exist in LA. Sometimes I don't know if it's February or April or October, because you're always sitting outside on the same patio, and it's 70 degrees.
Alexander SkarsgardI'm not very active on social media. I'm not on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, or anything like that. But I think it's wonderful that they're out there. They're fantastic. I have a lot of siblings and friends that use it, and it's great for them. It's such a connected world.
Alexander SkarsgardSwedes are such a civilised, perfect society - at least on the surface. There's a great safety net, a huge middle class, free education, free health care. People are very polite, they wait their turn. They're not too loud, they're not too quiet, but sometimes it's a little too perfect.
Alexander SkarsgardI'm not interested in parts where they are looking for a good-looking guy. I want to be a weird little sidekick in a crazy comedy and then play like a dark drama or a thriller.
Alexander SkarsgardAll the characters I play are all inside of me in a way, and they're all different, the darkness, the lightness, whatever that is.
Alexander SkarsgardI can't express how much admiration I have for women in general, who walk around in high heels, but, drag queens, oh my god.
Alexander SkarsgardA true artist, in my mind, is willing to fail sometimes, because if you're not brave enough to say yes and follow your gut, it's never going to be good.
Alexander SkarsgardI'm pretty intense when it comes to relationships, platonic ones as well. If I feel a connection with someone, I'm willing to go there.
Alexander SkarsgardA lot of times we associate Greenpeace and climate change and shrinking polar caps with heavy-handed, weighty material. It's somber stuff. But with Funny Or Die we thought we could put an interesting take on it. Make it a little more palatable, especially for young people who tune into the website.
Alexander SkarsgardI wasn't like a Hollywood child actor - "I'm five! I can sing, I can dance, I can act! I wanna be a star!"
Alexander SkarsgardWhat intrigues me is that people kind of naturally want to label or pigeonhole the characters. They want to make it easy for themselves to go, "All right. There's the good guy, there's the bad guy, there's the girl. Okay, I get it now." But life isn't one-dimensional. The world isn't simply divided into good versus evil. I think we're all capable of both. So any time the hero does something I'm not crazy about, or the bad guy does something I can relate to, I'll find it more interesting.
Alexander SkarsgardWhen I was four or five, I would organise my cars and my action figures. I needed some kind of structure, I think.
Alexander SkarsgardLife isn't one-dimensional. The world isn't simply divided into good versus evil. I think we're all capable of both.
Alexander SkarsgardWhen we were shooting in Shreveport, me and a couple of friends went down to Lafayette, because they had a big Zydeco music festival down there. We spent two days dancing to Zydeco music, eating fried alligator... It was one of the craziest festivals I've ever been to in my life, but I loved it.
Alexander Skarsgard