Bill Skarsgård has been impressing critics and audiences with his versatile roles. He’s managed to transform into very scary characters, including giving us nightmares as Pennywise in the IT movies and playing creepy Count Orlok in the recently-released Nosferatu. While the Swedish actor has raw talent, he thanks the A+ advice his father, Stellan, gave that clearly made a positive impact on his career.
We know that talent is undoubtedly an inherited trait in the Skarsgård family. The Barbarian star has acted alongside his sibling Alexander in the Swedish thriller White Water Fury. But Bill Skarsgård certainly can’t forget about Stellan, whom he credited in an MTV UK TikTok as his biggest supporter. Here was the A+ advice the Pirates of the Caribbean actor passed on to his son:
I would say my dad, you know, and he really instilled in all of us sort of this just ‘trust your own instincts and if you do anything, you do it all the way.’ So, if you decided to do it, you should commit yourself 100% to whatever it is. But also do please do whatever you want to do. Like there was never any sort of him encouraging us to pursue acting, per se. I think he’s quite surprised that this is the way it ended up. But it was that kind of self-belief or just encouraging you to trust your own instincts.
That doesn’t come as any surprise that a multi-talented actor like Stellan Skarsgård would impart wise wisdom to his 34-year-old son. This is, after all, the same Stellan Skarsgård whose best projects have him showing depth as Boris Shcherbina in Chernobyl and spent a ton of time in the makeup chair for Dune. Each role shows the physical and psychological transformations the Guldbagge Award winner has gone through during his career that his son unquestionably took after in his own film projects.
With all of the impactful roles that Bill Skarsgård has portrayed throughout his career, he’s without a doubt established his own identity as an actor distinct from his father and siblings. The Hemlock Grove actor may have been in the entertainment business since he was a kid, but he says he’s discovered something about his own talent that he carries with him going forward:
Even when I started, I’ve been acting ever since I was a kid, but when I started finding that ‘OK, well, I have a voice and I have a perspective and that is what is uniquely mine. And if I pursue that, something will come out of it that’s genuine’. And I still try to live by that.
Bill Skarsgård has indeed proven himself to have a real understanding of his characters. The Castle Rock actor truly brought his own brand of creepy for Pennywise, like coming up with an unpredictable voice for the evil entity and a freaky trick he did with his eyes. His experience playing Nosferatu’s Count Orlok was no different in developing his vampire character and having to “inhabit” the dark role’s evil mindset. With Skarsgård a professional adult actor in the industry, it’s plain to see he takes his career seriously and isn’t afraid to do any grunt work to deliver a stellar performance.
Stellan Skarsgård absolutely gave Bill the most A+ advice he could give him to become the incredible talent he is today. Just like the Mamma Mia! actor isn’t afraid to go all out getting into character, his youngest son inherited the same courage with his own roles as well. You can draw up your own courage to see Skarsgård’s newest petrifying performance in the 2024 movie release of Nosferatu in theaters now. While you’re at it, don’t forget to see him reprising Pennywise in IT: Welcome to Derry, soon to come to your Max subscription.