I always feel like a foreigner in America.
— Bill Skarsgard
Playing Pennywise will change my life and career forever. It's going to change my path. And who knows where that path might lead me?
I think I've gotten that before - people have been like, 'Oh, you have a creepy stare.' My energy personally is not as threatening, I don't think.
I can't see myself as a very domesticated person, with a suburb house and stuff like that.
I've always been a night person. There's a sense of virtue attached to getting up in the morning and doing things and starting the day, and I always felt bad for not being that person.
One of my dad's biggest passions is cooking, so we always had good food at home.
I wouldn't want to be associated with one character, because I want to be able to do different roles.
If you ask anybody what they think of clowns, it's associated as much or more with something crazy and scary as it is something joyful.
The horror fan base is fantastic. It really has devoted fans, and I like that aspect of the genre. The people who are making it are always really wonderfully nerdy, creative people, which I always love.
I come from a family of pacifists, so it's not like I was going to join the war. Sweden is not like the States or England where you might get sent to Afghanistan next month.
To me, it's all about inspiration. What gets me creatively excited is a challenge.
A character on screen that's the 'good guy' or the 'bad guy,' they're never interesting. There's got to be an internal struggle, the duality is important to find.
I can deal with it now, but 13 is a tough age to be recognized and famous. It's a tough age, period.
I needed to be myself and find my own identity.
I have three older brothers, and each one of them has chosen one of my parents' education. Two of them are actors, and the third is a doctor as my mother is.
I think December has always been the most haunted month, from the gothic-narrative point of view - a lot of Edgar Allan Poe stories are set in December. It's the last month of the year, and it's supposed to be sort of this mystical, spiritual month. And being Swedish, December is also the darkest month out of the year.
Until your mid-twenties, you're still growing up mentally. It's fair to say there's a bigger difference between twenty and twenty-five than between twenty-five and forty in terms of who you are, how you relate to your work, and what you want out of it.
I think every character that I play has a certain sort of tone or an energy level to them.
I started acting when I was 9.
Between 9 A.M. and 10 A.M. is usually when I get up.
Louis CK is so brilliant and smart and clever and funny and also very bizarre.
Normally, when you do a movie, you have those mundane days when it's like, 'Today is the scene where I get coffee.'
I liken every character that I do to a relationship that you're in.
I'm always looking for something that's real and that's got meat on it. I think it's artistic suicide if you're too vain, or if you're afraid to play ugly. I would never fall for that.
In terms of jobs, I'm an actor. There's gotta' be depth there. I'd never say yes to something just to play the hot guy. That's not what I'm interested in.
My height can be a problem. A lot of directors and photographers are sometimes not happy because I'm pretty tall and especially if I work with short actors the difference can be pretty massive.
I've lived in California for six years and I've never surfed.
There's something I love about how stark the contrast is between January and June in Sweden.
Sweden is a small country and, well, our family's pretty prominent in that world, I guess. And I really didn't like the sound of just being 'the fourth acting Skarsgard.'
There's always some extent of luck going into getting a job. I try not to think too much about my own looks or how I work. There's a danger in becoming too self-aware.
I spent a lot of time on film sets with my dad at work, and as a kid, that's a very appealing thing, to watch grownups get to play dress-up and pretend that they're different people - and then get paid for it!
I did a lot of research on what solitary confinement does to you, how you become acclimated to being surrounded by people again after being by yourself for such a long time. It's really a horrific thing. It's definitely worth considering it as torture. We're just not meant to be in solitary confinement.
I'm constantly embarrassed at the level of attention actors get and the level of money that we get. It's completely disproportionate. I think you have to feel guilty about it. I think it makes you a better person to keep reminding yourself.
The soundtrack for 'Hemlock Grove' got me into all this goth folk gypsy music like the Dead Brothers.
I love the story behind the Vasa Museum: in the 17th century, the Swedish king was trying to make a statement by building a huge ship that would sail around Europe carrying the Swedish flag and proving that we were a force to be reckoned with, and basically, the ship was top-heavy, and so it went 300 or so yards and sank.
I'm a pretty private person, so I don't mind not being recognized.
I've never understood the appeal of feeling really scared. I know that people do find it really thrilling. For me, artistically, it needs to be worth the effort of me feeling uncomfortable watching it.
I see myself as most people see themselves, you have good days and bad days. I don't think I'm better looking now than I did three years ago.
When I read a script and have my first interaction with this character, do I feel like there's something I'm gonna' learn here? If I feel like it's something I've done before, then what's the incentive for me to do it?
I worked with Lady Gaga for a day on a video shoot. It was crazy; we had a lot of fun. I had a great time.
A 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.
In movies we tend make things black and white: you're either this, or you're that.
Acting was always there, it's true. But for a long time, in my teenage years, I wasn't sure about it - not because I didn't like it, but I didn't want people to think I hadn't earned it.
