Transcript
[OPENING TITLE]
ALEXANDER: I love watching myself.
OLIVIA: Do you? I love you.
ALEXANDER: Over and over again.
…
[CAMERA PANS TO DIFFERENT MEMORABILIA AROUND THE ROOM]
OLIVIA: Roses.
ALEXANDER: Roses.
OLIVIA: Wicked Little Letters. My God.
ALEXANDER: Fangtasia. I still have my fangs from the show.
OLIVIA: Do they fit better than that?
ALEXANDER: A little bit better, yeah.
…
OLIVIA: Hi, I’m Olivia Colman
ALEXANDER: And I am Alexander Skarsgård, and we are here with BAFTA to watch some of our career-defining moments…
OLIVIA: …and clips that mean something to us.
…
ALEXANDER: The first clip we’re about to watch is from arguably the greatest film ever made, Wicker. Enjoy.
[CLIP OF WICKER PLAYS]
OLIVIA: Something to work on isn’t it.
ALEXANDER: Very, very tender moment. Very sweet.
OLIVIA: It’s the beginning of them really falling in love, isn’t it? I think.
ALEXANDER: Yeah. Not really knowing how to say something sweet, but trying to figure out and landing on something that was genuine and awkward, but also like, kind of beautiful and sweet.
I love that scene. I thought it was really, really sweet and the sex scenes were fun. That precedes that. When we broke the bed.
OLIVIA: Oh my God, that was fun. because we knew it was going to happen. Didn’t we?
ALEXANDER: Yeah.
OLIVIA: They pulled the legs out so it would fall. But it’s just really funny.
ALEXANDER: Yeah. And also the anticipating it made us all giddy because it’s like a ride at an amusement park, we’re like, it’s happening. It’s gonna happen. Clunk!
Looks really cool on screen, but it’s even funnier when you watch behind the scenes.
Our DP was basically in bed with us, straddling us, standing like this over us, having the sex scene, shooting.
OLIVIA: Yeah. He’s a gymnast.
ALEXANDER: Yeah. Super fun days.
OLIVIA: Really lovely.
ALEXANDER: The village was in the outskirts of Budapest.
OLIVIA: But it was there, the village.
ALEXANDER: Yeah.
OLIVIA: The village existed. So we all turned up and went, oh, this is amazing.
ALEXANDER: Yeah. The cabin was built for this.
OLIVIA: Yeah, the cabin was built. What else was built?
ALEXANDER: My body.
OLIVIA: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s not actually his own body. I know. It’s a practical suit. No CGI, amazing.
ALEXANDER: Made by Weta Workshop in New Zealand. They spent a year and a half designing, making, practically making the suit. It was thrilling to have a practical suit.
OLIVIA: Yes. I mean, you with a balaclava and ping pong balls would’ve been… I mean funny, but it’s so much easier to have the real, the beauty of the real face and everything to act opposite.
ALEXANDER: And it also helped me find the character and the physicality of the character, discovering who he was and how he moved. The face part of it was glued on, so there’d be some nuance in the expressions.
OLIVIA: But it did make lunch difficult.
ALEXANDER: It made lunch difficult, yeah.
OLIVIA: And Alex does really like to eat.
ALEXANDER: I love.
Hot take: I love food.
…
OLIVIA: So we’re now going to watch a clip that I think of as a career-defining film for me of Tyrannosaur.
[CLIP OF TYRANNOSAUR PLAYS]
ALEXANDER: Wow.
OLIVIA: God, I haven’t seen it for years.
ALEXANDER: I remember the first time watching that.
OLIVIA: Do you?
ALEXANDER: Yeah, it was on a night shoot of True Blood, the HBO vampire show I did years ago. And one of the cast members had a screener of it, and we had a long break in between set ups, and we sat in my trailer and watched it.
OLIVIA: Oh, wow.
ALEXANDER: Yeah. And I just remember being blown away by it. It was so, so strong.
OLIVIA: Oh, Alex.
ALEXANDER: Amazing.
OLIVIA: It changed the trajectory of my career, that film.
ALEXANDER: Were you doing Peep Show around that time?
OLIVIA: Yeah. Quite different.
ALEXANDER: Slightly different.
OLIVIA: Paddy Considine wrote it, and directed it, and
ALEXANDER: Did you know each other?
OLIVIA: We met on Hot Fuzz.
ALEXANDER: Oh.
[LAUGHTER]
OLIVIA: Again, all very different. Yeah. He had no reason to think that I could do it. And I opened the door for him in the first rehearsal and smiled at him, and he thought, ‘oh, yeah, I’ll use her for my short film’.
Which I’ll be eternally grateful to him for. And then the short film became Tyrannosaur.
And yeah, I loved it. Loved it.
Peter Mullan was amazing. It was all just heaven. It will remain my favourite thing I’ve ever done.
ALEXANDER: Really?
OLIVIA: Yeah, think so. And lots of people have seen it now, but at the time it was heartbreaking. I’m so thrilled that you saw it, because lots of people didn’t see it at the time.
ALEXANDER: Really?
OLIVIA: Sad. Yeah. That’s why I’m so passionate about sort of independent film, people watching stuff.
ALEXANDER: So it found an audience, a fan base over the years, but not so much when it came out?
OLIVIA: Yeah. You know, up against the big glossy films and it slipped through the net. The people who had seen it were very passionate about it and saying, why hasn’t this been?
ALEXANDER: Yeah.
OLIVIA: Why isn’t Paddy up something?
ALEXANDER: Yeah.
OLIVIA: I think I might be up for watching it again.
ALEXANDER: I love watching myself.
OLIVIA: Do you?
[LAUGHTER]
I love you.
ALEXANDER: Over and over again. I am my favourite actor.
[LAUGHTER]
ALEXANDER: How did I do that? Wow. The range is incredible.
…
ALEXANDER: All right. We’re about to watch my career-defining moment from the TV series On Becoming a God in Central Florida.
[CLIP OF ON BECOMING A GOD IN CENTRAL FLORIDA PLAYS]
“…Oh. Oh, God! Travis!”
“Hi Cody. I really didn’t think I’d make it out of there. I was able to…”
OLIVIA: What is going on? Bloody hell.
“I am. A founder’s man. What kind of man are you?”
OLIVIA: Oh, my God, I have to see this.
[CLIP ENDS]
OLIVIA: What the hell?
ALEXANDER: Career-defining moment. Like most kids, I. I nurtured a dream of one day being devoured by an alligator in central Florida, and I.
OLIVIA: Oh, my God.
ALEXANDER: I got to live my dream. It’s the pilot episode of a show called On Becoming a God in Central Florida with Kirsten Dunst. And we worked together on Melancholia, and she’s a dear friend, and I think she’s just wonderful. And she was gonna do this show and it’s a comedy.
OLIVIA: I’m gonna find it.
ALEXANDER: But the setup is so fun because it’s like, you follow this couple and it’s kind of about a Ponzi scheme, and my character goes a bit nuts, and believes in this Ponzi scheme and invests everything in that. The show then takes a turn and then it’s like, you follow her, obviously, because I’m gone.
OLIVIA: You go early on?
ALEXANDER: Yeah. That’s it, that’s it. This is like half an hour into the show. I. I get devoured by an alligator. The show is not about Travis. It’s about his wife and her journey.
OLIVIA: Brilliant.
ALEXANDER: I had a blast.
…
ALEXANDER: And now for my visual masterpiece. It is Roy Andersson’s Songs from the Second Floor.
[CLIP OF SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR PLAYS]
OLIVIA: Pick them all up! Wow that was stressful. That was amazing.
ALEXANDER: Yeah. I love that film so much. Are you familiar with that, Roy Andersson?
OLIVIA: No!
ALEXANDER: So he is a Swedish filmmaker. He made two movies in the 70s, and then he didn’t direct another movie for 30 years. Then he made this about 25 years ago. And it’s part of a trilogy. This one called You the Living and one called A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence.
And all three are, in my opinion, masterpieces. They are wholly unique, they’re completely absurd and he’s such a singular voice, such a singular talent, and has inspired a whole generation of filmmakers.
OLIVIA: Wow.
ALEXANDER: So everything is shot in his small studio in Stockholm.
And he built miniatures. So like to get the depth of vision. So like if you see a house in the background, it’ll actually be like this big, but standing here, but it looks like it’s like 500 yards away.
OLIVIA: Oh, wow.
ALEXANDER: And every single scene is basically like this, just one static camera. And there are no professional actors. They’re all like.
OLIVIA: People from his neighbourhood.
ALEXANDER: Street casting. Yeah, people. Characters that he finds. He’s 80 years old. He made six films in his entire career, and I think he is one of the most underrated filmmakers of our time.
I was like 20, maybe, when this came out, and I just remember being really excited about it because everything he made, everything little, a short film or a commercial that he had made was like so exquisite and so fun.
So, I do remember watching this and I think it won the jury award at Cannes. I say he’s underrated but it did get some recognition for sure but I just love it so much.
OLIVIA: I’m really intrigued.
ALEXANDER: I don’t think he’s ever… well the first few films he worked with professional actors, but in all these movies.
OLIVIA: That put him off.
ALEXANDER: Yeah, he was like, ‘no thank you very much’.
[LAUGHTER]
Yeah. All like non-actors.
OLIVIA: Amazing.
ALEXANDER: But just extraordinary characters. So absurd. So funny. I highly recommend watching those films.
OLIVIA: Yeah I will!
…
OLIVIA: So next clip. This is from It’s a Wonderful Life.
[CLIP OF IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE PLAYS]
OLIVIA: Oh God, I want it to keep going. I just love that so much. I feel quite aggressive about Christmas.
ALEXANDER: You’re getting all emotional. It’s really sweet.
Do you only watch it around Christmas? Or do you ever, give it a little May viewing, sneaky?
OLIVIA: No. Just Christmas.
ALEXANDER: You save it for Christmas?
OLIVIA: Yeah, but watching it now, I think I could just. Couldn’t we just all cosy up and watch that now, couldn’t we?
I just love it, I love him, I love the family. I love Clarence the angel. I love it all.
I’ve already ordered my turkey.
ALEXANDER: Have you watched it every Christmas since you were a kid?
OLIVIA: No. There were some Christmases, I think. We didn’t watch it.
ALEXANDER: But regularly since you were a kid, it’s always been a part of your,
OLIVIA: Yeah, and The Sound of Music.
ALEXANDER: Christmas tradition.
OLIVIA: Yeah. I wondered how interesting it would be, my parents were going, ‘This is a beautiful film, we’ll watch this’, and then sobbing all the way through it.
And now it is absolutely, it’s the epitome of Christmas, and love, and magic.
I think you’d have to be suspicious of someone who doesn’t love that film.
The town with the snow and the image of the bridge, and the image of the dancing on the pool when it pulls apart and they’re swinging over it and swinging back and all of that. Just little clips.
I feel so much when I see those clips. And that’s visually to me, it means a lot. I know it’s probably not classed as a visual masterpiece, but I like it.
ALEXANDER: No, but it’s definitely a masterpiece.
OLIVIA: It is. Yeah.
ALEXANDER: Watching the clip from It’s a Wonderful Life made me think of this movie from 1982 called Ivanhoe with James Mason. It’s a classic in Sweden because they show it every Christmas or every New year.
You know, back in the day when there was like two channels in Sweden and before cable, everyone would watch it. Same thing with like It’s a Wonderful Life. It’s like, so associated with the Christmas holidays and to this day it’s kind of, a big tradition in Sweden that you get together and you watch Ivanhoe. And it’s like it’s a fun family adventure film.
OLIVIA: I suppose that time of the year, Christmassy time, is when you do rewatch things, like Home Alone and any excuse to all sit together and cover the age ranges. Family films at Christmas are the things that we rewatch, I think.
ALEXANDER: Nailed it.
….
ALEXANDER: Thank you that was a lot of fun.
PRODUCER: Thank you, Olivia and Alex! Thank you very much.
