Stellan Skarsgård is entering the Academy Awards race for the first time in his five-decade career, using the spotlight to talk as much about craft and industry change as his own work. In an awards-season interview with Variety, the Swedish actor reflected on earning his first Oscar nomination for playing the estranged father in Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, a role that has positioned him as a major contender in the supporting-actor field.
Skarsgård also looked back at Good Will Hunting and his time around Robin Williams, describing a performer who could feel calm and attentive in private, then snap into relentless comedic output once a crowd formed. At a recent screening, he said Williams seemed driven to “be funny to survive,” and he recalled takes that swung from dark to wildly funny, forcing scene partners to stay alert and flexible.
Asked about longtime collaborator Lars von Trier, Skarsgård framed the filmmaker as a complicated figure whose working methods he found direct and actor-friendly, while acknowledging that von Trier’s health has reshaped his life and pace. Von Trier publicly disclosed a Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2022, and producer Louise Vesth said in 2025 that he had been admitted to a care facility.
On artificial intelligence, Skarsgård struck a skeptical note about panic that treats the technology as an instant replacement for artists, while pointing toward the business incentives that decide how tools get used. That debate has already started to change the rules and contracts around filmmaking: SAG-AFTRA’s 2023 agreement established consent and compensation requirements tied to “digital replicas,” and the Academy added language in 2025 clarifying that AI use itself will not automatically help or hurt eligibility, with voters asked to weigh the degree of human creative authorship.
