I will be your father figure.
Photo: Variety via YouTube
Daddy Stellan Skarsgård and son Alexander Skarsgård are both on the hunt for Best Supporting Actor this year, one of many fun side plots of the 2025 awards season. With Stellan starring in family drama Sentimental Value and Alexander in the gay BDSM romance Pillion, their “Actors on Actors” gives us a peek behind the curtain at the Skarsgård home life: They’re just a bunch of jokesters. Stellan plays the bemused bohemian father, while Alexander is the reformed rebellious son. “You went into the military,” Stellan says to his son at one point. “Did you do that in opposition to me, to provoke me?” His eldest of eight isn’t fully denying it: “Looking back, I don’t think it was an act of rebellion against you, but coming from a bohemian family, I was like, I want to find my own path, and the most extreme contrast would be to go into the military. So it wasn’t a conscious ‘Fuck you, Dad’ thing.” Stellan responds, “I felt fucked.” That’s family!
The two also spend time competing over who deserves more accolades. “The elephant in the room here, Dad, is that we’re both nominated for a Gotham Award in the same category,” Alexander says. “And people believe that it’s all going to be chummy and dad and son support each other, which we are to a certain extent.” Stellan disagrees, saying, “It’s gloves off.” The two promptly begin playful takedowns of each other, with Alexander asking, “Sentimental Value, a beautiful film — you play yourself, right? An absentee father?” Stellan hit backs, “You don’t have to smear Pillion. It smears itself.” Ultimately, both Skarsgårds lost the award to Wunmi Mosaku for Sinners, so maybe they need to spend less time going after each other and more time getting mad at the Gothams for removing their budget cap.
