Best Of: Kate Hudson / Stellan Skarsgård

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And David Bianculli reviews a new documentary focusing on Paul McCartney and his wings years. That's coming up on Fresh Air Weekend. This message comes from WISE, the app for international people using money around the globe. You can send, spend, and receive in up to 40 currencies with only a few simple taps. Be smart. Get WISE. Download the WISE app today or visit WISE.com. T's and C's apply. Support for Fresh Air comes from WHYY, presenting The Pulse, a weekly podcast about health and science. Each episode is full of great stories and big ideas, fueled by curiosity and wonder. Can you learn to listen to your intuition? What should electric cars sound like? Why can it be so hard to get an accurate diagnosis? How do fungi communicate? Check out The Pulse, available where you get your podcasts. The U.S. launches a military operation against Iran. Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime. 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In my heart I know I will never stray Holly, Holly, Holly, Holly, Holly, Holly, Holly Come from the watching, from the watch, travel to the sun If folks could see, you just started singing as you were listening to yourself. It's such a joyous song. Yeah, yeah. Kate Hudson landed the role of Claire Sardina after Hugh Jackman first saw her sing on CBS Sunday Morning. He had already committed to the movie, and he was so taken by her performance that he texted director Craig Brewer and said, I think I just found your Claire. She was on TV promoting her debut album, Glorious, which she began writing during the pandemic. And while Hudson is primarily known for her acting, as I was preparing for this interview, I was struck by just how often she's used her voice over the years. Singing on screen in Nine, performing cinema Italiano, and on television in Glee, where she played the demanding dance instructor Cassandra July. This latest Oscar nomination for Best Actress comes 25 years after she first earned a nod for playing Penny Lane in Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous. From there, she became one of the most recognizable romantic comedy stars in the 2000s, starring in films like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and Bride Wars. Most recently, she starred in the Knives Out sequel Glass Onion and the Netflix series Running Point, about a woman who inherits ownership of a professional basketball team. The show has been picked up for a second season. And Kate Hudson, welcome to Fresh Air and congratulations on your Oscar nomination. Thank you. It's nice to be here. I look forward to our conversation. Yes. Well, I just had a chance to look at this Oscar nomination luncheon. Yes. Where all of you all are on bleachers and it's like a class photo. It's almost like a graduation. It is. It is. I remember it the first time. It's actually one of my favorite experiences because I remember the first time feeling like, oh, you know, we all got to be in one room. And it's really just a bunch of people who love to make movies. It's, you know, there's not a lot of other people there. It's just sort of celebrating this class, this year of movies. And when you're a part of that, it's really fun. It feels really nice. You mentioned the first time, it was in 2001, where you were nominated for your role as Penny Lane in Almost Famous. I put both of those photographs side by side when I saw those most recent photographs. I mean, you're ravishing in this red outfit and you're smiling ear to ear. You're also, you have that same energy from 25 years ago, but there's sort of a pensiveness there in you. You know, you're the young kid on the block at that time. How did it feel with that 25-year separation, being in that room and really sitting with the fact that you're there again? Well, it feels different. I've been comparing it to like having my third baby. You soak in everything very differently. You take it in differently. And you have so much knowledge. I mean, that was one of the great things about the Oscar nomination luncheon was I've worked with two of those costume designers. I've worked with so many people in the room. I just, you look around so many producers. Like a reunion almost. Yeah, the person that was in front of me is Didi. She was the executive on How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. Like, you realize that you create a family that in this industry, it's a – and like in family, you see all of it. You see the good. You see the bad. You see the ugly. And it's an amazing, incredible, dysfunctional family. Yeah. And then every once in a while, you get to celebrate the best of the best of the year. Well, let's get into the role that you have been nominated for. Your character, Claire Sardina, she's a real person, a hairdresser from Milwaukee who performs as a Patsy Cline impersonator by night. And she and her husband, Mike, create a Neil Diamond tribute band called Lightning and Thunder. They're everyday people with real battles. We watch them as they recognize that within themselves and each other. And in this scene I want to play, the two of you are on a date. It's before you're married, and you're sharing your hopes and dreams. Let's listen. I'm always going to be an alcoholic, but I've been sober 20 years. The other day, it was what they call it, a sober birthday. Happy belated sober birthday. Here's the thing. With sobriety, you gotta face up to certain truths. Way to go. I named 20 years. All right, I'm not a songwriter. I'm not a sex symbol, but I just want to entertain people, and I want to make a living. I know, me too. I don't want to be a hairdresser. I want to sing. I want to dance. I want a house. I want a garden. I want a cat. So here's what I'm thinking. I need a hook. I need something big. I need something new. And as you put it, nostalgia pays. That was my guest, Kate Hudson, with Hugh Jackman in the film Song Sung Blue. What was it about Claire's arc that you felt you understood? Well, I think part of what's fun about what we get to do is that there's some things we don't understand. And we have to delve into it and try to portray something that seems further away from your real life than maybe other people would think. It's like there's not much about Claire's life that I really would personally be able to understand. The one thing that I do understand about Claire is her longing for love and family, her strong desire for community. And her love of music and her love of singing and performing. Everything else became about honoring her story and really trying to, you know, portray that as successfully as I could and respectfully. She has ups and downs, but I mean, she really, there's a moment where she actually loses her leg. And so you had to learn how to kind of move even your body with the idea of wearing a prosthetic. She deals with depression, ups and downs, all of those things as well. Addiction. Addiction as well. You chose not to meet with the real Claire. And I wondered, is there something that gets in the way of being able to explore those parts of her by not meeting her? I chose not to research her personally, right? So I have met Claire, and I've spent time with Claire, and she's amazing, and I love her, and it was great. So when we started filming, I did spend some time with her. But in the beginning, it was important for me and for Craig that, you know, Craig's story. Craig Brewer, the director. Craig Brewer, the director. We're making this film that is an adaptation of the documentary. And he took eight years of their life, consolidated into two. And my job as an actor is to give Craig the movie he wants. His relationship to Claire and the family is the intimate one. And for me, I think it would distract me from being able to give Craig what he needed. You know, I didn't want to challenge him because I had spent so much time with Claire. I want to trust my director and what his vision is for his version of their life story. And then Claire sort of came to set and then we got to meet each other and hang out. And I'd already done all of the work, you know. And getting to know Claire after that became the validation that we were— That you were on the right track. On the right track, yeah. You know, Kate, in the intro I mentioned that Hugh Jackman saw you singing on CBS Sunday morning. And I know you taking on this role, the story is much more complicated than that. But the fact that he saw you and then texted it to Craig Brewer, the director, I think I just found your Claire. Had anyone in the industry ever chosen you for your voice before that moment? You know, I think Hugh, it wasn't about my voice as much as it is about what I was talking about. And what I was saying was talking about why I had to make an album. And Hugh, to speak for Hugh, you know, he would reiterate, when he saw it, I was talking about my kids. I was talking about COVID and what happened when I was sort of reflecting on if I was going to die. Am I happy with my creative output? I'm very happy with myself as a mother. Like, I feel like I've hit, I've made all the right mistakes and all the wrong mistakes. I feel like I've been really great when it comes to parenting. I tell you Kate it so refreshing to meet a woman who says that because don we so often like we always stopping for a moment to say I not sure if I was a great mom Yeah But I like who my kids are And so as I get to know them I got one an adult as I get to know him as his own man and as an adult I'm really proud of myself for the work I put in for him. And I am in it with my teenager right now in the best possible way. and my young girl, seven. Like, momming is everything to me. And I'm proud of that output. Like, I put a lot into that. And so I could say, you know, during COVID, if this was it, I felt confident in what I've given my kids so far. But I couldn't say that about my art. And that would be my own personal sadness and regret is that I didn't share my writings as a musician. I, whether people like them or not, I just really was not happy with the fact that I wasn't brave enough to put it out there. If you're just joining us, my guest is Kate Hudson. She's nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Song Sung Blue, where she plays Claire Sardina, one half of a real-life Neil Diamond tribute band in Milwaukee. We'll hear more of our conversation after a short break. I'm Tanya Mosley, and this is Fresh Air Weekend. With the rise of prediction markets, you can bet on anything, from weather to what President Trump will say in his next press conference. I'm not a fan of Trump, though I do spend most of my day listening to him and tracking what he's doing. On the Sunday story, who's winning big on these apps and who's losing? The Sunday story from the Up First podcast. Listen now on the NPR app. On the latest episode of Sources and Methods, NPR's national security podcast, the U.S. and Israel have attacked Iran. President Trump is calling for regime change, telling Iranians, quote, when we are finished, take over your government. We break down the most important questions about what happens next. I'm Mary Louise Kelly. Listen now to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Life Kit can help you change your life in record time. In just about 20 minutes, a Life Kit episode gives you evidence-based tips you can put into practice that day. No fast forwarding to get to the good stuff. Just smart, straightforward advice right away. Listen to the Life Kit podcast in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Kate, your breakout role for which you earned your first Oscar nomination in Golden Globe win was as Penny Lane in Almost Famous. And I actually want to play a scene from near the beginning of the film. So the young teen journalist, William, played by Patrick Fugit, is at the back door of a concert and the guard is not letting him in. And a few young women, including your character, Penny Lane, come back to the back door. and start talking to William. Let's listen. It's Penny Lane, man. Show some respect. Who are you with? What band? Oh, I'm here to interview Black Sabbath. I'm a journalist. I'm not a, you know. You're not a what? You're not a what? Not a... Groupie. Aw. Groupie? We are not groupies. This is Penny Lane, man. Show some respect. Groupies sleep with rock stars because they want to be near someone famous. We're here because of the music. We are band-aids. She used to run a school for band-aids. We don't have intercourse with these guys. We inspire the music. We're here because of the music. She was the one who changed everything. She was the one who said, no more sex. No more exploiting our bodies and our hearts. Right, right. Just and that's it. That was my guest today, Kate Hudson in Almost Famous. That is one of the most famous scenes because, of course, you really lay out who they are and what you do and what you don't do. We are Band-Aids. Right. That's right. Right. One of my favorite things, I did this show in San Diego and, you know, girls come and they like had these little signs that said, we're your band-aids. And it was so cute. I loved it so much. I was like, oh, it was so fun. Yeah, Penny Lane, man. I mean, you've said that you didn't have to reach very far to get to Penny Lane. But what's a memory that you come back to the most in the filming of that iconic movie? Oh, there's a million memories. I mean, there's no most. The whole entire experience of making that film was, not only has it never repeated itself in terms of, like, experience and what that felt like, but it was so special for multiple reasons. Number one, Cameron Crowe is brilliant and an amazing person, amazing director to work for as an actor. Like I couldn't have asked for like how lucky was I that I got to work with Cameron Crowe like so young on a role that was so layered. But it was his life story. So we were all, again, like Song Sung Blue. there was this very like strong intention to get it right for cameron and everybody was in on it we're all wanted to get it right for cam and so that made it very different than it was six months it was a long shoot we all got to know each other very well we had rock school like there was what's Rock school was about a month before we started shooting. The band was learning how to play all the instruments, all the songs. The fictitious band still on it. And the girls were band-aids. We were hanging around and we'd get them food. I was bringing Billy Crudup a towel. We would just hang. We'd all smoke and live this alternate universe that we hadn't experienced yet. Kind of like method acting, preparing rock school, preparing you for the real thing. It's kind of what it was, yeah. And we were all so young and so fun. So we were having a great time together. And then the work was intense. You know, it was big set pieces, long days, big crew. So as much fun as we were having, then we, like anything else, like it's a job and hard, great work. You and your mother, Goldie Hawn, you're known for your exceptionally close relationship. But what's it like building a career? Was there ever any tension about building a career following your mother? Like, did you ever have a moment of rebellion when you felt like, maybe I want to be or do something else? Oh, as like a young person? Oh, I didn't. Honestly, there was nothing else to me. I don't know. That had nothing to do with, like, performing. But when I say nothing else, I mean performance. So, like, singing, dance, song dance, acting. Like, those three things were just, like, that's what I do, like, from very early on. If someone was like, you'd be a very good lawyer, I'd be like, in a movie. You just always knew. Yeah. I always knew, yeah. And then when you grow up in a house with parents who are not only incredible performers, but, like, amazing producer. My mother's an amazing producer, trailblazing producer. My dad is one of the great process of an actor I've ever witnessed. Kurt Russell. Yep, Kurt Russell. Let's just call him Kurt Russell because it's a fun name to say. I have a friend who only calls him Kurt Russell. It's really funny. No, I call him Pa. He's my Pa. But his process and what I learned from my dad growing up, I mean, he's got an incredible process. a very caring process when it comes to storytelling. So when you grow up like that, and it says something that there's only one of us who's not an actor. You know, my other two brothers are actors. They're also very much into storytelling, developing, writing, producing. Like that comes from what we were modeled as kids, which was people who really care about telling stories. Yes. So when you see that and you're like, oh, so fun. I mean, we were just kids making movies our whole life. I just wonder how it is to reflect now you're an accomplished actor and a multitude of other things. There's a generation that knows you and they don't even know your mom or your dad. I know. And so for you to come up with this person who is so well-known as your mother, you all also look just alike. You look so similar to now being at a place where we could have had this entire conversation and I never talked about your mom. You know what I mean? Like was there ever a moment of growing where you could see a future where that would be the case? And was that ever tension for you, having such well-known parents and then stepping into a career? like this? I never thought of it like that. I think because we all love each other so much. The only thing for me that was really important was that I really wanted it on my own terms. And my son, I see my son feeling similarly right now. I think that there is a responsibility to say opportunity does come when you grow up in Los Angeles. You got a lot of privileged kids who work in this industry who have a lot of parents with a lot of power and a lot of access. So to say that there's not opportunity is to be lying. But there's something else that comes with it when you grow up in it, which is you also, as an actor, as a performer, you have to honor the craft and be good enough to have other people actually want to watch you. So that part requires like a different type of... Fortitude, yeah. Right. It's like going into it, it was like, okay, I just want to do this on my own terms. I know that when I walk in the room, everyone's going to know, or maybe some of them, maybe they won't. I have a different last name. Thank God. I was so happy about that when I was younger, to not have to walk in the room and be a Russell or a Han. Yeah. It was nice to not have that be something where, you know, people went, oh, so that the pressure wasn't, didn't feel as intense, right? But you know when they do know that you have to be on your game, you know? You can't, like, walk in and not know your lines or you can't, you know, which is why I worked so disciplined in everything else that I did. Like, I just wanted to do a good job. And when you grow up with parents like that, like, there's so much modeling that they did that I take with me. Right? Like, right now, I look at this Oscar nomination and I look at my mother and it's an absolute extension of my mother. I think people who didn't grow up with a parent in the industry still feel like these moments are extensions of their parents and the gifts that they give. But I have a mom that sees me, sees all of that differently. She knows what it is. She knows what it feels like. She knows the work that goes into it, the time away from your kids that it takes. She knows how deeply I miss my kids when I'm doing these things. She knows all of it, right? And she knows that I know that that's what she went through. So there's this amazing connection that I get to have with my mom at this time. She's 80. I'm 46. Like, how lucky am I that I get to really share that experience with her in that way? I feel very very blessed to like have my mom and Kurt be the people that really Are behind you and set the model for you Yeah. Kate Hudson, it's been a pleasure to learn more about you and to have this conversation. Thank you. This is so nice. Kate Hudson is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the film Song Sung Blue. Sir Paul McCartney is the subject of a new documentary on Prime Video. But unlike recent films, this one isn't about his years with the Beatles. Instead, it's about his first decade without them. Our TV critic David Bianculli has this review. Yes, there have been plenty of Beatles-related documentaries in the past decade or so. And yes, I've reviewed most of them. But in my defense, the Beatles are a great subject, musically and biographically. And the best filmmakers are drawn to them. Peter Jackson gave us the Get Back documentary miniseries and the latest installment of the Beatles anthology. Ron Howard directed Eight Days a Week about the group's touring years. Martin Scorsese directed Living in the Material World, his two-part biography of George Harrison. All of them were terrific, and all of them were made by Oscar-winning directors. Documentary filmmaker Morgan Neville, who won an Oscar for his film about backup singers, 20 Feet from Stardom, has joined that club. He's already directed outstanding biographies of everyone from Johnny Cash and Anthony Bourdain to Steve Martin and Fred Rogers. And now, Prime Video is premiering his latest documentary, Man on the Run, about former Beatle Paul McCartney. And the word former is key here. While brief, artful montages encapsulate the frenzy and impact of Beatlemania, Man on the Run is focused on the decade immediately afterward, the 1970s. Specifically, it spans the period from when McCartney left the Beatles to when his former bandmate, John Lennon, was shot and killed. Neville conducted many lengthy new interviews with McCartney, but uses only the sound. Virtually all the footage in Man on the Run is vintage, so there are no white-haired rock stars in sight. But because McCartney is an executive producer and has provided a stunning amount of previously unseen private footage, there's lots of fresh stuff to see here. The danger of McCartney having such input, though, is of Man on the Run becoming too sanitized as a personal biography. But it's not. The decade covered includes McCartney announcing the breakup of the Beatles, his very public musical feud with Lennon, the formation of McCartney's post-Beatles band Wings, even the Paul is Dead rumor. And in these new interviews, McCartney seems to be speaking honestly, not only about what happened, but how he felt about it all. On the Beatles' breakup, for example, it was McCartney who announced it publicly, but it was Lennon who already had left the group. John had come in one day and said he was leaving the Beatles. He said, it's kind of exciting. It's like telling someone you want a divorce. But I was thinking, what do I do now? Because it had been my whole life, really. You know, I'd had growing up, going to school, and then becoming the Beatles. It was a puzzle I had to kind of unravel. Paul's reaction at age 27 was to retreat with his wife, photographer Linda Eastman and family, to a remote property he owned in Scotland. In a vintage interview, she recalls his out-of-the-blue suggestion. He said, I've got this farm. I know you won't like it. But it was so beautiful up there. Way at the end of nowhere. Civilization dropped away. It was quite a relief. Man on the Run does rely on other voices and perspectives to defend some of McCartney's infamous actions during this period. John Lennon's son, Sean, for example, excuses Paul's stunned, understated reaction to John's death, when asked by reporters Paul called it a real drag, as having been in shock. And John himself, in an interview filmed years after the Beatles' breakup, admits that Paul was right in hating and suing the manager that John had brought in to handle the group. At the time, John and Paul even attacked one another in song. And in a new interview, Paul is very open about how much that stung. The only thing you've done was yesterday The only thing you did was yesterday was apparently Alan Klein's suggestion. But at the back of my mind I was thinking, but all I ever did was yesterday, let it be, long and whiny road, hello to Rigby, lady Madonna. F*** you, John. How do you sleep? How do I sleep at night? Well, actually, quite well. That same refreshing honesty extends to other key moments. the formation of his group Wings and recruiting Linda as its first charter member, his jail time in Japan for bringing pot into that country, even the time Lorne Michaels on Saturday Night Live jokingly offered the Beatles a ridiculously small check if they would reunite on his show. Now here it is, as you can see, a check made out to you, the Beatles, for $3,000. All you have to do is sing three Beatle tunes. She loves you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's $1,000 right there. Me and Linda were over to John's apartment in the Dakota. He said, oh, this is a big show over here, Saturday Night Live. In my book, the Beatles are the best thing that ever happened to music. It goes even deeper than that. You're not just a musical group, you're a part of us. We grew up with you. We got kind of excited. We just go down, we show up. Hey! It's Saturday Night Live! But it was like, why? You know, I mean, it'd be great for them. Would it be great for us? We've come full circle, and now we're off on another journey. So we just decided to just have another cup of tea and forget the whole idea. Man on the Run is more about the man than it is about his creative process. But his music runs all through the documentary, and it all adds up to an impressive, inspirational second act. David Bianculli is Fresh Air's TV critic. He's currently working on a book about the visual artistry of the Beatles. Coming up, we hear from Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård. He's been nominated for an Oscar for his new film, Sentimental Value. This is Fresh Air Weekend. Get in, loser. We're taking a trip under the sea to a junkyard. I've done Cobra helicopters. We've seen old washer machines. Does a second strip book count? This junk helped create one of the world's largest artificial reefs and a new home for many marine animals. But how did our trash become another fish's treasure? Find out on Shortwave. Listen in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. I met this guy on the bar train one time, and I had my bass with me, and he goes, man, what do you want to do? What's your dream? I'm Jesse Thorn. On Bullseye, Raphael Sadiq. He's nominated for an Oscar. He played bass for Prince. And of course, he co-founded Tony, Tony, Tony. Uncle, I want to be in a band with my brother. That's on the next Bullseye. Find us in the NPR app at MaximumFun.org or wherever you get podcasts. Dave Davies has our next interview. Our guest today, Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård, has had a long and interesting career, which only seems to get more interesting with age. Now in his 70s, he's just earned a Golden Globe Award and an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the widely acclaimed film Sentimental Value from the Danish-Norwegian director Joachim Trier. This surge in Skarsgård's fortunes comes four years after he suffered a stroke, which left him struggling to memorize his lines. He found a workaround, which we'll talk about, and that enabled him to continue to play roles he'd begun in the science fiction movie series Dune and the Star Wars spinoff TV series Andor, as well as the film's sentimental value. Skarsgård began acting as a teenager and has appeared in more than a hundred movies, from independent European films like Breaking the Waves and Melancholia to commercial Hollywood fare such as The Hunt for Red October, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Mamma Mia. He's also found time to raise eight children from two marriages. Five of those kids are also professional actors. The best known in the United States are his sons Alexander and Bill. Skarsgård will find out if he's an Oscar winner at the award ceremony March 15th. He spoke to me last week from a studio in London. Stellan Skarsgård, welcome to Fresh Air. Thank you very much. In this film, Sentimental Value, you play Gustav Borg. He's a famous director, and it's about his family relationships. He's the target of a lot of anger from one of his daughters because she says he wasn't around. Being in the movie business can mean your way a lot, and this daughter is also a successful actress herself. There's an obvious parallel here to your own life. I mean, you're in the movie business, and a lot of your children are actors. I know you've been asked this a lot, but to what extent, when you read this script, did you identify with this character? Not at all. He's from a different generation. He's a different kind of father than Of course, the conflict between working as an artist and combining that with a personal life is difficult. And those problems I have. But that goes for every artist. But I didn't think I had anything to do with the role at all. So I did the entire film as if it was a stranger I was doing. But then my second son, Gustav, said to me, after having seen the film that he liked very much, that he said to me, do you recognize yourself? And I went, no. And he said, look again. And even if I was at home, basically, eight months of 12, I only worked four months a year since 1989. If I was at home eight months a year, I wasn't enough home for him. So I started to thinking about it. What became clear to me is, I mean, I have eight children, so I have eight different needs. Some children need me a lot and some don't need me at all. So you can't get it right as a parent. I read that the director, Joachim Trier, you talked about this, I guess, a year before you started shooting and he kind of crafted the script for you. Is this true? Yeah, he wrote it for me. Not as a service to me, but he was thinking of me when he was writing it. He and the writer Eskelfugt. He says that the role was such a bad guy that he needed someone nice to do it. So it was a flattering way of putting it. Yeah. Is he a bad guy, Gustav, your character? I don't believe in bad guys. No, no. I mean, the monster that I did in Dune was a bad guy. You might say that. But in like human beings, we have problems because they are nuanced, real humans. And they're flawed and they're sad and they're comic and they're everything. Right. And the gulf between Gustav and his daughter is bridged as the movie eventually reaches its climax. It's quite well done. I wanted to talk about this stroke that you had that you suffered, I guess, in 2022, right? If you're comfortable, could you just tell us what happened when this occurred? Well, I just got a stroke. I mean, my wife sort of noticed something on me and my son, who was a doctor, he said that you should go to the hospital. And it was a stroke. It was a rather mild stroke. I lost some muscles in my right side of my body and I lost some part of my brain I have a bigger problem if I'm presenting a long thought chain, like if I'm having a political discussion or anything. I mean, I lose my bearing in the middle of it and just go quiet. But other than that, maybe some balance problems, but other than that, I was fine. Well, of course, the problem, as I understand it, that you faced with your career was that you couldn't really learn lines as you did before. And you found a way to kind of work around this. Tell us what you did, how you got there. Well, the thing is I've always had difficulties learning lines in a way. if I didn't sort of have them tailored to my feelings. But the way I totally forgot lines immediately now. And I discovered that I sort of was lying in bed in a hospital and I was trying to test myself if I could remember the lines. And I sort of took a book and I read something and I closed the book and I didn't remember it. So I called from the hospital. I made a call to Tony Gilroy, who was the showrunner and writer of Andor. I was in the middle of doing them. I had done the first episodes and I hadn't done the second season. And I also owed Denise Villeneuve, who was going to do Dune 2, a phone call. And I talked to them and I said, I cannot remember anything, any lines. And they said, don't worry, we'll fix it. And they said, take it easy, come in and do what you need to. And I did. And there's a lot of actors that are actually using this technique, which is an earpiece and a prompter. But I found it rather difficult if you wanted to be precise in terms of rhythm and the rhythm of the scene. And to me, rhythm is very important because you use it as a tool, the way the rhythm you make in the scene. And I had to have the guy, the prompter, put his lines on top of my fellow actor. So just so we understand this, you have a little earpiece, right? And it's not a recording of the lines. It's a live prompter who is saying these lines as you're in the scene, often speaking at the same time as your fellow actors. Yeah, that's true. he has to speak at the same time or she has to speak at the same time as the other actor for me to be able to put the cue where I want so he I'm listening to him and I'm listening to the fellow actor and then I react to the fellow actor's line I don't react to the prompter but I take the text from the prompter and say it so it's quite Quite complicated in terms of simultaneous work. It's kind of complicated, but it's feasible, and we did it. So I don't think there's any trace of the stroke in my work. Are you surprised by the tremendous response to sentimental value of this film? I mean the power of the response I am surprised by. You can't anticipate that because it's fantastic. I mean, the audience responds. It appeals to obviously everybody from children to old people because everybody has a family member or are in a relationship to some family member that is sort of reflected in the film. But it's also a very light film. It deals with serious problems and it deals with them seriously and don't take them light. But the film itself is very, very light. It's like light as a feather. Let's talk a little bit about your life here. I understand you did your first acting as a teenager, a Swedish TV series called Bombi Bit and Me. You played a character named Bondi who have, I've seen a little video of this. Fortunately, there was no translation, so I don't know what you were saying, But it's kind of like a Huckleberry Finn character, a guy with a straw hat with a lot of moxie, more or less right. And it was a hit, right? You were well-known. Yeah. I mean, it was a TV series, and we had one channel to choose between. Everybody chose it. But so everybody saw it. So it was – we became very famous as a 16-year-old. But I've done theater before and I've done sort of amateur theater and I've done also professional theater before I did that. Okay. So what did being famous at 16 – I assume this meant people would recognize you on the street and that kind of thing. What effect did that have on you in your life? Well, you can say that child actors, they can either succumb to the pressure and the sort of loss of anonymity. It can turn out really bad. or you can survive it and it turns out pretty well. And I had very, very thoughtful and brilliant parents who sort of made sure that my head didn't get too big and that I was grounded as a person. Do you remember how they did that? Well, they pointed out to me how different I was from my persona, my public persona. And the important thing is don't get that difference between your public persona yourself too big because that's when it happens, when it goes wrong. Right. You were in Good Will Hunting, which was directed by Gus Van Sant. This was the film set in Boston, written by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. And I wanted to play a clip here. I mean, the story people will remember is about these young friends in Boston who were working class guys. They're kind of brawlers. They like to drink at bars. But one of them, the Matt Damon character is a janitor in a college and is also a savant, brilliant at math and whatever. You, Stellan Skarsgård, play a math professor who want to get this brilliant young man to work with you. But he's in jail because he got into a fight and punched a police officer. And you've gotten the court to agree to release him to study math, provided he sees a therapist. So in this scene we're going to hear, you have come to a psychiatrist, played by Robin Williams, who you have a history with to see if he will agree to see the young man. And the psychiatrist is reluctant and he speaks first. Let's listen. I've got a full schedule. I'm very busy. This boy is incredible. I've never seen anything like him. What makes him so incredible, Jerry? Ever heard of Ramanujan? Yeah. No. It's a man. He lived over a hundred years ago. He was Indian. And he lived in this tiny hut somewhere in India. He had no formal education. He had no access to any scientific work. But he came across this old math book. And from this simple text, he was able to extrapolate theories that had baffled mathematicians for years. Yeah, continued fractions. Yeah, he wrote it with a... Well, he emailed it to Hardy. Yeah. Hardy in Cambridge. Yeah. And Hardy immediately recognized the brilliance of his work and brought him over to England. And they worked together for years creating some of the most exciting math theory ever done This from our new journey says genius was unparalleled Sean This boy is just like that But he's um, he's a bit defensive And I need someone who can get through to him like me Yeah, like you why well because you have the same kind of background what background are you from the same neighborhood? He's from Southie? Yeah. Poor ingenious from Southie. How many shrinks you go to before me? Five. Let me guess. Barry. Yeah. Henry. Yeah. Not Rick. Sean, please. Just meet with him once a week, please. And that's our guest, Stellan Skarsgård and Robin Williams in the film Good Will Hunting. What was it like working with Robin Williams on this set? Yeah, it was fantastic. I mean, he was a very nice man and a very gentle man. But he also, he had like three brains going on at the same time, wildly. And he was very funny. And he was improvising. He improvised every scene we had to do some extra takes because he had to get his versions out of his system. but the improvisation was also good for us all you had to follow him wherever he went and also he would follow you wherever you went and everything became very different from the previous take because of Robin leading it to somewhere that you didn't expect to end up but what Gus Van Sant got out of it was he got extremely vivid takes and different temperatures in the takes. And he got aggression in some takes and sort of niceness in some takes. And he could cut those takes into any kind he wanted. When he was editing, he could take the film where he wanted. Did you find it challenging to deal with that kind of fast-paced improvising from Robin Williams? Had you done that before? No, and I'm not good at improvising. I did once. Once I was in Toronto at the film festival and Mike Figgis comes up to me and he says, Stellan, I'd like to do a movie with you. Yeah? Yeah, cool. And it will be improvised in one take. And that is my worst nightmare. So I said yes. And it's called Time Code. It's a very interesting film. You should see it if you can. It says something about you that you pitched this idea and it kind of terrified you and you said, sure, let's do it. Yes. It's like with Mamma Mia. Well, I was just going to bring that up. That's the musical where you sing and dance with Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth. Did you have any singing and dancing experience? No. I can't sing. I can't dance. But you did. Yeah, I had to. And were you happy with the result? The thing is that Mamma Mia, they don't need those three men to be able to sing or dance. All the girls are good at singing and dancing. And they just want three bimbos to look pretty, be funny, and be sexy. Yeah. There's a lot of fun video you can find on YouTube of you and these other two men in the studio singing these songs, which are songs by ABBA, which are not the easiest. And just throwing yourselves into them. And it's a lot of fun to watch. Yeah. Well, I don't know. I haven't seen them. I mean, I was terrified. And all three of us were terrified. We got to that studio and we met Bjorn and Benny. that had made all these songs, and they were very good musicians. And they were so nice to us, but we were so frightened. We didn't know how to get it started. But they encouraged us, and we threw ourselves into it. We felt that they can always fix it afterwards. Right. Trust the director, trust the process. All right. Stellan Skarsgård, thank you so much for speaking with us. Thank you very much. It's been a pleasure. Stellan Skarsgård is nominated for an Oscar for his performance in the film Sentimental Value. He spoke with Dave Davies. Fresh Air Weekend is produced by Teresa Madden. Fresh Air's executive producer is Sam Brigger. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. With Terry Gross, I'm Tanya Mosley. Coming up on the Here and Now Anytime podcast, squirrels, ferrets, and moose. Oh my. climate change is making it harder to be a mammal these days our reporting project reverse course returns with stories of science in action from the frozen north woods of minnesota to the desert of arizona listen to here and now anytime wherever you get your podcasts