Sarah Hughes 

On my radar: Bill Skarsgård’s cultural highlights

The Hemlock Grove actor tells Sarah Hughes about his favourite museum, Louis CK, the darkest story he's ever read and dining in Stockholm
  
  

Bill Skarsgård
Bill Skarsgård: 'If you read 20 pages [of Blood Meridian], you need to rest for a while.' Photograph: McMullan/Sipa/USA/Rex Photograph: McMullan/Sipa/USA/Rex

Bill Skarsgård is a 23-year-old actor currently starring as complicated rich boy Roman Godfrey in Netflix's horror series Hemlock Grove. Born in Vällingby, a suburb of Stockholm, he is the son of Stellan Skarsgård and brother of True Blood's Alexander. A rising star in his home country, he was nominated for a Guldbagge award in 2011 for his performance in Simple Simon and has drawn strong reviews for his performance in Hemlock Grove, season two of which is available on Netflix now.

Exhibition: Vasa Museum, Stockholm

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. It's a museum unlike anything I've seen outside of Stockholm and a great, weird disaster story.

Television: Louie

I'm so obsessed by Louie right now. Louis CK is so brilliant and smart and clever and funny and also very bizarre. That show just makes me feel happy because there are no rules; he doesn't care about continuity or plots making sense or anything like that. I really admire him as an artist.

Book: Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

I've just finished this and, honestly, I don't know if I should recommend it to anyone because it's one of the darkest stories I've ever read. It also took me for ever to finish because it's so dense that if you read 20 pages, you just need to rest for a while. It sounds like I'm complaining but it was brilliant: the story really sticks with you. I'm still thinking about it now.

Restaurant: AG, Stockholm

One of my dad's biggest passions is cooking so we always had good food at home. The closest I can get to that vibe is a steakhouse in Stockholm called AG. My two best friends work there and it's convenient to go there, eat good food and hang out with my best friends.

Music: The Dead Brothers

The soundtrack for Hemlock Grove got me into all this goth folk gypsy music like the Dead Brothers. It's basically cabaret music that's very dark, a bit like some of Tom Waits's stuff. It's really interesting when a new genre speaks to you and these guys are phenomenal. It's just classic dark folk. I mean it's not really very happy music but it's emotional and I like that.

Film: Locke

I just saw this – it was so interesting, much more like a piece of theatre than a film. And given that it's one actor, Tom Hardy, in a car for an hour and a half, I was surprisingly invested in the story. It was challenging and different and I really like that.

 

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