Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Alexander Skarsgard gets some added bite from 'True Blood'

Playing a sexy vampire on the HBO hit has vaulted his career. He has 'Straw Dogs' and 'Melancholia' set to be released by year's end, with 'Battleship' in the wings.
 Playing an aloof, sexy Viking vampire sheriff on HBO's "True Blood" requires many things of Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgard, not least among them a willingness to endure long stretches of night shoots and a commitment to spend at least a certain amount of time in the gym. Anyone who's watched the show, which returns for its fourth season Sunday, knows that virtually every major character is afforded plenty of screen time wearing not much at all.

But every now and again, the hit series, masterminded by Alan Ball and adapted from mystery writer Charlaine Harris' bestselling novels, really takes a turn for the surreal — like in Season 3 when Skarsgard, who plays Eric Northman, and actor Allan Hyde, as Eric's vampire "maker" Godric, were hunting werewolves dressed like SS officers in a World War II era flashback scene.

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