Bill Skarsgård

2011–2016: Early work

In 2011, Skarsgård was nominated for a Guldbagge Award for his leading role as Simon in Simple Simon.^[15] At the age of 21, he won the European Film Academy's Shooting Stars Award in 2012.^[16] Beginning in 2013, Skarsgård played the role of Roman Godfrey in the Netflix original Hemlock Grove.

In April 2014, Skarsgård featured on the cover of Hero – a bi-annual men's fashion and culture magazine, shot by Hedi Slimane. In the issue, he is interviewed by his father.^[17] Skarsgård played Matthew in the science fiction thriller The Divergent Series: Allegiant (2016), his first major American film.^[18]

2017–present: Breakthrough

Skarsgård portrayed Pennywise the Dancing Clown in the 2017 film It and reprised the role later in the 2019 sequel It Chapter Two, as well as in the 2025 prequel series It: Welcome to Derry, directed by Andy Muschietti.^[19] Speaking about what led him to casting Skarsgård, Muschietti said: "One second he can act all cute, and then the next, there's something ancestral and dark that just appears. His ability to transform is mind-blowing to me."^[20]

Skarsgård was a series regular on 2018's Castle Rock, as a young man with an unusual legal problem.^[21] That same year, he portrayed the minor role of Zeitgeist in Deadpool 2.^[22] In 2020, he played Mateo in episode 4 of AMC's anthology series Soulmates. In 2021, he voiced the main antagonist Kro in Eternals. In the 2022 Netflix miniseries Clark, Skarsgård portrayed Clark Olofsson, the notorious Swedish criminal whose involvement in the Norrmalmstorg robbery gave rise to the term Stockholm syndrome.^[23] In 2023, Skarsgård played the lead villain role of Marquis de Gramont in John Wick: Chapter 4.

In 2024, Skarsgård began taking on more leading man roles and was the titular character in Boy Kills World.^[24] He then starred in the 2024 reboot The Crow, directed by Rupert Sanders.^[25] Skarsgård said: "I had a great shoot, a lot of night shoots. … You're kind of preoccupied in a bleak state of mind for a while. I like to be consumed by it when I'm doing it. Actually, we were working out a lot, I found it really helpful. There's nothing like being tired and sweaty to get the demons out."^[26] Finally, he co-starred as the vampire Count Orlok in the remake of Nosferatu, directed by Robert Eggers.^[27] To play the part, Skarsgård worked with an opera coach to lower his vocal register, adapted a Transylvanian accent and wore 60 prosthetics.^[28][29] Speaking on his experience portraying the titular role, Skarsgård said: "It was like conjuring pure evil. It took a while for me to shake off the demon that had been conjured inside of me."^[20] Nicholas Hoult, Skarsgård's co-star in the film, proclaimed that Skarsgård "gives a truly transformative performance ... it's scary and intimidating. His voice, his physicality ... it's really a wonderful character and he did beautiful character work with it."^[30]

In 2025, Skarsgård starred in Locked. He said performing alone and the "street weasel quality" of his character drew him to the part and added: "I read the script for Locked around the tail end of Nosferatu production ... I often instinctively want to go somewhere that's the polar opposite of my current project, just to keep challenging myself."^[31] He then starred in the critically acclaimed crime thriller Dead Man's Wire, directed by Gus Van Sant. Speaking about taking on his role in the film, Skarsgård said: "It was very juicy and it's a character that I was so blessed with: very complex, fun and dynamic, and [it required] a type of performance I certainly haven't done in America before... There's no blocking, there are no real hit marks (and) that presents accidents and spontaneous things. You feel very free."^[32] Skarsgård's performance in the film was praised, with William Bibbiani of TheWrap calling him "brilliant" and writing "Skarsgård is a captivating chaos gremlin... he's such a chameleon..."^[33] David Rooney of TheHollywoodReporter deemed it his best work so far and said it was "a crackling performance full of unforced humor".^[34] Co-star Dacre Montgomery commented on working with Skarsgard: "I just can't say enough good things about Bill. He's wonderful. He's the best friend I've made on a set. He's one of the best scene partners I've ever had. He gives it his all."^[35]

Film

Television