Why Alexander Skarsgård Was Ready To Turn Down The Lead In Apple TV's Murderbot

It would be pretty easy to typecast actor Alexander Skarsgård. Standing at around 6'4", the ridiculously good-looking Swedish actor had a hard time getting taken seriously in Hollywood to begin with. Once he started booking bigger characters, they were usually of the soldier or Viking variety, with a starring turn in the Iraq War miniseries "Generation Kill" and roles as vampire Viking Eric Northman on the HBO series "True Blood" and as an actual Viking in the Robert Eggers film "The Northman." Here's the thing, though: Alexander Skarsgård is just a weird little guy trapped in a big handsome body, and he rarely gets the chance to let that out. 

Thankfully, there's "Murderbot," the Apple TV series based on the successful "The Murderbot Diaries" series of novels by Martha Wells. "Murderbot" lets Skarsgård finally get truly weird, but the actor almost turned it down outright because he was worried it would be too much like his other "testosterone-filled" roles. 

In an interview with Collider, Skarsgård shared that when he first heard about "Murderbot," he almost passed on it entirely because the name reminded him of something like "RoboCop" and he had just finished filming the physically and mentally brutal "The Northman." "I was like, 'I'm not sure I want to do Murderbot after that,'" he said. Thankfully, he gave it another look, because his performance as the titular Murderbot is truly one of his best yet. 

After filming "The Northman" and Brandon Cronenberg's emotionally draining sci-fi movie "Infinity Pool," Alexander Skarsgård was worried that "Murderbot" might be more of the same. He told Collider:

"I definitely expected the character to be a testosterone-filled tough guy kind of murderbot, and I was like, 'Alright, I think I know what this is. It's in the vein of, like, Terminator or RoboCop. Something like that.' [...] But then I started reading it, and I was introduced to this socially awkward android who loves soap operas."

He was pleasantly surprised and interested in signing on for something he felt was a great "palate cleanser" after the intensity of his previous projects. There was just one other concern: Skarsgård had starred on the HBO series "True Blood" for seven years, and he was hesitant to sign any additional long-term contracts. Thankfully for all of us, Skarsgård felt the character was exactly what he was looking for if he was ever going to sign on to a multiple-season contract again.

While Alexander Skarsgård said that making "True Blood" was an "incredible experience," he was also quite clear that he didn't want to sign on for anything else that long-term "unless I really love the character and the people I'm doing it with." He went on to say that the character of Murderbot was quite fun and the kind of thing he was willing to tackle for multiple seasons. The character really is something special — a sexless, awkward, obsessive weirdo who is ultimately more relatable than many human characters on television. 

Skarsgård has been in some pretty phenomenal movies and TV shows over the course of his career, and "Murderbot" is definitely one of the best. Here's hoping that he gets to play the character for as many seasons as possible.