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Gustaf Caspar Orm Skarsgård (born November 12, 1980) is a Swedish actor. He portrayed Floki in the History Channel drama series Vikings.

Biography

Skarsgård was born in Stockholm, Sweden to Stellan Skarsgård, an actor, and My Skarsgård, a physician. He has five siblings, Alexander, Sam, Bill, Eija, and Valter. He has two half-brothers, Ossian and Kolbjörn from his father's second wife Megan Everett. Alexander, Bill, and Valter are also actors. His godfather is Swedish actor Peter Stormare.

His first acting role was at the age of nine in Täcknamn Coq Rouge (Code Name: Coq Rouge), in which his father had the lead role. In 1999, he entered The Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts (Teaterhögskolan) and graduated in 2003. He joined Dramaten Theatre Company in 2003 and starred in many stage productions such as The Merchant of Venice and Lulu.

While continuing with stage productions, he was also in a number of TV and film roles, most notably Den Osynlige (The Invisible) in 2002 and Oscar-nominated Ondskan (Evil) in 2003. Gustaf received a Best Supporting Role Guldbaggen (Swedish Oscars) nomination for Ondskan. In 2006, he won a Guldbaggen for his role as Johan in Förortsungar (Kidz in Da Hood).

2007 and 2008 have been busy for him, having roles in both of the Arn films (with father Stellan and brothers Bill and Valter) as well as sustaining his on-going love for the stage with the production of Den Allvarsamma Leken (The Serious Game) at Stockholm City Theatre. Most recently starring as Göran Skoogh in Patrik 1,5 (Patrik Age 1.5). In 2017 he was cast as Karl Strand in HBO's Westworld.

Trivia

  • He has been best friends with fellow Swedish actor Matias Varela since childhood.
  • His favorite actor is Gary Oldman. His favorite actresses are Juliette Binoche and Isabelle Huppert.
  • His second name, Orm, literally means "snake" in Swedish.
  • He has the same birthday as Ryan Gosling.
  • He auditioned to play Ragnar before being cast as Floki.
  • Skarsgård assisted some of the other actors in the pronunciation of certain Scandinavian words. According to him the word English-speaking actors found most difficult was the name "Knut," which is often anglicized as "Canute" in history books and fiction.
  • He is the only actor to travel to Iceland. The rest of the cast shot their scenes in a quarry and against green screens.
  • When asked, linguists determined that Skarsgård and Donal Logue (Horik) spoke the Old Norse dialogue the best.

Gallery

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