“Murderbot” is the break from darkness Alexander Skarsgård needed

Alexander Skarsgård, the Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning actor, has excelled at portraying dark and deeply troubled characters. His roles in television shows like “Succession,” “Big Little Lies” and “True Blood” built up his career as one of Hollywood’s favorite bad guys. Skarsgård was so compelling as Eric Northman in “True Blood” that he had people all over the world swooning and dreaming to be friends with a vampire.

Skarsgård has incredible range as an actor, as he has also played “Tarzan” and a war hero in “Generation Kill,” but his portrayal of villains tends to stand out more. On Salon Talks, I asked him if that success has had an impact on the kinds of roles that land on his desk. “A lot of dark, disturbed characters. I don’t know what that says about me, but that’s a lot of darkness coming my way,” Skarsgård said.

“I think it’s also kind of informed by what I’ve done,” he continued, “Not most recently but in the past couple of years. Especially if something hits the zeitgeist, then I notice that there’s a lot of incoming projects that are tonally similar to the character that I’ve played, which is rarely exciting because then it’s like, ‘Yeah, this is cool, but I’ve literally just played this character for six months.’”

Skarsgård exercises his range in the new Apple TV+ series “Murderbot,” where he plays a TV-obsessed cyborg both intrigued by humans as well as repulsed by them, who works as a cheap security unit capable of pulling off difficult missions, but would rather kick back and watch old-school soap operas. “Murderbot” is based on the sci-fi book series “The Murderbot Diaries” by Martha Wells, set in an unknown time in the future. The role allows Skarsgård to be funny and, at times, goofy, in a way we rarely get to see him.

“It was refreshing to have a character that wasn’t so self-confident, or a protagonist of a story, that again, would rather be left alone or confounded or confused by certain elements of the way humans interact with each other,” Skarsgård said.

Watch my “Salon Talks” episode with Alexander Skarsgård here, or read a Q&A of our conversation below to learn more about the reality of coming from a family of actors, Skarsgård’s pick for who would win in a battle between his most powerful characters, and why “Murderbot” is making waves in the neurodivergent community.

The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

“Murderbot” is based on the Martha Wells series, “The Murderbot Diaries.” Were you a fan of the books before the show?

I was actually not aware of the book series before Chris and Paul Weitz, the show creators, reached out. I read the scripts first, and then when I was introduced to this very strange character of Murderbot, it was definitely not the type of character that I expected to meet when I heard the title and the premise. I expected someone very self-assured, confident and tough — and then instead, you meet this socially awkward android who would rather be watching space soap operas and left alone than getting into the thick of it, the action. 

I was really intrigued, and then I went back and read “All Systems Red,” which is the first novella that Martha Wells wrote based on this character, and I just fell in love with Murderbot. I thought it was such a beautiful, weird character; so idiosyncratic, and just something I haven’t seen or read before.

Can you walk us into where things stand when we meet Murderbot?

I’d say the opening scene of the first episode paints a picture of Murderbot’s existence up until this moment. Murderbot is a security unit. It is a low-rent security unit, kind of the cheapest version. Basically, if you imagine a stormtrooper from “Star Wars,” but the worst, the cheapest, s**ttiest version of that.

It has AI components, but also organic components. It’s a cyborg. Its job is to pull security for miners on different planets in the galaxy, and it’s very much treated as a commodity, a piece of equipment, and miners or other workers on these planets that need security for insurance purposes never really invite Murderbot into the group. It’s very much like a piece of equipment, so in the first scene, you see how it’s normally treated.

But unbeknownst to the miners, Murderbot has been able to hack its governor module, its system, so it’s gained autonomy, free will. It has decided to call itself Murderbot, and it’s talking about all these epic adventures that it’s going to go on. You think that that’s going to be the show now, that you’re going to go on these crazy adventures with this badass cyborg called Murderbot, but instead you cut to a couple of months later when it’s on another deployment and it’s pulling security, and it’s discovered that it can watch soap operas because it’s been able to hack into the entertainment feeds. So Murderbot, instead of proactively going out on these adventures, is procrastinating. Which, when reading it, I thought was a really fun turn. I didn’t expect it to go in that direction. You get to know this android who is confused by humans and sometimes disgusted by humans, but also somehow intrigued. It would rather watch humans on the space soap opera because that’s safe. You can switch it on and off whenever you want.

This group of humans that it’s now assigned to protect, they are very different from the humans it normally protects. You see in the opening scene where people vomit on it, and just no one respects Murderbot or cares about him. This is a group of space hippies, basically, and they are very different. They want Murderbot to join the common area of the habitat. They ask Murderbot how Murderbot is doing, if it wants to join them, ask about Murderbot’s opinion, and that is very strange. I guess it could be flattering, but it makes Murderbot incredibly uncomfortable because, again, it prefers to be at a safe distance, but slowly it gets pulled into this group of humans.

You’ve played one of the most popular vampires ever, and your prep for “Tarzan” was insane. How does one prepare to play an android who’s mostly wearing a suit?

Being confounded and appalled by humanity, it’s something quite relatable sometimes. Murderbot is definitely more of an introvert than I am, but I can definitely relate to the feeling, I think most people can, of walking into a room of strangers and trying to figure out how you fit in, if and when you should say something or interject, and the social dynamic of the situation. To me, that was very relatable, and it was just about leaning into that awkwardness. It’s all about avoiding eye contact, and the motivation in each scene is basically, “How can I get out of here? How can I end this?” Because a conversation should just be giving and receiving orders, be very pragmatic, but suddenly they’re like, “How are you feeling? Are you okay, SecUnit?” 

It was about letting that awkward feeling grow and take over in a way, and then I found that the suit helped as well. Murderbot is in a very rigid, human-sized condom of thick latex, basically, and that helped with the physicality of the character.

Was it heavy?

It wasn’t super heavy. It was just very tight and rigid, which helped because I wanted Murderbot to be very precise in its movement. It doesn’t fidget much or use a lot of body language. It’s rarely comfortable, but at least if it’s standing, it’s just standing. It’s very straight up, and that suit definitely helped.

Murderbot could probably take out any other role you played before.

I think Eric Northman would probably put up a pretty good fight because he’s got that vamp speed.

The guy you played in “Succession,” he’d take him right out.

Physically? Yeah, but Lukas Matsson is incredibly wealthy, so he could build a superior AI.

While watching the show, I came to the feeling that it shares some DNA with “Star Trek.” Were you a fan of that show, or sci-fi in general?

I grew up in the ’80s, ’90s. In my world, it was all “Star Wars.” The first movie I saw in the theater was “The Empire Strikes Back.” I lived in Stockholm, Sweden, at the time, and I remember coming out here in 1984 when I was a little kid, with my family. We lived in Texas for a while, and on my way back went to a big toy store here in New York City and I got the Ewok village. You couldn’t get that in Sweden at the time, so for two weeks, I was the coolest kid at school in Stockholm. It didn’t last long, but for two weeks, everyone wanted to come over to my place and play with Ewoks. My entry into sci-fi was definitely the “Star Wars” universe.

The character Murderbot has been embraced by the neurodivergent community. Were you playing the character with that in mind or just responding to what you saw on the page?

I was very much responding to what I saw on the page, and I found Murderbot relatable. It was refreshing to have a character that wasn’t so self-confident, or a protagonist of a story that, again, would rather be left alone, or [who is] confounded or confused by certain elements of the way humans interact with each other.

I have a friend who has Asperger’s, and I can definitely see similarities, but I also didn’t want to lean too heavily in that direction because I didn’t want to specifically portray that. I’m not surprised that it’s been embraced and that people can relate to the character in a way.

One thing I missed was what year “Murderbot” takes place in. Is it 500 years from now? One thousand years from now?

I have no idea. I don’t even know where it takes place. It could be in our solar system X centuries in the future, or it could be right now, but in a different galaxy. I don’t really know. I remember talking to Chris and Paul — the showrunners — about it, and we didn’t really agree, but I didn’t think we needed to come to a consensus on that. I thought it was quite nice that the viewer can decide for themselves when and where this takes place.

I think about our children, and I’m like, is this going to be how they’re living 70, 80 years from now? And are we going to be more evolved? 

Well, that’s the moral of the story. “Hey guys, don’t worry about AI at all because they’re not going to take dominion over mankind. They’re just going to watch soap operas and chill. Nothing to worry about at all out there. What could possibly go wrong?” [Laughter.]

Did playing Murderbot change any perspective you had on AI, or what’s happening with tech and creativity?

No. I kind of go back and forth on that. I’m a luddite. I don’t know anything about AI or artificial super intelligence, and I have moments on a good day where I’m like, “This is pretty exciting, the speed at which this is advancing and developing, and the benefits of this.” But then on a bad day, I’m also terrified.

I was listening to a podcast with Max Tegmark. He’s an expert on this, and the fact that if you don’t regulate it at all, if it’s a free-for-all, like an arms race in developing artificial super intelligence, I’m like, “Oh, we’re doomed. This is it. There’s no way we’re going to be around.” They’re not going to be as peaceful as Murderbot if they take control, so yeah, I kind of go back and forth between, and obviously, I know almost nothing about it.

A buddy of mine, who is not in the film industry, wanted to put together a lookbook for a project that he was working on as a hobby, and he was able to visualize and create this world through AI that was incredibly impressive, that he couldn’t afford hiring 10 people to come up with these images and these renderings. He did it on his own, back home. I was like, “That’s pretty cool.” That levels the playing field in a way because you don’t have to have enough money to hire 10 people to do this. You can do it on your own.

But then, of course, those 10 people who would’ve done it will lose a job, so yeah, I think it’s a complicated issue, for sure.

You come from a family of actors. Do you guys spend a lot of time talking about craft, or do you leave that stuff at work?

We talk about it, I think, to a healthy amount. My dad’s an actor, four of my brothers are actors. There are a lot of actors in the family, and it’s a big part of our lives. We travel a lot, so when we get together, a lot of it is about the projects but also the adventure, the, “What was that experience like?” The working with people that someone else had worked with before.

Does it ever get competitive? 

It doesn’t really, because we’re all quite different. I think we’re up for different roles, so I think it would’ve been harder if we were up for the same roles. I can see how that could have been painful. If you’re really excited about a role and you’re auditioning and you try to get it, and then you don’t get it, and then you’re like . . .

We found this guy who looks just like you, and he’s a little cheaper.

Yeah. He’s a little younger, a little more handsome.

What about getting the whole family together on one project? Has there ever been a conversation?

No, not the whole family. That would be exciting, and also terrifying, probably. I’d be down. 

There have been a couple of opportunities to work with my brothers. My dad and I were both in a movie called “Melancholia” years ago. We only had one or two scenes together, but at least we were on location together for a month, which was awesome.

There’s been a couple of other opportunities, but nothing that we’ve been excited enough about creatively. I think if we come across something or if we think of something that we want to develop, I’d love it. I think it’d be fantastic to work with my brothers and my dad.

Murderbot can download whatever it wants. If you had that power, what would be the first five films you would download?

I mean, we do have that power, don’t we? 

We do, but you can download them inside your brain and watch them in your glasses between here and the next interview.

I’d say a lot of ’80s comedies. That would be my go-to. Shows that I go back to or movies that I go back to watch and re-watch are what I loved when I was a kid growing up. Some hold up, some have definitely not aged well, but a lot of Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, that kind of stuff.

You’ve played so many roles, and your range is incredible. Is there a role that you’re most commonly offered?

A lot of dark, disturbed characters. I don’t know what that says about me, but there’s a lot of darkness coming my way. I think it’s also kind of informed by what I’ve done, not most recently, but in the past couple of years. Especially if something hits the zeitgeist, then I notice that there’s a lot of incoming projects that are tonally similar to the character that I’ve played, which is rarely exciting because then it’s like, “Yeah, this is cool, but I’ve literally just played this character for six months.” 

It’s fun to go off and do something different, and that’s part of the reason I was so excited when “Murderbot” landed in my lap. I’d done “The Northman” and “Infinity Pool” prior to “Murderbot.” Both were incredible experiences, but really dark characters and just disturbing stuff, so I felt primed and ready for something tonally different and something that leaned more towards comedy. I was very excited when I was introduced to “Murderbot.”

Is there anything you would like to do that you haven’t done yet?

It’s not one dream role that I have on a pedestal. I kind of just stumble my way through my career and find stuff like, “Oh, this excites me.” I’ve been very blessed and lucky to have had these opportunities to work on really interesting characters, and if I can keep stumbling forward and stumbling into great, fun, weird, occasionally really dark characters, but occasionally lighter, then I’m very happy.

I have friends and colleagues who are like, “I need to play Iago.” And then they make that happen. They put it together, and I admire that, but for me, there’s never been that one role that’s like, “I’ve got to play that one.”