He has played a marine, a vampire, a rampaging Viking, a predatory tech bro and a clone, but actor Alexander Skarsgård had one of his most rewarding acting jobs here in pc28portraying an android.
“It really was a special experience,” the Swedish actor said in a video interview.
“To be able to collaborate on such a fun, weird, unique project, it was unlike anything I’d ever worked on or seen before.”
“It” is “Murderbot,” a comedy-drama about a security android with an aversion to humans and a devotion to cheesy sci-fi soap operas.
In the 10-episode series that debuts on Apple TV Plus on May 16, the cyborg made of lab-grown human tissue and robotic parts is thrown in with a group of idealistic scientists on a survey mission who see the bot as part of the crew, which complicates its aim to stay aloof from humans.
Skarsgård said he related to Murderbot more than most other characters he has played — and he has played a lot.
Alexander Skarsgård says he really felt for the character of Murderbot, “this socially awkward android who wants to watch space soap operas rather than interact with humans.”
Steve Wilkie/Apple TV PlusThe son of Stellan Skarsgård (currently onscreen in “Andor”), Alexander was a child actor in his native Sweden but quit in his teens. After he returned to acting, he landed a part as a male model in the 2001 movie “Zoolander,” but the American jobs dried up until his breakthrough in the 2008 Iraq War drama “Generation Kill,” in which he portrayed a coolly efficient marine sergeant.
Skarsgård really made his name as a centuries-old Swedish vampire in “True Blood.” He is also known for playing an abusive husband in “Big Little Lies,” a Mossad agent in “The Little Drummer Girl,” a Viking Hamlet in “The Northman,” a predatory tech mogul in “Succession”; and he starred in Brandon Cronenberg’s horror film “Infinity Pool” as a man whose punishment for a crime is watching clones of himself be put to death.
“I was definitely ready to do something a bit more comedic after a couple of quite intense, dark roles,” Skarsgård, 48, said. “And I just fell in love with the character” of Murderbot after reading Martha Wells’s novella “All Systems Red,” on which the first season is based.
“It was an action-packed sci-fi adventure, but at the centre of it you have this socially awkward android who wants to watch space soap operas rather than interact with humans. And it was just so delicious and weird and funny, and I really felt for the character.”
Brothers Paul and Chris Weitz (“American Pie,” “About a Boy”), the creators and showrunners of “Murderbot,” said in production notes that Skarsgård, who also executive produced the series, was perfect for the role of the SecUnit.
“He has a genuinely quirky esthetic and he prefers to play against his good looks,” said Paul. “He is a really smart, deep-thinking person with an impish sense of humour.”
“Alex is also really good at playing someone who isn’t comfortable in their own skin,” added Chris. “He brought this tremendous sense of pathos to what could otherwise be a character that is hard to identify with.”
Part of what makes Skarsgård relatable in “Murderbot” is the character’s delightfully deadpan narration.
“I was built to obey humans. And humans, well, they’re assholes,” the unit says in the first episode, overseeing a room full of drunk people.
(There’s also something inherently funny about an ostensibly emotionless android getting hooked on the melodrama of its favourite soap, “The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon,” in which actors John Cho, Jack McBrayer, Clark Gregg and DeWanda Wise get to chew scenery in the show within a show.)
Murderbot is the name the unit jokingly gives itself after it hacks into and disables its “governor module,” the part of its tech that compels it to obey human commands. But that puts the droid in a bind: if it gets caught using its new-found freedom it could be sent to the scrap heap. And there’s another question threaded through the season: is it a murderbot in more than name?
Skarsgård said he found the character’s journey fascinating: how its relationship with humans “changes when it is forced to be around this group of space hippies (who) embrace Murderbot. And also the fact that it’s gained autonomy, free will; it’s now forced to confront its own humanity. And I thought that was really, really interesting to explore.”
There is plenty of action in the series to go along with Murderbot’s self-actualization. The crew from the Preservation Alliance encounters hostile forces on the planet they’re surveying, including — if you’ve watched — giant two-headed worms and other, meaner SecUnits. The peace-loving scientists also have to reconcile Murderbot’s ability to protect them with its capacity for violence.
Clockwise from bottom left, Akshay Khanna, Tattiawna Jones, Sabrina Wu, David Dastmalchian, Noma Dumezweni and Tamara Podemski in “Murderbot.”
Apple TV PlusThe series was filmed entirely in pc28and parts of Ontario last year, with locations including the Hearn Generating Station; York University and the University of pc28Scarborough; the York University subway station; and quarries in Elora, Clarington, Hagersville and Sudbury standing in for the barren, rocky planet where the action takes place.
Skarsgård has worked in Canada a lot, but mostly in Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver. He spent a week shooting the 2018 thriller “The Hummingbird Project” in Toronto, but this time he got to settle in, renting a house in the Ossington-Dundas area for six months.
“I fell in love with it,” he said. “It’s such a multicultural city and you get these pockets of incredible restaurants from all around the world. You get phenomenal authentic cuisine. And it’s such a beautiful mix of people, but you still have this beautiful Canadian friendliness and openness. So it was a phenomenal experience.”
He also fell in love with his Canadian cast members, including Tattiawna Jones (“The Handmaid’s Tale”) and Tamara Podemski (“Outer Range”), who play members of the Preservation Alliance crew.
And it was at Skarsgård’s urging that “Handmaid’s Tale” star Amanda Brugel got to play a role in “Murderbot.”
“I adore her,” said Skarsgård, who worked with Brugel in “Infinity Pool.” “She’s phenomenal and just a beautiful human being. It was so fun to be reunited with Amanda.”
He added that while it’s “such a platitude” for actors to say how much they love their co-stars, “it was a beautiful group of people and also, behind camera, it (was) a phenomenal crew in Toronto. And also, hats off to Chris and Paul Weitz. They are just genuinely lovely human beings.
“It was such a great experience, making all those friends.”
“Murderbot” debuts with two episodes May 16 on Apple TV Plus, with new episodes every Friday.
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