Stellan Skarsgård is something of an MCU veteran, playing the intelligent and good-natured Dr. Erik Selvig in Thor, The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Thor: Love and Thunder.
In the 2011 movie which introduced the God of Thunder, the majority of Skarsgård's scenes were with Natalie Portman and Kat Dennings. In a new interview, he shared what a fun experience that was and admitted the time he spent with his co-stars was something of a learning experience for him.
"The film was fun. We lived in Santa Fe, where they have more Birkenstocks and gray ponytails than anywhere else in the United States. No, I wasn’t excited. I was, 'What the f--k?' I didn’t know much about Thor, or I knew about the real Thor, but I didn’t know much about the comic books."
"So the thing was that Kenneth Branagh was directing it, and he’s good. I said 'OK I'll do it' but the thing is, when you sign up for one of these, you sign up for four, so I felt I sold my soul to the devil, but I didn’t, because especially the first one, I had a lot of fun."
"It was me, Kat Dennings, and Natalie Portman, the trio. We were constantly together in all the scenes, and I had so much fun and I learned so much about girls because most of the time we were stuck in a car, and we were waiting, and it was a film car and I just listened to those two girls talking about men. Yeah, I mean, I didn’t think it was like that. You learn."
"Why did I continue to do Marvel after that? I had a contract, and it was fun doing those small things. You don’t have to be too pretentious about what you do. It’s not a crime to do not-high-brow material."
As funny as it is to think about Skarsgård playing third wheel in Portman and Dennings' conversations, it's refreshing to hear an actor talk so positively about their superhero movie experience, all while defending the genre from those who look down their nose at it.
We don't know if or when he might return to the MCU as Selvig, particularly as another Thor movie has yet to be confirmed. Thor: Love and Thunder underperformed critically and commercially, potentially meaning the only place we'll see the hero in future is in ensemble projects. That may be bad news for his supporting cast!
You can watch the full interview with Skarsgård in the player below.