Bill Skarsgård

Bill Skarsgård (birthname: Bill Istvan Günther Skarsgård) is becoming one of Hollywood’s favorite actors to bring horrific bad guys to life. Striking a different profile from his suave, muscled brother Alexander (who usually plays heroes), Bill specializes in vivid antagonists, such as evil clown Pennywise in the two-part Andy Muscietti adaptation of Stephen King’s It (2017) and It Chapter Two (2019), with Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, and James Ransone, as well as baddie Kro in Chloé Zhao’s Marvel Studios production, Eternals (2021), with Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Gemma Chan, Kumail Nanjiani, Brian Tyree Henry, and Barry Keoghan.

Skarsgård’s feature debut was the Swedish thriller, White Water Fury(2000), with brother Alexander. His first starring role was in one of his good-guy parts in the title role of Andreas Ohman’s comedy, Simple Simon (2010), with Cecilia Forss. Skarsgård co-starred with Peter Dallein Hannes Holm’s Swedish drama, Behind Blue Skies (2010), followed by a co-starring role with Alicia Vikander in Ella Lemhagen’s murder mystery drama, The Crown Jewels (2011), and a starring role in the award-winning WWII family drama, Simon and the Oaks (2011).

Skarsgård’s first English-language role was a supporting role in Joe Wright’s Tolstoy adaptation, Anna Karenina (2012), which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and starred Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Kelly Macdonald. Skarsgård joined the Norwegian cast directed by Torun Lian for the feature adaptation of Knut Hamsun’s Victoria (2013).

Although much of Bill Skarsgård’s Hollywood work has been devoted to antagonists, his Hollywood debut in the third film in the Divergent Series, Allegiant (2016), with Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Jeff Daniels, Miles Teller, and Ansel Elgort, was on the good side of the ledger. After a brief appearance in the Charlize Theron-starring Atomic Blonde (2017), Skarsgård made a stark appearance in the two-part Itsaga, barely recognizable under Pennywise’s garish clown makeup and costume.

Though it was barely released, Alison Eastwood’s Battlecreek(2017) provided Skarsgård with his first American starring role, opposite Paula Malcomson and Toby Hemingway. He provided part of the male background to the female-dominant cast of Sam Levinson’s divisive Assassination Nation (2018), with Odessa Young, Suki Waterhouse, and Bella Thorne. Skarsgård’s second involvement in a studio franchise was a small role in David Leitch’s Deadpool 2 (2018), with Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, and Morena Baccarin.

Dan Berk’s and Robert Olsen’s indie black comedy, Villains (2019), provided Skarsgård with a starring (and bloody) role opposite Maika Monroe, and Kyra Sedgwick; his next American movie was another indie, Edson Oda’s Sundance-premiering Nine Days (2020), with Winston Duke, Zazie Beetz, and Benedict Wong. Skarsgård was cast in a prominent spot in Antonio Campos’ Netflix WWII-era drama, The Devil All the Time (2020), with Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, and Riley Keough. Skarsgård was support to star John Boyega in writer-director Chase Palmer’s black crime comedy, Naked Singularity (2021), and then later that year appeared (via voice and motion capture) in the MCU release, Eternals.

Bill Skarsgård starred in and executive-produced Zach Cregger’s horror movie, Barbarian (2022), with Georgina Campbell and Justin Long. Joining his third franchise, Bill Skarsgård starred opposite Keanu Reeves, Donnie Yan, and Laurence Fishburne in John Wick: Chapter 4(2023). Skarsgård played a deaf-mute named “Boy” in writer-director Moritz Mohr’s feature debut, the revenge drama Boy Kills World (2023), produced by Sam Raimi, and co-starring Jessica Rothe, Yayan Ruhian, and Isaiah Mustafa. In one of his few period roles to date, Skarsgård portrayed Spain’s King Philip II in Lee Tamahori’s epic, Emperor (date to be announced), starring Adrien Brody, Sophie Cookson, Paz Vega, Oliver Platt, and Eddie Marsan.

Skarsgård followed these projects by starring in the horror-thriller, Locked (date to be announced), with Anthony Hopkins, and Ashley Cartwright co-starring under David Yaroevsky’s direction, and produced by Sam Raimi. Skarsgård co-starred opposite Nicolas Cage in director/writer/producer Andrew Niccol’s sequel to 2005’s Lord of War, Lords of War (date to be announced), with Laura Harrier.

Bill Skarsgård starred as Count Orlok in filmmaker Robert Eggers’s highly anticipated version of the classic Dracula tale, Nosferatu (2024), with Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, and Willem Dafoe, and released by Focus Features/Universal Pictures. Skarsgård has potentially his biggest role to date as the title character of the long-awaited reboot, The Crow (date to be announced), possibly shifting his Hollywood profile toward leading men heroes.