Skarsgård chalks this up to Trier’s affecting storytelling. “He has a way of doing all the things that are not in the lines, that are not easy to explain,” Skarsgård says. “The important thing is not relying on the text, and that is something that’s wonderful about this film,” he says, “that it deals with big problems and big topics, and does it seriously, but at the same time is very light.”
And yet Skarsgård did not expect the film’s critical reception to be what it’s been. “It must be very rare, but I don’t think it ever has happened that in a foreign film, four actors have been nominated,” he says of his costars Elle Fanning, Renate Reinsve, and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, all of whom have also received Academy Award nominations.
Still, he doesn’t rate the idea of awards too highly. “Awards shows are entertainment, it’s television,” Skarsgård says, “and it is weird, in a way, to have actors competing about who did the best role, that is sort of silly.” Though he finds them crucial in promoting films “that don’t have a hundred million in P&A” (Prints and Advertising, meaning the marketing and distribution budget required to release a film theatrically). Such is the case with Sentimental Value, which, when put in the same awards conversations as, say Wicked: For Good or Avatar: Fire and Ash, or even One Battle After Another, is able to reach wider audiences. “It is very important to promote films that can’t find an audience without the award shows’ help, because it does help a lot,” he says. “ I mean, they [studios] wouldn’t send us around on Oscar tours for nothing if they didn’t get their money back!”
Photo: Darren Gerrish / Courtesy of Burberry
Photo: Darren Gerrish / Courtesy of Burberry
Skarsgård is also fond of touring with a film because actors then get to connect with audiences and their thoughts on the film. “Even the journalists can ask you a hundred very good questions because, if you have a good film, they’re full of impressions.”
It’s also just been fun. “Not only has touring with them for half a year now been a terribly funny thing,” Skarsgård says, “but working with them was fantastic, Joachim got us to play in the same key, and it is fantastic that he managed to get that with different experiences,” he says. “Those girls are so committed and so sincere and so without pride, without vanity when they’re acting,” Skarsgård continues, “so it becomes real, and it becomes true.”
