Tarzan star Alexander Skarsgard has some great advice for actors nervous to do gay sex scenes
Hollywood star Alexander Skarsgard has opened up about filming gay sex scenes, saying actors who may be nervous about playing a gay character on screen should “just embrace it”.
The Legend of Tarzan star said in the interview with pride Source that he was grateful for his LGBT fan base, and that he grew up with a gay uncle.
He says: “It’s always been the most natural thing to me because my uncle and godfather is a gay man and so growing up, even as a little toddler, it was just as natural as being straight. My aunt would show up with her husband and my uncle would show up with his husband.
“When I became a teenager and the kids made fun of other teenagers who were gay, I never really understood that. It just baffled me because my idol, my godfather, was gay, and he was the coolest guy I knew. I just couldn’t understand how that could be an insult.”
Of dragging up as Farrah Fawcett for the premiere of Diary of a Teenage Girl, Skarsgard said: ““I was sitting there with my grey suit and I just felt like, ‘Fucking hell, this is so boring; can I play as well?’ I said, ‘I wanna look like Farrah Fawcett.’ I showed them that iconic image from the early ’80s in that golden dress with the blonde hair, so that’s what we went for.”
Continuing he says: “I have tremendous respect for all the drag queens out there. I got a little taste of what it takes to look that fabulous.”
Of True Blood, the vampire HBO series in which he played a pansexual vampire, he shut down any criticism of the show for being “too gay”.
He praised the show for bringing LGBT characters into millions of homes and to “…a lot of people who didn’t have anyone close to them in the LGBT community suddenly had someone in their living room every Sunday night that they loved.”
Talking about gay sex scenes in True Blood, he recalls speaking to actor Theo Alexander, who played the gay lover of Denis O’Hare’s character Russell Edgington, who “had never kissed a guy before”.
The advice from Skarsgard? He said: “Look at the scene. It’s this nemesis and he comes in and then it gets seductive and you think they’re gonna make love and it gets into that and then suddenly my character stabs him in the back and he explodes. In two minutes, look at this emotional rollercoaster we’re taking the audience on. If we commit to this, it’s going to be an amazing scene and we’re going to be very happy with it forever. If we hold back, that’s when it gets awkward.”
Of whether he will portray a queer character on screen again, Skarsgard says he would, but: “Next time I get drunk, probably.”
Check out the Pride Source interview here.
Earlier this year, Skarsgård decided to tease those who are eagerly awaiting his eagerly-anticipated turn as Tarzan by arriving at the recent MTV Movie Awards minus his trousers.
Skarsgård turned heads at the première of The Diary of A Teenage Girl, when he showed up on the red carpet in full drag – leaving the world impressed, but also a little confused.
The actor has previously spoken out in support of the LGBT community, claiming “that every human being has equal value and to bully someone or for society to discriminate against someone because they have a different sexual orientation is unacceptable.”
