NEED TO KNOW
- Stellan Skarsgård spoke exclusively with PEOPLE at the Los Angeles premiere of Sentimental Value on Nov. 5
- The actor, 74, shared an update on his health and how he’s adapted his work since suffering a stroke three years ago
- “I had one Dune left and one Andor left when I got the stroke,” Skarsgård recalled of the time of his health scare
Stellan Skarsgård is doing well despite his past health issues impacting how he works today.
While attending the Los Angeles premiere of Neon’s Sentimental Value in West Hollywood on Nov. 5, the actor, 74, spoke exclusively to PEOPLE about how the stroke he suffered three years ago has affected him on set.
Skarsgård was between filming the two parts of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune movies and set to star in the second season of the Star Wars drama Andor when he fell ill.
“I’m good,” Skarsgård tells PEOPLE when asked how his health is now, before adding that he’s had to adjust because he can no longer memorize lines.
Neon
The Mamma Mia star says having to rely on an earpiece when filming is “not as easy as you’d think.”
“It sounds like, ‘Oh, yeah. He just listens to his dialogue and assesses it,’” he explains. “But it’s because you have to do … The rhythm of the scene has to be as if he wasn’t there, the voice in the ear.”
“So he has to say his lines very fast and very neutral and on top of my coworker’s lines,” Skarsgård continues. “So it’s a little special work, but it works.”
When asked how long he had to adjust to using an earpiece, he adds, “I didn’t have time to get used to it. I had one Dune left and one Andor left when I got the stroke, so I had to learn fast.”
Neil Mockford/WireImage
The father of eight previously described having to have his lines fed to him while filming Dune: Part Two as “extremely frustrating.”
“Suddenly, I can’t come up with names,” Skarsgård told Vulture. “I can’t follow a thought or make an argument that spans several sentences that gets to the point — that, then bang! That is extremely frustrating. But on the other hand, I’m alive. I can work.”
Having not slowed down, Skarsgård stars in and executive produces the newly released movie Sentimental Value. He plays a film director seeking a connection with his estranged daughters (portrayed by Renate Reinsve and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) as he makes a film about their lives starring an American actress (Elle Fanning).
“I’m not afraid of dying, but I am afraid of not being capable of living. That is a fear,” Skarsgård told Vulture.
Sentimental Value arrived in theaters Nov. 7.
