Stellan Skarsgård Interview: Last Words
Dune star Stellan Skarsgård talks his latest movie Last Words, a post-apocalyptic drama about the beauty of movies that is eerily prescient.
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Stellan Skarsgård stars as Zyberski in Last Words, a post-apocalyptic drama from director Jonathan Nossiter. The film follows Kalipha Touray’s Kal, a man roaming a decimated Europe. When Kal runs into Shakespeare (Nick Nolte), he learns about film and cameras and they set out on a journey together. Last Words also stars Charlotte Rampling as Batlk, a woman whom Kal and Shakespeare meet an encampment in the middle of ancient ruins.
Screen Rant spoke with Stellan Skarsgård about Last Words, including what it was like to work with his friend and Dune co-star Charlotte Rampling, what drew him to the project, and how he got into character.
Screen Rant: You’ve done everything from the MCU to Lars von Trier and Steven Spielberg. When you read the script for Last Words, what made you want to be a part of this film?
Stellan Skarsgård: It wasn’t like that actually, because [Jonathan Nossiter, director] started talking to me or sending me pages very early on. So we had a long discussion going, but I wanted to work with Jonathan Nossiter and we’ve stayed friends and stayed in contact over the years. He got Charlotte Rampling and I’ve done four or five films with her. I love her.
And Nick Nolte – I got a chance to work with him for the first time in my life and that’s a force of nature. So there were a lot of attractive things about it. I knew that we’re going to shoot at the Amalfi Coast, at Paestum in Italy. I knew that the food would be good, that the wine would be good and, and I thought it would be sunny and beautiful, but it wasn’t. It was raining and cold all the time.
The post-apocalyptic genre feels like very familiar territory at this point. From your perspective, what is it about Last Words that sets it apart from other movies and television shows in this genre?
Stellan Skarsgård: I don’t know. I mean, I get about four or five post-apocalyptic scripts a year. And it’s a genre that generally bores me most of the time because it’s a bloody cliche and it doesn’t cover any new territory at all. But Jonathan’s film is about so much more.
It’s about film and it’s about the power of cinema. And it’s the power of art and the necessity of art for us. In this film, you keep recording until the last person on Earth is there, and he keeps recording. Nobody will ever see that. But still, it goes on into it. It also lifts the spirits of people that are going to die. It’s really a love letter to cinema from Jonathan.
And of course, it deals with the pandemic [even] before. We shot it before this pandemic. It deals with how we deal with nature and important things that we’re all are talking about all the time, but it’s Jonathan’s take on it. It is very different from the main mainstream, more average take on it.
What do you hope people take away from Last Words?
Stellan Skarsgård: I hope they take away some of the joy of life that actually is in the film. And sort of juxtapose that with all the threats to life that we are creating all the time.
As an actor, the themes of this film like legacy and what we leave behind must be especially poignant. What is it like to be in a movie asking these sorts of questions?
Stellan Skarsgård: I have big faith in the necessity of art for us as human beings – I mean, we’ve been doing it since we did the first paintings on caves thousands of years ago. We’ve always tried to create an image of life and death, describe our lives, and explain our lives to ourselves and to our fellow human beings. But at the same time, when it comes to legacy [and] my own legacy, it’s just my children.
I know that 10 years after my death, I’m forgotten. People have forgotten most of the great statesmen in history [and] even people that have changed history are forgotten now by most people. So it’s very hard to create a real footprint for posterity. But I live in the now. I do think if, because of financial reasons, we cannot create art anymore, then I think humanity is in more trouble than humanity understands.
Without getting into spoilers, your character plays a really big part in that twist in the end. Can you tell me about your reaction to that ending and how it made you feel?
Stellan Skarsgård: I totally understood my character. I mean, he’s doing something very radical and it’s totally understandable to me. He’s doing it out of compassion even if the result is really frightening.
How does it feel with Last Words now being released in a world where that ending is going to hit a little differently?
Stellan Skarsgård: It might have been easier to ignore a couple of years ago, I’m afraid. It wouldn’t be horrible to say it’s good timing. We did it before the pandemic, but the signs of where we were heading were obvious anyway. A pandemic of this kind was always possible. It was just that, we as human beings, as usual, just together with the ostriches – we behave the same way. We bury our heads in the sand.
After this pandemic, I think we’ve learned something. Many of us have learned something – if we can handle our new knowledge and create something positive out of it. It would be fantastic, but we are still not sure about humanity. I think we were really good at just ignoring the reality we are creating for the sort of quick fix that we want.
Have you heard anything about Dune 2 or seen a script? How excited are you to dive back into the character of Baron Harkonnen?
Stellan Skarsgård: Well, we are going to shoot part two of it. I think is it said now, we’re starting in July. I haven’t seen the script yet. So I don’t know what I’m gonna do, but I know what I’m going to look like. And I am excited to dive into the character again, but I’m not excited to dive into all those prosthetics again.
You’re also going to be in a Star Wars series – Andor. Is there anything you can tease about that?
Stellan Skarsgård: I don’t know what to say that right? Because they are very secretive and you have to sign so many papers and to get the script you have to have a sort of double verification and you still can’t read it. It’s really a childish and weird world to enter in that sense, but I was happy to do it.
First of all, because the writing is really good. It’s you know, it’s the same writer that did Rogue One. Also, to work with Diego Luna – [he’s] an old friend. So I was excited by that. And then my character is… Well, you’ll see. It’s kind of fun. It’s fun to play because he has a lot of different faces to show.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/last-words-movie-stellan-skarsgard-interview/