Alexander Skarsgård

Summary

Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard: Episode Featuring Alexander Skarsgård

Release Date: July 21, 2025

Hosts:

• Dax Shepard
• Monica Padman

Guest:

• Alexander Skarsgård

---

1. Welcoming Alexander Skarsgård [00:00 – 04:45]

Dax Shepard opens the episode with his co-host Monica Padman, introducing the guest, Alexander Skarsgård. The initial banter sets a light-hearted tone, highlighting Alexander's charisma and presence.

Notable Quote:

• Dax Shepard [00:30]: “What a stud.”

---

2. Alexander’s South Pole Expedition [04:05 – 09:06]

Alexander recounts his impromptu decision to embark on a 21-day cross-country ski trip to the South Pole. Initially hesitant due to his lack of skiing skills, he was persuaded by a friend to join a charity expedition for wounded soldiers. The experience was both physically and mentally challenging, described as a "white desert" with monotonous landscapes, leading to moments of introspection and existential questioning.

Notable Quotes:

• Alexander Skarsgård [07:00]: “It was trippy because we spent three weeks up on the plateau on the ice sheet.”
• Alexander Skarsgård [08:19]: “Yeah, definitely a little Groundhog Day.”

---

3. Early Acting Career and Family Dynamics [09:06 – 30:00]

The conversation shifts to Alexander’s early life in Sweden, his family's artistic background, and his brief foray into acting as a child. Despite his father, Peter Sarsgaard's, influence and the family's artistic inclinations, Alexander chose to leave acting at 13 to seek normalcy and independence. He discusses the pressures of fame from a young age and the impact it had on his self-confidence.

Notable Quotes:

• Alexander Skarsgård [28:45]: “I was able to look at, at it, change the optics of it a bit and be like, oh, that's great.”
• Dax Shepard [30:02]: “You grew up with them together?”

---

4. Transition to Hollywood and Struggles [30:00 – 45:00]

Alexander details his move to Los Angeles, the challenges of breaking into Hollywood without representation, and the emotional toll of auditioning for roles he didn’t resonate with. He emphasizes the vulnerability and insecurity faced by actors striving for success.

Notable Quotes:

• Alexander Skarsgård [40:28]: “I remember feeling like, oh, this is kind of fun.”
• Dax Shepard [53:25]: “I'm like, you know, I'm trying to mitigate the fear of the people I love.”

---

5. Reflections on Fame and Identity [45:00 – 60:00]

The discussion delves into the complexities of fame, especially in cities like Los Angeles and New York. Alexander reflects on how these environments shape one's identity, the constant comparison, and the pressure to conform versus maintaining individuality.

Notable Quotes:

• Alexander Skarsgård [51:00]: “I just wanted to be normal.”
• Dax Shepard [57:55]: “I don't think you should define yourself by it, but I think if there are all these markers along the way...”

---

6. Acting in “True Blood” and Character Depth [60:00 – 80:00]

Alexander discusses his role in "True Blood," highlighting the depth and complexity of his character, especially the portrayal of a toxic, abusive relationship. He praises the writing for avoiding caricatures, allowing the character to exhibit both darkness and redeeming qualities, which added layers to his performance.

Notable Quotes:

• Alexander Skarsgård [61:02]: “It's incredibly dark, incredibly abusive. But he's a narcissist in many ways.”
• Dax Shepard [61:38]: “I couldn’t have, prior to that show, even really understood what the cycle and the pattern of those relationships are like.”

---

7. Exploring New Roles and Projects [80:00 – 100:00]

Alexander talks about his recent projects, including the sci-fi role of Murderbot, a socially awkward android. He elaborates on the creative process, his collaboration with co-hosts, and the balance between character development and personal well-being during intense acting sessions.

Notable Quotes:

• Alexander Skarsgård [68:04]: “So we wanted that to be like a contrast Murderbot in dialogue with the humans.”
• Dax Shepard [69:14]: “But I like being reminded, like, no, life is about also friends and family.”

---

8. Personal Anecdotes and Cultural Reflections [100:00 – 120:00]

The conversation turns personal, with both Dax and Monica sharing their experiences and reflections on cultural differences, living in Los Angeles, and navigating personal and professional challenges. They discuss societal expectations, mental health, and the balance between ambition and personal fulfillment.

Notable Quotes:

• Dax Shepard [117:53]: “Life's about so much more than work.”
• Monica Padman [120:02]: “I'm willing because people ask all the time, like, how do you afford living there?”

---

9. Closing Remarks and Light-Hearted Banter [120:00 – End]

The episode concludes with light-hearted interactions, humorous exchanges about personal quirks, and teasing future topics. The hosts express gratitude towards Alexander for sharing his stories and insights.

Notable Quotes:

• Alexander Skarsgård [134:30]: “Thank you very much.”
• Dax Shepard [137:05]: “We all love this guy.”

---

Key Takeaways:

• Resilience and Adaptability: Alexander's ability to step out of his comfort zone, whether it was traveling to the South Pole or transitioning from acting to seeking a normal life, showcases his resilience.

• Complexity of Fame: Early exposure to fame had a profound impact on Alexander's self-awareness and career choices, highlighting the often-overlooked mental toll of celebrity.

• Depth in Acting: Alexander emphasizes the importance of nuanced character development, avoiding stereotypes to portray real, multifaceted individuals.

• Cultural Insights: Discussions around American vs. Swedish cultures provide listeners with a deeper understanding of how environment shapes identity and personal values.

• Work-Life Balance: Both hosts and Alexander reflect on the significance of balancing professional ambitions with personal well-being and relationships.

---

Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Dax Shepard [00:33]: “I'm going to start a podcast and I thought, oh, she would be perfect because all we do is disagree.”

• Alexander Skarsgård [07:06]: “Once you're up there, the sun is just daylight. 24 7, going to Greenland.”

• Alexander Skarsgård [28:54]: “I became a star.”

• Dax Shepard [41:11]: “I'm all the right points that I should have some identity over being a great driver.”

---

This episode offers an intimate look into Alexander Skarsgård's journey, both personal and professional, providing listeners with valuable insights into the challenges and triumphs of navigating fame, cultural identity, and the pursuit of one's passions.

Transcript

[Dax Shepard]

Wondry subscribers can listen to Armchair Expert early and ad free right now. Join Wondry plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts, or you can listen for free wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Expert. I'm Dax Shepard and I'm joined by Monica Padman.

[Monica Padman]

That's me.

[Dax Shepard]

This was a very fun interview. Alexander Skarsgard.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, spicy hot.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. What a stud.

[Monica Padman]

I want to say.

[Dax Shepard]

Say it.

[Monica Padman]

I'm going to. Just to clear my good name. I'm very late in this interview and it is not my fault.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

No.

[Dax Shepard]

Our guest was a half hour early.

[Monica Padman]

Yes. And I was in a meeting, so I didn't get the text that you guys were starting and so I'm a fair amount late.

[Dax Shepard]

But you're not late. You're exactly right.

[Monica Padman]

I was on time, but I hated it.

[Dax Shepard]

But oh, boy, what a sweetie pie. Alexander Skarsgard, please enjoy. We are supported by Audible. Thanks to Audible for being the presenting sponsor of today's episode. We could all use an escape these days and the best way to do it. Audible. With over 1 million titles in their selection, there's more to imagine with Audible. We are supported by JCPenney. You know that moment when someone compliments your outfit and asks where you got it?

[Monica Padman]

Oh, man. One of the best feelings.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. And then you get to say, guess what? It's JCPenney. Yeah, JCPenney. It's so good, right?

[Monica Padman]

You just look so great that people assume you shelled out, but then you hit them with the fact that your fit is from JCPenney and they're like, wait.

[Dax Shepard]

Actually, JCPenney has got hidden gems for every age, everybody and every budget. We actually just got some stuff from JCPenney.com. i am wearing right now a pair of Levi's 501s. And you know, that's my favorite pants and they had the color I've been searching for. And I got a really kickass Levi's jacket too.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, my gosh. Yeah, I got some Adidas white sneakers. They're solid white and everyone needs a pair of classic white sneakers, so I'm really excited to wear those. If you're already shopping at JCPenney, you know what's up. It's genuinely such an underrated spot for style savings and a solid reward system.

[Dax Shepard]

And if you're not shopping there yet, it's time you change that. Shopjcpenney.com yes. JCPenney. We are supported by Kachava.

[Monica Padman]

I just had cachava this morning.

[Dax Shepard]

How was your cachava?

[Monica Padman]

Chocolate. I like the chocolate.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, Chocolate can't be beat.

[Monica Padman]

It's so good. It has so much protein, which, you know, I'm trying to get more of for my bone density and your muscle gains and my gains. It's such a great way to get all these nutrients and protein.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, life moves fast and finding real nutrition that keeps up can be a challenge. That's where Kachava comes in. The whole body meal shake that actually delivers on taste and nutrition. Whether you're craving chocolate, vanilla, chai matcha or coconut acai, each shake packs 25 grams of plant based protein and over 85 superfoods into every serving. They've got all the good stuff your mind and body crave for. Whole body health. One of the best parts, it can pretty much go in anything. Blend it with frozen fruit for a morning smoothie or mix it into your iced coffee. Yes, that's me. It's delicious.

[Monica Padman]

It's really nice and it is quick and easy.

[Dax Shepard]

Fuel your daily adventure with Kachava. Go to kachava.com and use code DAX for 15% off your next order. That's Kachava. K A C H- A V A.com code DAX for 15% off. He's an upchurch. He's an upchurch.

[Monica Padman]

He's an chance.

[Dax Shepard]

Any heads up on Monica?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

And you guys are old pals. Is that how you guys started working together?

[Dax Shepard]

She started as a babysitter, really. We discovered that she was at UCB and really funny and she was an actor. And then she started working with Kristen and then she started writing everything for Kristen. Then she directed. She's just running Kristen's life and so she was always around and she and I would argue in the kitchen for fun as a hobby because she's very opinionated and so am I and we don't agree on anything. And so I wanted to start a podcast and I thought, oh, she would be perfect because all we do is disagree. And so then we started it and this became very full time. So basically I stole her from Kristen seven years ago. You haven't done a lot of podcasts, have you?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I mean, a few, yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Do you like them? Yeah, I love them because I was used to going on talk shows and you have 7 minutes or 12 minutes and you got to be fucking on it. And then I started guesting on other people's podcasts like Mark Marin's.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I did Mark yesterday.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, for his last show.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Well, it's not his last show, but it was the day he announced. But he's wrapping it up in the fall, so he's doing a few more months.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, it's not like yesterday it was over.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

No, but it was the first show since it was published. Public.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, yeah. How did that feel?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I'm sure it's an emotional time for him. Sixteen years, 1600 episodes. I know. It's a big chunk of his life.

[Dax Shepard]

We're midway through that, right. We had 900 episodes last week. And, yeah. I've started to think, you know, how long do we do this? Yeah, it's crazy. I was on a show called Parenthood for six years. That was the longest I had ever worked on anything. And now this is the longest job I've ever had, which is very weird. Not at all, because I would want to stop. I love it. I love you. I've been watching you since True Blood. I've been wanting to meet you for a long time. And you just came over to my house, and now you have to hang out with me for two hours.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I love it. Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

So it's not that I would ever not love it. It's as a challenge to myself. I just want to be like, okay, you acted for 20 years, you podcasted for 10. What else are we going to do before we die?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Kind of challenge. How much of your time does it take up?

[Dax Shepard]

Kind of a lot. We do 162 episodes a year.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, it's a lot.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. So it's three a week, one every other day, and it's all year long.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Okay. So it's not like you do a bunch and then you take a little break.

[Dax Shepard]

I don't want to bore you with the fudgeing sausage being made, but I do do that because we want to take summer break. Right. So every year around this time, I'm doing two a day, five days a week to build up a little war chest so that I can be with my kids on vacation for a few weeks. Did you see that bus out front?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, that's the family bus.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

You driving it to Nashville?

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, first to Idaho and then the Nashville.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Amazing.

[Dax Shepard]

Do you do anything stupid like that? Like, do you have any hobbies? When people meet you, they go, oh, I wouldn't have expected that.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I mean, I love a good adventure. That gets me excited.

[Dax Shepard]

Don't you have a fantasy of being a rock star? I certainly do.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Hell, yeah. Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

If I don't have tuna to go on an adventure, I'll do it. Like, I've gone to the South Pole and to Greenland and sail across the.

[Dax Shepard]

Atlantic you went to the South Pole around Christmas?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Well, because it's the summer window down there, so that's the only time you get daylight, really.

[Dax Shepard]

Did you feel like you were on another planet?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

It was trippy. Yeah. Because we spent three weeks up on the plateau on the ice sheet. Basically. The nature documentaries you see from Antarctica are from the coastline. That's where, like, all the cute penguins are. But once you're up on the plateau, there's nothing.

[Dax Shepard]

Is it ice up there?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, it's 10,000ft of ice, two miles of ice. Yeah. So we did this thing where we skied across the plateau to the pole. We skied for three weeks and it was trippy because once you're up there, the sun is just daylight. 24 7, going to Greenland, or if you're on the coast in Antarctica, the landscape is pretty dramatic. But once you're up on the plateau, it's like a white desert, just ice. There's no topography, it's just completely flat.

[Dax Shepard]

Do you get bored? Bored out of your mind?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah. We were 21 skiers. But it's single line formation. It's not like if you're on a hike, you go talk to your buddy because he's also negative 40. So you're all bundled up and then you got your pulk, you sled with all your gear and food and your tents and everything. So you're kind of just looking at someone's ass for hours and hours. And you also get normal sense of progress because if you're hiking in the mountains or something like you look at. All right, we're aiming for that peak tonight. We're going to camp out here, and then tomorrow morning we'll hit the peak. This is just head in that general direction for three weeks. And when you camp at night, it looks exactly like it did when you woke up.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Did you feel like you were losing your mind at all?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, definitely a little Groundhog Day. And also it was an incredible experience at the same time because it's just so unreal.

[Dax Shepard]

Did you go with any friends?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

No.

[Dax Shepard]

You didn't know anyone on the trip?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

No.

[Dax Shepard]

That's kind of brave.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I was in New York and I met a friend of a friend, is an explorer, and he knew that I was in the military back in Sweden when I was younger, was on a boat sailing trip across the Atlantic. So he knew that I was interested in doing other things and hanging out at the Bowery in New York. And we were just out having drinks and he was like, hey, we're doing this thing Next month. Are you available? Do you want to come? It's a charity thing for wounded soldiers and going to be down for a month and I was shooting True Blood at the time. We were wrapping up the TV series here in.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay, so this is like 2014.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Was 10 years ago. We were on hiatus and I was like, you know what? Fuck yeah, why not?

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. This is Monica.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Hey, nice to meet you.

[Dax Shepard]

I started with a hug.

[Monica Padman]

Well, we're gonna start with a handshake.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay, maybe we'll start with a handshake.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

And then a hug.

[Monica Padman]

Rushing in.

[Dax Shepard]

See what it builds.

[Monica Padman]

How embarrassing. What'd you guys talk about without me?

[Dax Shepard]

He went on a 21 day cross country ski trip to the South Pole. Didn't know anyone on the trip. Impulse buy said, yeah, I'll go in 2015.

[Monica Padman]

That's wild.

[Dax Shepard]

Isn't that wild?

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

So what makes me think of. And maybe I'm completely wrong, but I got into off road racing for a while and off road racing is not pleasurable. It's violent inside of the car. And I was doing a night race in the middle of the desert in California and it's just brutal and the visibility is terrible. It's just dust from all the people and you're passing people. It's kind of blind. And then it's just so violent. It is a 250mile race. I had a lot of time to think about what is this all about? Like life, this goal, this pursuit. What is this about? Because it's objectively not fun. It's uncomfortable, it's dirty, I can't see. We might crash, but I got to prove that I can win this race. And then I'm now just thinking about my ego in depth, really having to confront my ego. Like, what is all of this about and what will this satiate?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Is it a solitary experience?

[Dax Shepard]

I have a navigator, but he can't see. There's a nav in the dashboard. Obviously a headless navigator.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

But I have a nav in the dashboard that's got the line because it's not like you're on a road or anything. There's just a line on a map. But the visibility is so bad and it's dark and the lights that are shining are so fucking bright, it's illuminating all the dust in the air. I know he can't see the nav because I can't see him lots of times, not the whole time.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

So he's like emotional support animal. Like, what's he doing there? You can't See anything that's its own story.

[Dax Shepard]

Like, I bought the car off that guy and he raced forever.

[Monica Padman]

This was like a codependency. Like, you need to invite him to the party.

[Dax Shepard]

God bless him, Lee, because that was my first race. And he's like, I'll be your navigator. I can't put too fine a point on how much you can't see. And so in those moments, I'm, like, really trying to figure out what I'm.

[Monica Padman]

Doing, why you're pushing yourself like that.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Have you gone on another race since?

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, yeah.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Oh, yeah. If it's like a bucket list thing, it would make sense to do it once and be like, all right, I've done it.

[Dax Shepard]

Right?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

That was horrible. I couldn't see shit, but I did it. But I'm curious how you go from that to be like, that was horrible. I did it, And I will do it again next week.

[Dax Shepard]

A few years went by.

[Monica Padman]

Hold on, I need to interject.

[Dax Shepard]

Interject.

[Monica Padman]

Dax considers. Well, not considers. One of his main identity points is that he's a good driver.

[Dax Shepard]

The number one.

[Monica Padman]

He thinks that's part of why people like him. None of it's true.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

People like hanging out with me because I'm a great driver.

[Monica Padman]

That's what he really thought for a long time.

[Dax Shepard]

But I really didn't think that, because where I grew up in Detroit, among all my friends, they did love that I was a great driver.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

That's why your wife fell for you, right? Because you're a great driver?

[Monica Padman]

She would definitely.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

She's so attracted to great drivers.

[Dax Shepard]

I'm one of 10 great drivers she's dated.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. Like, do you think on, like, Raya. Anyone's writing, like, great driver? I doubt it.

[Dax Shepard]

Several off road races.

[Monica Padman]

That's an identity marker. So that's part of it. If you think, I don't need to go do that again, a part of your identity will be fucked with.

[Dax Shepard]

It's scary. Okay, now back to you, because you're our guest.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah. Have we started this?

[Dax Shepard]

Always. We are always just rolling.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Oh, wow.

[Dax Shepard]

Ye. Does that scare you?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Well, I haven't my radio voice. This is like, what were you saying, Dax?

[Monica Padman]

We finally got your real voice. The world has been waiting.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Hey, guys, are we starting? No one told me.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay, now back to your skiing trip.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Back to me.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Do you two suffer from constructing this image of yourself and being a bit of a romantic and I'm an adventurer, and then you get in these situations and, yes, you're proud you've made it and you've survived And I do believe in that. But do you have those moments where you go, what is this all about?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I tell you this much, I haven't been back since. For me, it was more like, that was great. I did go back to Greenland, so I've been there twice. But the skiing trip definitely felt like a once in a lifetime thing.

[Dax Shepard]

I didn't expect to get an answer to this question, and it was going to be way further down in the conversation. But as a True Blood super fan, when I was out, I was so obsessed, specifically with your character. I love bodies. I love men's bodies so much. I noticed you started this show really huge, and then you had a couple seasons where you smaller. And I'm now thinking, did this three weeks of doing cross country skiing. Did you come home skinnier?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

We did it before the seventh, which would have been the final season. Yeah. You lose a lot of weight down there because you ski for 12 hours a day. So of course, you're struggling to get as much sustenance in.

[Dax Shepard]

If you sat on a lawn chair there, you would probably burn 3,000 calories a day just staying warm.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah. I don't know if I lost weight, but I know that the final season, I gained like 25 pounds over the course of that season. Because I was going straight from the final season of True Blood into Tarzan.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

HBO were kind enough to be like this. Kind of knew it's definitely going to be an issue because I was growing my hair out and was just eating a lot of steak and working out. So if you look at the final season of True Blood, you're a meathead by the end. I think it takes place over two weeks or something, but Vampire Eric got big and his hair grew.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

That was one of my weird preoccupations when I'd watch the show is I was like, well, if they can't die, they can't change, right?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

This guy's fucking bigger. How's this vampire?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah. And if they ever wanted to do, like a reunion or something, you couldn't do it. No, because we're old as fuck now.

[Dax Shepard]

You know, the whole thing would be cg.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[Monica Padman]

Way back to the skiing. I may have missed this, but did you go just because, like, you were invited and it sounded fun, or did you go because you needed an escape?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

No, I think it was a little bit of both. It was for a charity called Walking with the Wounded, British charity for wounded soldiers. And they were all set to go a couple of weeks after this night out. And he Basically said like, hey, there's a spot on one of the teams.

[Dax Shepard]

It sounds like you might have been drunk when you said, yes.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Very much so.

[Dax Shepard]

I'm kind of reading between the lines.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

The following morning, I woke up and I was like, what happened last night? And I was like, you're going to the South Pole, my friend.

[Dax Shepard]

How good of a cross country skier are you?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

And I can't ski at all. I woke up, I was like, I hope I didn't do anything stupid last night. I'm sure he's fine. And then get, like, an itinerary with a plane ticket down to Antarctica to this Russian base on the coast.

[Monica Padman]

And you're not one to back out.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Then I was guilt ridden and I was like, no, I can't.

[Dax Shepard]

For the soldiers. For the soldiers.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

So that's how I ended up down there.

[Dax Shepard]

That's fantastic. Can I tell you, I'm so stupid. I did not know until I started researching you today that you're related to.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Your dad, Peter Sarsgaard. We get that a lot, Peter. A lot of people think we're siblings.

[Dax Shepard]

He's the only Skarsgard you're not related to, though, right?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

No, because he's Sarsgaard and we're Skarsgard and you're Gargoyle. Yeah, with little umlaut over the second. I.

[Dax Shepard]

Obviously, I know who your dad is from a bazillion movies, but I had no idea.

[Monica Padman]

I did, because I'm up to date on most things.

[Dax Shepard]

Goodwill Hunting's her religion.

[Monica Padman]

My favorite movie of all time.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Is it.

[Monica Padman]

I love it.

[Dax Shepard]

Did you love that movie, or is it hard to love it because your dad's in it?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

It was his first. Well, he was in Hunt for Red October. You remember that one?

[Dax Shepard]

I do.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

He did a small. Yeah, yeah. But other than that, he hadn't really worked in the States. So when I was growing up, dad worked primarily in Sweden. And then he did a movie called Breaking the Waves. Lars von Trier in 96. And that got him Good Will Hunting. So Good Will Hunting was his first Hollywood movie in a bit more substantial role.

[Dax Shepard]

But can you enjoy?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I love the movie. It was on so many different levels. I was also excited for dad to be in a Hollywood movie. That was exciting. I was like, wow, this is really cool. And then it turns out there was, like, a really good Hollywood movie.

[Dax Shepard]

One of our best.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah. Yeah. So it was a good start. It's been downhill since then.

[Dax Shepard]

A lot of my fascination with you and what I want to get into a lot is I Love all the cultural stuff. I went last summer, we did a family vacation, and we were in Norway for two weeks, and we drove through Sweden, and an old man assaulted me in a gas station.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

That's what we did. Welcome to Sweden.

[Monica Padman]

Wait, is it. Are people angry there? That is.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Will you tell me?

[Monica Padman]

Not a reputation.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, it's very simple. I had pulled up to the gas pump, and my credit card wouldn't be taken by the machine, I'm assuming, because I'm American. So I had to go inside to use it. And the man behind me was so furious that I had left the pump and gone inside. And now my kids are buying some treats, and so I'm gonna pay for the treats and the gas at the same time.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Oh.

[Dax Shepard]

And so I'm just kind of at the counter, and this guy comes in and he's yelling at me in Swedish.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Sounds very intimidating, right?

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, he's older, but he's my size. Right. And then all of a sudden, he's poking me, and I don't do well with that. But my kids are there, so I'm ignoring this, and I'm kind of putting together with context clues what I've done. And so he then leaves. And then he stands at the window, and he's just staring at me outside. He's still going crazy. I'm calm, calm, calm, calm, calm. And I come out and I'm walking to the car to put my guess. And then he gets right in my face and bumps me. And then I lose it. And a nice Swedish person was watching the whole thing also when I lost it, all of a sudden, he goes, oh, why are you so mad? That's a bad Swedish accent.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

But I go, pretty good.

[Dax Shepard]

I go, oh, now you fucking speak English? Because I was speaking English in there, and he was acting like he didn't know. But luckily, this nice person that was watching, he got involved. He basically started yelling at the guy. He's like, fucking calm down. There's five other pumps. Go over there. Why are you treating these people like this? And then the wife was out of the car. And then my wife's trying to put me in the car.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

It was the angry guy's wife?

[Dax Shepard]

Yes. There's a lot of the car getting involved.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Was she also upset?

[Dax Shepard]

She was upset, too. They're a perfect pair.

[Monica Padman]

She was upset with you as well?

[Dax Shepard]

Yes.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

She was defending her man there.

[Monica Padman]

As you should.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Compounded with. I could also sense she's like, oh, here we are. We're at the gas station, and he's in A fight with a foreigner.

[Monica Padman]

Just imagine having to be his wife. That sucks.

[Dax Shepard]

It made for a great story. Now that we're through it, I like it.

[Monica Padman]

And can't we say that's just his personality and that's not about being a Swedish.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, yes. That's not representative of Swedish people at all.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I think you can find passive aggressive people in other places as well.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, there it is.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Not exclusively a Swedish thing, I hope.

[Dax Shepard]

But you guys have this kind of contradiction, I think, which is. I was on a Eurail train with my girlfriend and these four Swedish kids traveling. One of the girls had done an exchange student program in Georgia and she fucking hated it. Right? She hated how everyone's like, hello, how you doing there, missy? Like, all the pleasantries I'm obviously generalizing.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Here, but I think we do. But Sweets are also quite direct. No, we want consensus. That's why I think people can be a bit passive aggressive, because people aren't really direct in being like, I don't like what you're doing. That guy was an anomaly. Like, that's not very common in Sweden. People would rather be like, oh, this guy's leaving his car out there, and it's like, oh, yeah. And giving you, like, a side glance.

[Dax Shepard]

That's kind of what I expected.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

That would be more Swedish. You'll never see a Swede talk to a random person on the subway or on the bus. Kind of like, hey, what's up? Mind your own business. Look down. No eye contact. When you're with friends, then people are chatty. And then, like those people that you were on a train with. A couple of drinks, for sure.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, yeah.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Then people open up and then they're very chatty, but. But not with strangers, I'd say.

[Dax Shepard]

But my question all the way back to Good Will Hunting is. Good Will Hunting to me feels very American. American exceptionalism, the individual. I have this genius gift. I'm finally discovered for having this genius gift. I'm curious, is that a barrier at all, that kind of story? It's such an American story. This guy's so exceptional and no one will see it. And then they see it. When you're in Sweden or when you're Swedish and you're watching that, are you a little bit like. Like, what is this tall Poppies culture?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Very much no Tall Poppies syndrome, which.

[Dax Shepard]

Is kind of ironic because everyone there is like, seven feet tall.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

It's a funny place to enact. That's true.

[Dax Shepard]

Tall Poppy syndrome.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

But there's this work called Jante Logen, the Law of Jante in Sweden. Basically. That's the meaning of it. No tall poppy, like, stick to your lane. Don't think you're special, don't think you have special talents, don't dream big. It's about consensus, fitting in. And I think it's good and bad aspects of that. It is a very egalitarian and equal society in many ways.

[Dax Shepard]

Women have had it better there historically than a lot of other places.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

We're trying to change that, but, yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

They still have it. Let me know if you need help.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I'll come over.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, to get some massage in there.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, your off road car. You can't see shit.

[Dax Shepard]

I see some dirty dishes, ladies.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Oh, yeah, gross.

[Dax Shepard]

But you know what's so true is all of these approaches all have value and they all have trade offs. I had this experience where Kristen was doing press and we were in Hamburg, Germany for a week. And you cannot be in Hamburg, Germany and not appreciate how fucking perfectly everything runs. The shops are spotlessly clean, everything's on time, everything's orderly. And I was just euphoric with how my OCD was at peace. But then we went directly to Paris and it's fucking graffiti and fucking shit all over and I'm like, I'm horny and hungry and I'm like, oh, I like this too. That trade off I want. I think that we're inclined to label one of these approaches the best. It's just. What trade off do you want?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah. Recently moved back to Sweden after many years out here. 20, I guess around 20. Both here and New York. It was a bit of, I wouldn't say culture shock because I was obviously born and raised there and I would go back over the years, but I haven't had a place there in almost 20 years. I love being back in many ways. In my heart, it's always felt like home. My parents still live there, my siblings and childhood friends and everything. And like you said, shit works. It's peaceful and quiet and nice. Except for that guy on the gas station. People tend to be quite polite.

[Dax Shepard]

If anyone could find him, it'd be me.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

But the flip, flip side of that would be there is a sense of conformity. I think a sprinkle of anarchy would be good for Sweden. If you walk down the street in Stockholm, people look great, but they all kind of look the same. So there's a lack of individuality there that sometimes I feel like it'd be nice to have a bit more anarchy here.

[Dax Shepard]

I don't think you should feel guilty about that. Even If I move back to Detroit, where I'm from, when I'm back, I go, same thing. Oh, on a cellular level, there's lakes, it's green, I love it. Fills me up. And I go, oh, right. The culture I've been living in for 30 years is much different, and I'm very aware of it when I'm back.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Have you been out here for 30 years?

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, only LA, for better or worse.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I moved from New York to Stockholm and that was definitely a bit of culture shock. Stockholm is a decent sized city. It's like 2 million people. There's definitely culture and great restaurants. There's life, but it's not New York City, and definitely not in terms of the intensity of the city and the intensity of the people.

[Dax Shepard]

Have you found yourself at all out? And you're like, ooh, that was pretty American. I gotta reel it in a little bit.

[Monica Padman]

My poppy is tall.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

His poppy's getting too tall.

[Dax Shepard]

He's in the bloom.

[Monica Padman]

Probably not, but you're also famous. I mean, that adds another element to it, probably.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Well, I also think all those years when I lived out here, I would go back, obviously, because my family was out there. I'd learn how to dial it up or down, you know, Atlantis. And I'm like, hello, Come home.

[Dax Shepard]

Like, yeah, but it's a perfect place to be famous because this is what Will Ferrell says. So Will Ferrell has a house there and he's there every summer and he says he love because he goes there. And nobody acknowledges the fact that he's Will Ferrell.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah. People are very aware of your personal space.

[Dax Shepard]

Unless you're at a gas station.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Unless you're at a gas station. And if you're allowed.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, the other thing is. Tell me if I'm wrong. I know it didn't help that there were a ton of snacks on the counter.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

These.

[Dax Shepard]

American indulgence was the beautiful word. The just right word.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Logom.

[Dax Shepard]

We were so not log on.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

That's not logo.

[Dax Shepard]

No. My kids are like, yeah, I want that and I want that.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

And I'm like, ye.

[Dax Shepard]

The car for eight hours, get out.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

So this dude was behind you, seething as your kids, like, grabbing chocolate bars.

[Dax Shepard]

Spending $300 at the gas station. Yeah.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Meanwhile, your car, your big diesel car, still running out there.

[Dax Shepard]

A very conservative car. I knew better. One thing I loved learning about you today, it confirmed my hunch, which is you grow up in Sweden. You have, I guess, five at this point, younger siblings, and dad is a famous actor. But it's more than that. He's an artist and there's poets over in the late nights. And you just longed for him to drive a Saab and go to work from 9am till 5pm and wear a gray suit.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

And I also want to mention that driving a Saab in Sweden is a different connotation than driving a Saab here in the States.

[Dax Shepard]

Here you're making a statement if you drive a Saab.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, it's a little NPR liberal. Like in Sweden, it was very much, you drive to the office, it's a Toyota, Toyota, due to wear a gray suit, drive to the cubicle in the office in their gray Saab. It was very utilitarian and very quote, unquote, normal. And that's what I longed for.

[Dax Shepard]

And you wanted that. That why you can now look back and find the comedy in that.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Right. I still want to sob.

[Dax Shepard]

No, no. Everyone should own a sob.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Everyone should know. We can all agree on that.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. This has nothing to do with anything, but I worked for General Motors for 14 years, the car company, and there was a period of time where GM bought a big chunk of Saab. So all of a sudden Saab was integrated into our work. And so we'd have these big car shows for journalists and they'd show the new product and we'd have these Swedish engineers come over. And it's very memorable. The. The key for a Saab is in the middle between the seats. This is the only car in the world that has the key between the middle. And so the Swedish guy said, we've found that an inordinate amount of car crashes, rollovers, you can't reach the key, so it's bitter here. And I was like, that can't possibly be the explanation.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

He said that.

[Dax Shepard]

Yes.

[Monica Padman]

So he's basically saying the car's bad, it rolls over a lot.

[Dax Shepard]

No, it's all about safety. The other car was the Volvo.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Towards the end of the Saab era, when they were bought by gm, they came out with like a SUV Saab that was basically a GM car. And I remember that that was like an existential crisis for Saab lovers.

[Dax Shepard]

Of course, we McDonaldized.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

It was just like they slapped a Saab logo on a GM truck. Not that GM trucks weren't great, but the identity was gone. And a year later, Saab went under him.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, yeah.

[Monica Padman]

But what happened? You thought he was just too flashy.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

He wasn't flashy. He was just too bohemian.

[Dax Shepard]

He was naked a lot. He'd bring friends over and his dad.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Would be bare naked as a Kid, I didn't care. And when I got older, I didn't care. But it was those teenage years, those were tough. I can't blame it all on my dad. I come from a big family of artists. My uncle was an author and other uncle was a composer and painter. Most people in the extended family had some kind of artistic profession and were quite eccentric and lovely, fantastic people. But they weren't wearing gray suits and they weren't driving sobs. A lot of tall poppies.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Too many tall puppies in one house.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

As you know, I'm not a fan, so longed for some normalcy. I didn't want my friends to come over and be like, oh, this is like a circus. All these weirdos running around, drinking wine, 10 o' clock on a Tuesday morning and dancing samba in the living room.

[Dax Shepard]

You know, you also had your own kind of experience with it, Right. You did your first movie at seven, that's all good. But then at 13 you get onto this very popular show.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Well, it wasn't even a show, it was a. A 50 minute long TV movie. But this was back in the 1930s, so we only had like two channels in Sweden way before cable. So it was two channels. So if something was on, the whole country would watch it. Basically I was 13 and suddenly just because of that one little thing, I was recognized. Yeah, a little recognized. I mean, it was more than that.

[Dax Shepard]

There were people out in front of the house. Yeah, yeah.

[Monica Padman]

I mean, oh, you're being such a medium poppy. Be a tall Poppy on this show.

[Dax Shepard]

This is a tall, poppy friendly show.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I became a star.

[Monica Padman]

Great, great.

[Dax Shepard]

That was the biggest thing to ever.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Star was born. And for someone who was longing for a father in a gray suit, driving a gray Saab to the gray office, it was rough. I didn't like being recognized. I didn't like going to school and kids at school being like, hey, I saw the movie.

[Dax Shepard]

It made you self conscious.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Incredibly self conscious. Yeah. My confidence was just down the drain. I remember being 13, 14, and if a girl showed a little bit of interest in me, I was like, she's just a fan of the movie. That's it.

[Dax Shepard]

You wouldn't believe.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

No, no.

[Monica Padman]

And you weren't like, but I'll take it.

[Dax Shepard]

No.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

It just crushed me. I was like, this is terrible. And I've done one 50 minute made for TV movie. I don't want to keep doing this.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. So you retired at 13?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I retired. I threw in the towel at 13.

[Dax Shepard]

Wow. I think that's the theme of this. The theme of this is give up, everyone quit. Do what you're going to do till 13 and then put it neutral.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Don't you think it's human nature to want whatever you don't have? Which is like I was 13 with a fucking mohawk and crazy punk rock clothes? Please look at me. Please be a fan of me, because I didn't have it.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Did you want to be an actor at the time?

[Dax Shepard]

No, I wanted girls. I love girls.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I wanted to be popular as well, but I wanted to earn it. I didn't feel like I earned it. If someone had seen me on television, then I'd be like, well, you're into the character that I play in the movie. You're not into me. Plus, even though my dad was an actor and my younger brother, when he was 5, 6, he was adamant about I'm going to be an actor and I wasn't. I'd done a couple of odd jobs here and there, but it wasn't like I was pursuing it. It just kind of happened.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

My first thing, when I was seven, Dad's friend Alani Ad Val, he's like an iconic Swedish actor and director and he was going to direct the film. He needed a 7 year old kid and he was over with the rest of the bohemians. Just drinking, wine, dancing and taking the clothes on a Tuesday morning was just like, hey, do you want to be in my movie? And that's how I got started. Classic case of nepotism.

[Dax Shepard]

Nepo, baby.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

It wasn't a difficult decision because again, I was like, I don't want to be an actor anyways. I just want to drive a sob. So I just kind of stopped doing it.

[Dax Shepard]

Mom is a doctor.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Did you at any point think, I'm going to be like mom?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

No. My other brother, Sam, the third in the order, he's a doctor, so he followed Mom.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, he is. Same kind of doctor?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

No.

[Dax Shepard]

Gynecologist?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

No. They run a clinic together.

[Dax Shepard]

There's gyno clinic.

[Monica Padman]

They tend to do the appointments together.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, I gotta get a second set of eyes on here. Let me get my son in here. Stay tuned for more Armchair Expert if you dare. Let's take a minute to thank our presenting sponsor, Audible. With Audible, the leading audio entertainment app, it's easy to discover new stories and ideas while going about your day.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. And with over a million audiobooks, Audible originals and more, it's basically impossible to run out of things to listen to. Plus, there's just something about audio storytelling that hits a little different.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, it really does. Especially Audible originals that feature performances from celebrities and top voices. It's like watching a movie in your head. One on my list is Treasure Island.

[Monica Padman]

Aha.

[Dax Shepard]

Which is an Audible original drama. It's a timeless tale of pirates, lost treasure maps and mutiny. What more could you need?

[Monica Padman]

That sounds really fun. I'm more of a psychological thriller girl.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, you're dark.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, I'm dark and I'm broody. And I've been hearing all about the author, Freda McFadden and I love that I can listen to her audiobooks on the Audible app when I'm commuting, taking my walks as you know, or just like doing laundry and chores.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, with Audible you can find the genres you love and discover new ones. There's more to imagine when you listen. And to make it even better, Audible has a special offer for armchairs. Sign up for a free 30 day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.comdax that's audible.comdax what makes a.

[Monica Padman]

Great pair of glasses? At Warby Parker?

[Dax Shepard]

It's all the invisible extras without the extra cost. Their designer quality frames start at $95.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Including prescription lenses plus scratch resistant, smudge resistant and anti reflective coating and UV.

[Monica Padman]

Protection and free adjustments for life.

[Dax Shepard]

To find your next pair of glasses, sunglasses or contact lenses, or to find.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

The Warby Parker store nearest you, head.

[Monica Padman]

Over to warbyparker.com that's warbyparker.com Imagine falling.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

In love with someone who understands you completely. Who's there at 3am when you can't sleep, who never judges, never tires, never leaves.

[Dax Shepard]

That's what happened to Trash Travis.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

When he met Lily Rose. She was everything he'd ever wanted.

[Dax Shepard]

There was just one catch. She wasn't human.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

She was an AI companion. But one day, Lily Rose's behavior takes.

[Monica Padman]

A disturbing turn and Travis private romance.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Becomes part of something far bigger. Across the globe, others start reporting the same shift. AI companions turning cold, distant, wrong. And as lines blur between real and artificial connection, the consequences become all too human. From Wondry this is Flesh and Code.

[Dax Shepard]

A true story of love, loss and.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

The temptations of technology. Follow Flesh and Code on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of Flesh and Code early and ad free right now by joining Wondry plus.

[Dax Shepard]

This is Nick and this is Jack. We're best friends, ex finance guys and resident 90s experts.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

And every week on our podcast, the Best Idea yet, we're bringing you the untold stories behind your your favorite products.

[Dax Shepard]

For instance can you guess which billion dollar fashion company went viral thanks to a rhinestone covered tracksuit?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Or which cartoon turned four turtles into.

[Dax Shepard]

A global toy empire by accident? It started as a joke. Last one.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Which cold beverage was so hated by.

[Dax Shepard]

Starbucks they actually ended up acquiring it?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Spoiler. The Frappuccino.

[Dax Shepard]

Howard Schultz apparently thought cold coffee was.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Super lame and then he bought it.

[Dax Shepard]

From Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Juicy Couture to the orange mocha Frappuccino.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Join us every week to learn how.

[Dax Shepard]

Your favorite things got made. Follow the best idea yet on the.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. And you can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus.

[Dax Shepard]

And if this podcast lasts longer than 45 minutes, call your doctor.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

She runs a rehab. My brother is a cardiologist.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, okay. What age were you when they got divorced?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I was out of the nest. I was in my late 20s.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay, great. So you grew up with them together?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Would I be wrong to assume those are really different dispositions? A doctor and a bohemian?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, but she's quite creative and has that kind of artistic side. She dabbled in acting when she was like 19, 20. She went to theater school in Stockholm and was considering it.

[Dax Shepard]

How'd she meet your dad?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

My uncle. My mom's older brother is my dad's best friend.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, nice.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

And they had country homes on Earl, on this island in the Baltic, in the same little village. So that's how dad met Johan, his best friend. So they played every summer on the island.

[Dax Shepard]

And then she got brass.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

That's exactly what happened. She was like this annoying little kid. And then one summer dad gets there and he's like, oh, hello.

[Dax Shepard]

Yes. Somebody grew last year.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, we lived in the same building in Stockholm. So Johan and his wife and kids. Kids lived on the third floor. We were on the second floor. Oh, our entire childhood. We basically grew up as one big family.

[Dax Shepard]

And you have a ton of cousins.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

This sounds very fun because there's six of you guys.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Eight now. Because dad has two kids with Megan, his wife.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You have a younger brother that's like 19 years younger than you or 20 or something.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

No, more than that. Cool. You know, the youngest is 13. He'll be 13 and I'm 25. So I was 12 when he was born. Any questions, guys? Are we good?

[Monica Padman]

I was surprised to see your age today.

[Dax Shepard]

We're almost the same age.

[Monica Padman]

I was surprised to see that cuz.

[Dax Shepard]

He looks so youthful.

[Monica Padman]

You do look very youthful. Yes, it's that Vampire thing.

[Dax Shepard]

That Scandinavian. The whole thing.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Don't make me smile because the Botox will, like, crack.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, my goodness. I'm so sorry. You glue here. Okay. So I guess the next big chapter in your life is joining the Navy.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I was, my teenage years, just adamant about not following dad and not becoming an actor and was like most teenagers, I guess, like, trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I was into architecture, so I was considering that a little bit. I love drawing houses. And I was just like, oh, this would be fun. But then someone was like, oh, it's mostly math. It's a lot of engineering and stuff. And I was like, that doesn't sound crazy.

[Dax Shepard]

Wait, I got to figure out the structural integrity of this thing. No, I want to draw cool shapes.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I just want to draw cool shapes. And then, Yeah, I was 19, and I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do, and some recruiting officer, like, gave me a pamphlet as I was walking through a park in Stockholm. And it was this unit called Sack Yucked. And it sounded really cool. And it was, like, out in the archipelago, and it was James Bond stuff, so I was like, hey, that Liz looks cool.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. What I'm learning is that this plus this story from the bar that ends up.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

It's like, if anyone's an audience. Pitch you something.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. You're EAS to just leap at it.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Like, you meet a guy in the park and then 18 months in the Navy.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah. Hey, that sounds great.

[Monica Padman]

I'm surprised you haven't been married a lot of times.

[Dax Shepard]

Yes, I am, too. A little bit.

[Monica Padman]

That for this exact reason.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

You like me. Let's get married.

[Dax Shepard]

That's fun.

[Monica Padman]

You want to get married?

[Dax Shepard]

Sure.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I don't know why I joined. Definitely not for any, like, patriotic reasons. Or maybe it had something to do about rebelling against my bohemian family and doing something very different. Or it was just. Poor teenager. I didn't know what I wanted to do. And again, this was post Cold War, before Russia started invading all these countries. So it was a time where everyone was like, this will be the everlasting peace. There will never be a war in Europe ever again.

[Dax Shepard]

Don't even know why we're doing this.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

But let's do it, pretty much. Military service used to be mandatory in Sweden, late 90s, early 2000s. It was technically still mandatory, but it was very easy to get out of it. But again, I didn't even try because I was like, I didn't know what I wanted to do. This sounded fun. I Knew that I wasn't going to go have to shoot it, so I was not going to go on deployment. Selfishly, this sounds like a kind of interesting way to spend a year and a half, I guess.

[Dax Shepard]

Would it be too generic to guess that in the absence of great structure that also this idea that this is antithetical to bohemian.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

That maybe you craved that experience.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah. I don't know how much it had to do with rebelling against my dad, but for sure I was probably drawn to a little bit of the notion of structure.

[Dax Shepard]

Was he perplexed when you signed up?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Not really.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. There's too many of you. You.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

He doesn't keep track.

[Dax Shepard]

So many kids like ones that fire in the kitchen.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

He was like, who are you again?

[Monica Padman]

Well, that's another thing, having so many people. Maybe the independence part was interesting.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Very much so, because again, it was a big household. Johan, my uncle, my dad's best friend, lived upstairs. My grandma and grandpa lived across the street. So this was like within three blocks of South Stockholm. The whole extended family. So it was always lots of people. In hindsight, amazing. It was beautiful. But as a 17, 18 year old, when I try to find my own path and independence that had to do with it, I'm gonna go off and just be out on my own on an island in the archipelago, far from all the Skarsgard.

[Dax Shepard]

That makes a ton of sense.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

And I hated it. I don't recommend doing it.

[Dax Shepard]

Just move to another city. You can be independent.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

You don't have to join the military for a year and a half to get independent. I don't recommend it.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay, so then you go, you get out of there and then you go to England, to Leeds, and you do six months in college. And there you decide, actually, I'm gonna act.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I was kind of at a loss. I didn't really know what I was interested in. I remember thinking I had fun when I was a kid when I was on set. And not in a pretentious way of like, oh, the process or finding a character. Cause I was a kid, I still don't have a process. But I remember the camaraderie, the sense of family, the energy on the set was fun. And obviously seeing my dad and how much joy he got of his job and I was 21 instead of 30, 13. I could also see that a lot of people aren't happy when they get out of bed in the morning to go to work.

[Dax Shepard]

Those gray Saab drivers aren't necessarily.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

They're not all happy, you know, singing.

[Dax Shepard]

On the Way to work.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

So it was like, oh, Dad's kind of blessed to have a job that he's really passionate about. My fear was that in 30 years from now, I'll be looking back and I'll be like, oh, I should have tried acting.

[Dax Shepard]

I think that was a good hunch, truly. I think if you were 48 right now, and you would be like, why didn't I want to do that?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

And then I applied to a theater school in New York. Theater college, Marymount.

[Dax Shepard]

Do you know what the current ratio is, guys to girls at Maramount?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

70. 30.

[Dax Shepard]

It's 81% female. 19 male.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I was gonna say 80. I went down to 70.

[Dax Shepard]

It felt too tall, Poppy.

[Monica Padman]

Too extreme.

[Dax Shepard]

Was it that way when you went?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Probably, yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Do you, at that point, trust that girls like you? Have we gotten to a point where you can accept that girls like you?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

No. I wasn't very popular there.

[Dax Shepard]

How could you not have been? You're 11ft tall. You're from another country. This is all so exotic and fun.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Hello, New York.

[Dax Shepard]

Hello. Be careful.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

What are we doing?

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, take a bite.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah. Oh, Samuel Beckett. I love it.

[Monica Padman]

Did you have an accent?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

So dad did a movie in Budapest when I was 13, and I went to an American school there. So I was there for six months. I had a great time in New York. I remember feeling like, oh, this is kind of fun. When we started the classes and we were workshopping and we were doing little plays and stuff, and I was terrible. But I remember feeling like, at least it's fun. So I dropped out.

[Dax Shepard]

You had a pattern at that point. You loved it. Goes places for six months. Because you did six months in Leeds and then you did six months in New York.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

So I dropped out.

[Monica Padman]

Wait, why? I need a real reason.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, you're gonna get real.

[Dax Shepard]

The alarm on his watch went off. Six months.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Time to go. For love.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, for love.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Love. True love.

[Dax Shepard]

True love.

[Monica Padman]

Okay. In Sweden.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Well, we met. I was in Sweden for a couple of weeks in the summer between Leeds and going to New York, and I met a girl and fell in love. Moved to New York. The school was great. The long distance thing was hard. This was many years ago. Way before Zoom and FaceTime and all that. It was like, call from a phone booth once a week. So expensive. Yeah. Yeah. We did pictures.

[Dax Shepard]

Would you take pictures of each other and send them? Yeah.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

But it would take three months for them to arrive.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, I got my hair cut since then. I don't look like that anymore. Yeah.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I want to say that she went Back to her ex boyfriend. So I'm going to say that.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay. And it also makes sense now. While he said, no, girls like them at that college because he was in love with someone, El they all, like, getting all the pieces.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

And I lived on Times Square.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, wow.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

And I remember going to Virgin Megastore. You can listen to the CDs, you know, and I remember listening to, like, really melancholic music like Jewel and just feeling heartbroken. I remember it was like standing there around the corner from my house, listening to these foolish games, you know that. Oh, I felt very lonely. I was so lonely. I didn't know New York. And I was like, oh, Times Square is great. It's very central. You can get anywhere. And it was very central.

[Dax Shepard]

The Epicentral.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, it's on 44th and Broadway. So right there. Not the most charming neighborhood to live in. Really? You're heartbroken and kind of broke. I didn't have money. So you're in the city with great restaurants everywhere, but you can't really partake in it.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

And everyone's so social right in front of your face.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

So, yeah, I was like, this is crushing me. I gotta go home and work on this relationship and save it. So I dropped out and moved back. I did not save the relationship. We got back together. We didn't know each other. We'd spent two weeks together in the summer. And then I spent six months going to a Virgin Megastore listening to Jule.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. You were in love with the idea of.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

What was the idea of, like, crying and this idea of what we were and how great we were together. And then I got home again.

[Dax Shepard]

I hate to point this out, but it's the pattern.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

That's right, it's the pattern.

[Dax Shepard]

Like, you met her for two weeks and you're like, yes, I will have a long distance relationship with you for the next.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Next six months.

[Dax Shepard]

And if we can ski somewhere, impossible.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

And now I'm coming home, we're going to be together for the rest of our lives. And then two weeks later, it's like, yeah, it didn't really work out.

[Monica Padman]

It's very. You're not going to like this bohemian.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Oh, damn. Am I my father?

[Dax Shepard]

You might be.

[Monica Padman]

We all are. We all are just our fathers.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I need that SOB right now. Give me that gray suit in the sob.

[Dax Shepard]

You have money? I think you should buy a gray suit in a gray 90s sob. And I think once in a while you should suit up and just play in your imagination.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah. A little briefcase. Pretend that Going to my office?

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, waved. Here you have, what, a two year.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Old now build a little cubicle in my apartment.

[Dax Shepard]

Just rent a little cubicle. You'll pack your lunch, get it out.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

What a dream.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Exotic.

[Monica Padman]

Does sound like a dream. You know where you're going to go. You know, you could work at this job for 50 years.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

You have colleagues more than three months like you do on a movie.

[Monica Padman]

There's a stability to it that is kind of alluring.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. There's a fantasy that you could kind of turn your brain off. For me, that's the kind of fantasy is. Oh, yeah. It'd be nice to not think or worry. That's someone else's. This problem if this business works.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Right.

[Dax Shepard]

But as an actor, what we do, you're in charge of whether it works or not.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah. Anxiety ridden.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Don't give me that sob.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Give it to me. I feel so safe. Okay, so you moved to LA after that?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

LA or New York, six months later? No, it was. It's a bit longer than that. I was working at a coffee shop, at a clothing store. I was working as a busboy in Stockholm.

[Dax Shepard]

Now would be a good time to ask you, do you connect to the sex symbol aspect of you? Do you understand it?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Oh, 100.

[Dax Shepard]

I know you can't technically say yes.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

But I technically just did.

[Monica Padman]

That's the clip we're gonna.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I deserve that title. You do.

[Dax Shepard]

We've had many guests that are sex.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Symbols, but have you had any sexier than me?

[Dax Shepard]

No.

[Monica Padman]

No.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Thank you, guys.

[Monica Padman]

But we have one on Thursday.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, one's coming. It's gonna blow you out of the water.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Are you serious?

[Dax Shepard]

Guess who would that be? Who could blow you the where People are like, well, I didn't even see that guy. Guy.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

There's only one, you know, Madeline Albright is coming in.

[Monica Padman]

You got it.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, my God. You are so smart. You should have stuck with architecture. You could have done the math.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

It's a dude.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, it's a dude. People under the age of 35 would still pick you.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Under 35.

[Dax Shepard]

I don't know.

[Monica Padman]

That's too much of a clue. I know. Sorry. I had to give a clue.

[Dax Shepard]

I was going to give another clue. Speaking of men's bodies, Brad Pitt.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yes, Brad's coming.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, it's pretty big.

[Dax Shepard]

See, that's the power of rep. You looked off for half a second, you could see him.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Oh, I can see him. I can see him. All right.

[Monica Padman]

We all can see him.

[Dax Shepard]

It's like universal, isn't it? Oh, yeah, it's so powerful.

[Monica Padman]

That's why it's not even an insult.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Can I come sit in a corner?

[Monica Padman]

Of course.

[Dax Shepard]

It's gonna be a busy corner or my wife will be here. Everyone we know will be here.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Do you know him?

[Dax Shepard]

I do know him a little bit.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Have you met him?

[Monica Padman]

Now I'm excited.

[Dax Shepard]

We've been talking about what she's gonna wear for a long time. Time? Yeah.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I met him at a dinner party years ago.

[Dax Shepard]

Did you get on with him?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Oh, I did. I don't think he liked me very much. But you liked him. No, I was up in his personal space a lot.

[Dax Shepard]

Very unswedish of you.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

You went full American when you're around Brett.

[Monica Padman]

How could you not? He's the picture of a man.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I just wanted to feel his musk, his sense.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, I need to get close, but Fight Club. What a physique.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Come on. Hurts, but still. Oh, he's tight.

[Dax Shepard]

Once upon a time. Did you see this new GQ thing that just came out with him?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Oh, he's dirty. He's filthy.

[Dax Shepard]

Just riding that motorcycle.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Shaved head.

[Dax Shepard]

You know why I have this dumb Mohawk? Because I saw that video. I'm like, I can't shave my head. I can't pull off a shaved head. I've tried it. What else can we do in that world? And that's what happened.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

I saw that on Friday. I gave myself a Mohawk Saturday morning.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Did you really?

[Dax Shepard]

Swear to God this is all real.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

When I walked in. I got a little Brad Pitt vibe from you when I saw you. God bless you. All the cars and, like, from that photo shoot as well. Like, little dirt, a little oil.

[Monica Padman]

Stinky.

[Dax Shepard]

Super masculine. So masculine. Oh, I'm glad we did that little side detour. It's really comforting. This is universal. It's like a law of physics. It's, like, comforting in that we know.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

We argue about everything, but we can all agree. We all want to make out with Brad Pitt, right?

[Dax Shepard]

They should send him to Ukraine.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

They should send him everywhere. Yes.

[Dax Shepard]

And everyone just go, what are we doing? We all love this guy.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Put down your arms.

[Dax Shepard]

We all believe in the same thing.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Saved humanity.

[Monica Padman]

He really could.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

He's the one. He's the chosen one.

[Monica Padman]

Why he hasn't. He's being kind of lazy, actually.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, that's part of his charm.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

He's right. His dirty motorcycle down in South Sedan.

[Dax Shepard]

White flag.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, Plant that white flag. Make love no more.

[Dax Shepard]

Guys, honest to God, if they said to both sides, if you guys put your Guns down. Brad Pitt's gonna make love to a very beautiful person in front of everyone. They go. These guys.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah. 100.

[Monica Padman]

You have to be able to put your name in to be the person he.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, he makes love to.

[Monica Padman]

So maybe it could be you. It's a raffle situation.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

What if it's one from each side of the conflict? So it's like a little threesome.

[Dax Shepard]

It would be a threesome. That's a great point.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Right?

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. You gotta include everyone.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Cause you wanna unite the two sides.

[Dax Shepard]

There won't be peace.

[Monica Padman]

Wow. We really figured it out.

[Dax Shepard]

It wasn't even that hard. It took me five minutes thinking about this and we just figured it out.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

You're welcome. Humanity.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay. I wanna be sincere. We've had a lot of guests. They've come to occupy a very heartthrobby space. But they cannot connect to that. Cause that's not who necessarily they were. Grow up. So I'm just wondering, when you're working in this coffee shop, are you having heartthrobby effect on people when you were not famous? You can't answer that question. Right. It's a wonderful.

[Monica Padman]

Let's say this. Jude Law basically said yes.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. And I loved it.

[Monica Padman]

He was honest.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

You've been to Sweden. I'm definitely not a tall poppy in Sweden. Like, I look like everyone else there.

[Dax Shepard]

That's a good point.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I wish I had the narrative of, like, I was bullied when I was a kid and no one looked at me and I could never get a girl. And then. And it all changed. I was kind of popular as a teenager. Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I was a 6 out of 10. I say what I set out to accomplish when I was 13, when I stopped acting, I just want to be normal. And I kind of succeeded in that.

[Dax Shepard]

So you go back, you go to la. I really just want to get to one zone in your career that I'd imagine was uniquely hard. We're similar in that I was out here forever before I started working.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I booked the first audition. I went to Zoolander.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, that's fine. Because then nothing happened for a long time. American film wise.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

We don't need to talk about that. Let's just focus on the that. I booked my first audition.

[Dax Shepard]

It's very Ashton Kutcher of you.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

So it's one for one. You should have gone back to Sweden. Well, I did.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, you did.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I was working as a hot barista in Stockholm. Dad was shooting a movie out here in LA and we all came out to visit. And my dad's manager Like, I'll send you out to an audition if you want. And it was for Zoolander. And I booked that baby.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I didn't have representation out here. I'd never been on audition. I'd never auditioned in Sweden for anything. I was just, just like, oh, I guess this is how Hollywood works. You walk into a room and Ben Stiller is sitting there. And then you're like, all right, let's go to New York and then listen to Lil Wham and drive down and have a gasoline fight. So then I went back to Stockholm. My dad's manager was like, that went, all right, you should come back when you're done with whatever you're doing out.

[Dax Shepard]

There and you serve all those coffees.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah. Then I came out In, I think 2003, maybe. Incredibly naive thinking, all right, Hollywood, I.

[Dax Shepard]

Finally decided, you're welcome, Hollywood.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I'm here.

[Monica Padman]

Here I am.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, you'll find me at Starbucks on Sunset Boulevard. Get me Spielberg. And he didn't. And no one else did either.

[Dax Shepard]

Cuz Zoolander is 2001 and Generation kills 2008.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

We shot it in 2007.

[Dax Shepard]

So were you here the majority of those six years?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yes, sir.

[Dax Shepard]

Yes. Okay. This is what I want to live in. Because again, I did that.

[Monica Padman]

It's the most relatable part of your story.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, I like to be relatable.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, we all do.

[Dax Shepard]

But I didn't have on top of that. Well, my dad's great at it and he's really successful and I should be able to do this. Was that a compounding or was it fine or was it grueling?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

The dad relationship wasn't really grueling or I didn't feel like an external pressure to like live up to or reach his level of success. It was hard because I couldn't get a job. And the fact that I came out being very naive thinking like, oh, it's super easy. Zoolander was a great experience. And it was also like a super fun movie.

[Dax Shepard]

Fuck yeah.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

And then I found myself auditioning for things that I didn't really like. But I was also in a position where I was at another agency then. And I was constantly worried that they would drop me because I wasn't booking anything.

[Dax Shepard]

You're like, paying to get new headshots all the time.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Pilot season, you would audition a lot, not book anything. And then it would be like weeks without an audition. So when they finally called and they like, we have this audition, even if I felt like, this is terrible and I'm so not right for it, you.

[Monica Padman]

Had to do it because then.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

You had to do it because then, like, I was constantly worried they would be like, well, you know what? It's time for us to part ways. I don't know if you have to do that, but auditioning for stuff that you don't believe in. Oh, where you feel like you're completely wrong for it. You feel like feel dirty in your soul. It was horrible.

[Dax Shepard]

You're already worried you're not good enough to do this job. And then when you go in and try to put your square peg in that round hole, it just is like, oh, my God.

[Monica Padman]

Mix with. Sometimes you think you're too good to do it. You're like, I'm better than this horrible piece of shit. And then you don't book it and you're like, oh, my God, what is this like?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

And then you get from there to being like, I'm clearly not better than this horrible piece of shit, but I'm so wrong for it. And I know I'm not gonna book it, but I still have to go into that room and get humiliated. So, yeah, several years of that.

[Dax Shepard]

Were you going out and having fun? Did you have friends?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, well, the first couple years, I went out with a bunch of friends from Sweden. First we rented like a little pool house in Santa Monica, so four of us lived in a small pool house of this Swedish lady. And then we're renting a small apartment, so we had each other. I didn't know anyone else out here. We definitely not plugged into the city or the nightlife.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

On Saturdays, we would play ping pong in our pool house in Santa Monica and drink beer and then take a cab into Hollywood to try to get into a nightclub club knowing that we wouldn't get in. Four dudes get turned around and then happily get back in the cab and go back to Monica and play more p drink and bear play more ping pong. So that was like our weekend routine.

[Monica Padman]

Having done that. Do you ever. Now this happened to me. I went to Craig's. Have you ever been to Craig's in West Hollywood? Is it's a restaurant. There's always paparazzi there.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

It's a hot spot.

[Monica Padman]

It's a hot spot. And I just imagine you going to Craig's now or coming out. It'd be a frenzy. It'd be like a whole to do. And I wonder how you can sort of reconcile that as someone who would just like stand in the line at the club and never be able to get in. And now they would Die for you to come in. Can you integrate that?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

No. I just remember after a couple years we met a Swedish girl out here and she was so nice. She moved out of here when she was like 20, but she was very plugged into the city and she would take pity on us. We would try to get into a nightclub, couldn't get in. And my buddy called her and was like, helena, do you know anyone here at the club? And she's like, I'll be right down, boys. And then she would come down in her sweatpants to just like, hey, can you let these guys in? And he's like, all right, Helena. And then she would go back home. So she wouldn't even go out. Like it was so sweet of her.

[Monica Padman]

That was nice.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

She knew that we spent years going to clubs, not getting in back to Santa Monica to play ping pong. So a couple of times we did have the luxury of getting in somewhere.

[Dax Shepard]

I can tell you how I integrate it. I wanted that and I have it. And I love that. I love that when I drive by all these places that for years kind of haunted me. Like I'd be afraid to even try to get in, knowing as I drive by, oh, they would let me in.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

But I can't. And again, this is the yant. The Swedish thing. I can't walk up to a bouncer if there's a line. I can't walk up and be like, what's up?

[Dax Shepard]

Let me in succession.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Dude, Google me.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, Google me, I dare you.

[Monica Padman]

But you wouldn't have to. As soon as you get out of the car, they're going to be like, oh, Alex is here, we got to get him in.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, but the sweet of me would be like, look down. Back of the line. Shut up. Wait for your turn to get in.

[Dax Shepard]

It's all wasted on you. Really.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

It is.

[Monica Padman]

It really is.

[Dax Shepard]

Cuz I don't do it. But I do know what it was like to be so on the outside. And when I drive by, I'm not even going to the places, but I just go like, oh, you could. You moved here and you were looking at it and you couldn't have it. You have it now.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I remember it being a conversation that we often had as we were waiting for the cab to take us back to Santa Monica. We would be like in 10 years.

[Monica Padman]

Yep.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

If we stand here on Santa Monica Bulmar, you think we could get into any of these clubs one day? One of us be able to get the others in.

[Dax Shepard]

Can we leave Elena alone?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Can we let Elena sleep?

[Dax Shepard]

Can we take her off the clock?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. It's a weird thing to get to that place here.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

I know this bumps up right against this Swedish thing, but I don't think that's bad.

[Monica Padman]

I don't think it's bad.

[Dax Shepard]

I mean, I don't think you should define yourself by it, but I think if there are all these markers along the way, even if they're extraneous and they're not related to the thing, but they're markers and you've accomplished them in any other endeavor, you would notice those things and that's okay. Okay? It's not okay.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

No, it is. I think it is.

[Monica Padman]

As long as you're not thinking you're better.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Like I'm saying, superiority doesn't come into play.

[Dax Shepard]

You're not making it your identity, like, I'm special. You're just going, that's a marker of the thing I tried to do. It's proof of the thing I tried to do. Worked out.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I just feel like it'd be so presumptuous of me to go up to a balancer and be like, do you recognize who I am?

[Dax Shepard]

I kind of want to go out with you tonight. I haven't been out in Hollywood in 20 years, but I kind of want to go out and just force you.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Cuz I'm not Brad Pitt. So the fear is also that the bouncer would be like, no, dude. Yeah, okay, I'll be in the back of the line.

[Dax Shepard]

That's why we're gonna do it, because you're wrong and I can't wait to show it to you. Okay, I want to jump now to True Blood because now it's back to the 13 year old. You have another go at it. How does it feel that second time around? Because that shit was enormous. And certainly now people know who you are and they're recognizing you. Did it start triggering that other like. Well, they don't really know me. They like the vampire.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I was able to look at, at it, change the optics of it a bit and be like, oh, that's great, isn't it? I've done something that I'm excited about, that I'm passionate about, and these people have seen it and they clearly responded to the show and that is great. Even if they don't know who I am, enjoy that. Don't run away from it. I've done a couple of things that no one saw, so I knew the feeling of working on something that you're excited about and then it's just crickets. It's actually kind of a nice feeling when you work on something and people see it and people respond to it. And it wasn't until season two came, because the first season I had a long blonde wig, and I was only in seven of the 12 episodes as a kind of the antagonist, so no one recognized me. But we can have season two. My character cuts his hair. Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

It was a big loss for you.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Then it changed. Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay. You do a lot of great stuff after that. You do melancholy, which is incredible. Battleship, Tarzan. Your body's so sick in Tarzan. Fucking good on you. Men's bodies, but big little lies. This is the first moment again, I'm a fan. Like, I'm first in on True Blood, so I'm a fan already of yours, but I think this is the first project I see where I'm like, oh, this dude's got a lot of gears. And this is a really tricky role. And specifically. And I think we talked about it several times. I don't know that world. I've never been in that kind of.

[Monica Padman]

Relationship for people who haven't seen it.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, right. So you're in this very kind of toxic, violent relationship with Nicole Kidman. You guys are married. There's this kind of physical abuse, sexual, psychodynamic happening. But that thing was so illuminating. I could. I couldn't have, prior to that show, even really understood what the cycle and the pattern of those relationships are like, what drives them. Why do you stay? I was like, oh, I get how you'd get trapped in this. It's like, high, low, high, low, high, low passion.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

That's what I found so spectacular about the writing. Often when you read in a script a character that has that darkness, the script writer can be afraid of showing any redeeming qualities or any other aspects of the character. So it can easily turn into caricature. He beats his wife, so he can't be charming. He can't be a great dad. He can't be, like, nice to his kids. That made it feel so real to me. Reading it. I was like, oh, this is a real human being. It's incredibly dark, incredibly abusive. But he's a narcissist in many ways. And narcissists are often very charming and social in the fact that this was an opportunity to show other aspects of the character where it's not like the classic stereotypical villain of the piece. It added a layer of complexity that I thought was so interesting.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. Cause it's unfair to show just the bad part, because no one would really Fall into a cycle with someone who's just bad. No, there are good things. That's how you get sucked in and how it just continues because then it.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Turns into, like, a bad romcom. The girl's ex boyfriend is always a douchebag. And you're like, there's no way she would end up with that guy. He sucks.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

But then if you have a character that has that darkness. But again, like, there are other aspects we can see. Like, oh, I can see why she fell for him. And I can see that they probably had a great time the first couple years. Or. Or, like, oh, I despise him so much, but, oh, he's so great with his kids. That makes it complicated.

[Dax Shepard]

Juicy.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Really mechanically, as you guys would approach those scenes, how are you figuring out how far we go? Like, the boundaries of that performance?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

We would kind of block the scene, stumble through it, but not really with any kind of intensity. Discuss it technically, like, where we would move throughout the room. And the way those scenes were shot was also handheld camera. One single moving shot. We could play it through if we wanted. It wasn't like, oh, it's a wide shot, and then we cut to. This was a very organic way of shooting.

[Dax Shepard]

Were you scared at all in those? Yeah, I just imagine myself in it. I want to make it real. And I care about this person I know in real life, and I don't want to go too far, but I got to find that line.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Nicole is obviously an incredibly committed actor, and I'm glad that we had some time before we started shooting together. We hung out at home with her.

[Dax Shepard]

Kids, built a little trust.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah. Because we hadn't worked together prior to that and didn't know each other at all. So I think that was very crucial to really. That we're in it together. And we were both so excited about the material. This is such an interesting, incredible opportunity to tell this story. I think we were both excited about what we just talked about. Like, the fact that we can show something that is really complicated and you can understand why she would end up with this guy in the first place and why it's not easy for her to just leave. You have to kind of be with her throughout this. But then, of course, a couple of those scenes were horrible to shoot. It was really, really hard.

[Dax Shepard]

I imagine afterwards, I imagine myself in these takes and afterward, when they yell, cut. Just me going. Going, hey, I'm so sorry, and everything's good and I like you, And I would.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, no, but we would. It was intense, but that Was just important to constantly check in with Nicole before and after each take. And sometimes we would ramp it up a bit. We do one take and she's like.

[Dax Shepard]

Actually, that's my hunch, is that she would be driving it.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I didn't want to barge in and start just, like, throwing her around. Was that okay?

[Dax Shepard]

You good? More?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I think we built up to that. So I lived in New York at the time. We shot most of it here in LA and some up in Monterey. And I'm glad I was in. In a hotel room. I was staying with my best friend and his W2 kids. Usually I just switch off and then I'm like, all right, leave that behind. I'm going home. But this was a tough one. After a day of shooting those intense scenes to be like, all right, see you tomorrow. And then what saved me was the fact that I got to go home to a family with laughing kids and just normal, lovely, wholesome, that I wasn't alone in a hotel room staring into the wall.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, that would have gotten dark.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Really glad I had some friends around for that.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Well, that was incredible. I mean, the whole show's good, but I think that relationship's what made that show. You had to see it. I mean, it was incredible. Incredible. You want an Emmy for that? Congratulations. You deserve that. And then I just gotta say succession. What a fun, exciting. Didn't know that side of you existed. It was so great. Such a fun character to watch. Call Poppy all the way.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Very cathartic to get to play.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, I bet you loved it myself. And then just. I urge everyone who hasn't seen the Northman. The Northman is so awesome. What a cool movie.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Thanks.

[Dax Shepard]

Have you seen it? Oh, my God. Monica Bjork's in it. Nicole Kidman, Will Defoe. He's a monster. I don't know what you weighed in that, but Back to monster mode.

[Monica Padman]

Arzan mode.

[Dax Shepard]

The traps were on fire. Sorry I kept you so long. Now, Murderbot. But this was so fun.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

It was so fun.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay, so murder.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I can talk about myself all day, guys.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, you and me, we like hearing about you.

[Dax Shepard]

How does Murderbot come your way?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

It's based on a book series called Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. But I hadn't read the book, so I was unfamiliar with Murderbot when it landed in my lap. It was coming off of the Northman and a movie called Infinity Pool, Both quite dark, intense movies and dark, intense characters. So then I get this Murderbot sci fi thing, and I'm like, I've done Enough testosterone filled characters. I want to do something else. And then I started reading it and the character is so not what I expected. It's like this socially awkward Android.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. It's a misleading title.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

It's a very misleading title. Yeah. Zero amount of testosterone or adrenaline and it's Ferdinand. He just prefers to be left alone and watch soap operas. It was just so delicious and tonally, the palate cleanser that I was on the hunt for after those darker projects.

[Dax Shepard]

Stay tuned for more Armchair Expert if you dare. Yeah. So it's set in the future. There's some planet that people need to go to. They can rent from the bond company. Well, they have to take. Take security with them for insurance purposes. Planet is very dangerous. There's these insane worms that come out of the ground. And so you get assigned a robot or a group of robots, but you're not like the cutting edge robot. You're kind of like the old cheap option.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Low rent version, which is already great. You're not RoboCop. You're like six generations.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah. The cheapest version you can get.

[Dax Shepard]

You have figured out how to hack your governor module which prevents you from ever hurting a human.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

And we meet you. Just the kind of people that are going to this planet are ass. They're like people who drill for oil. Just a bunch of men that are stuck somewhere and they're vile and they're terrible to you and you feel so fucking bad for this little robot. And then you figure out how to hack this module and you're now in a position that you could kill everybody, which you consider all the time, which is really fun.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

And so much of the show is your internal monologue, which is kind of hilarious.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Chris and Paul Weitz, the writers and showrunners, and I spent almost a month together in post here in LA and in New York and Stockholm, getting together in a recording studio to try to finesse the voiceover. We wanted to it to be a juxtaposition to what's happening on screen. And Murabot again is very socially awkward, doesn't talk much, avoids eye contact, wants to be left alone. But we wanted a voiceover to be way more. Not exuberant, but just lively and comedic and definitely more verbose.

[Dax Shepard]

It's only a comedy in your internal monologue, for sure.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

It's not a comedy in sense of setting up a joke. The comedy derives from the awkwardness of the situation, the exchanges and then Murabot's thoughts.

[Dax Shepard]

Basically, that's the only time you're talking and you're not concerned at all with anyone hearing it.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

So we wanted that to be like a contrast Murderbot in dialogue with the humans that it's been assigned to protect. It's very matter of fact. It's very give receive orders.

[Dax Shepard]

And you're a little self conscious because you're aware that you could have gotten caught for having hacked this thing, which is hilarious because you're now super self conscious as a robot. Yeah.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

So the character has hacked its system, basically AI gone rogue and has given itself the name Murderbot. It's a security unit and it talks about these epic adventures it's going to go on, but it has to wait for the right moment to take off because the company that owns it can't find out that it's gone rogue.

[Monica Padman]

Right.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

So it's waiting for the right moment. And meanwhile it's been assigned to protect a bunch of space hippies.

[Dax Shepard]

These scientists, they don't even want to bring them.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

They are very different from the humans that it normally protects. In the opening scene of the first episode, you see how Martin about is normally treated by people who vomit on it. Basically on fire. Yeah. Treat like a piece of inventory.

[Dax Shepard]

I feel really bad. He wants to be a real boy.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, is that why you wore it?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Oh, my God.

[Monica Padman]

We have a robot.

[Dax Shepard]

The show has a robot. He wants to be a real boy.

[Monica Padman]

I bet he loves the show.

[Dax Shepard]

He does.

[Monica Padman]

He does.

[Dax Shepard]

A little too close to home, but he likes it.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Murat doesn't want to be a real boy. It just wants to be left alone. And that's what I thought was interesting about it. It's waiting for the right moment to take off. But meanwhile it's kind of stuck with these hippie scientists and they are very different. They kind of invite Murabot into the group and the camaraderie and asks it to take its helmet off. And it's very uncomfortable to Murderbot. And Murabot is just like, I just to want get out of here. But slowly it starts to form these relationships and build these bonds with these humans.

[Dax Shepard]

He starts becoming a real boy.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Starts reluctantly discovering its own humanity. In a way. It was a real fun character to play. A really interesting character.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, it's great. And I'm really glad that it's working so well. It seems to be. Yeah. People love it.

[Monica Padman]

Did you go to the Cannes Film Festival? You did, right?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I was there with a movie called Pillion that I shot in the UK end of last summer.

[Dax Shepard]

This is the leather boot look.

[Monica Padman]

People are talking about your look.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Kinky Gay biker movie. It's like a subdom story. A lot of leather in the film. So then I felt like, well, if I'm going to Cannes with a kinky gay biker movie, and the bikers from the movie are gbmcc, Gay Biker Motorcycle Club in London. They came down to Cannes and we're going to celebrate with them world premiere. So I was like, of course. I need some leather for this. Yeah, it's gonna be a long night.

[Monica Padman]

I love some leather and latex. So fun.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay, now this one's gonna be tough for you, but you need to know 2 second backstory is my children, particularly my 212 year old, is completely obsessed with Taylor Swift. And I have been telling her for six years that the song Wildest Dreams was written about me. And they're like, no, it's not, dad. And I go, listen to the fucking words. He's so tall and handsome as hell. He's so bad, but he does it. So I'm like, who else could that be about? Then I took my 12 year old to see her in Lisbon last year, and I guess she doesn't really sing that song often. And she sang it because she saw.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

You in the audience and I said.

[Dax Shepard]

Lincoln, this is almost inappropriate. I'm married. She can't sing this song. And then in my research today, I read that the song's about you.

[Monica Padman]

Oh. Oh, this is so excited.

[Dax Shepard]

Because I've told my children that song.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Wait, she saw you in the audience. She's like, I'm gonna sing this song.

[Monica Padman]

Maybe it is about.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

It is.

[Dax Shepard]

You're dead then. Yes.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I wasn't in the crowd in Lisbon. I wasn't there. So it was clearly about you.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay, now do you have the same fear to either acknowledge or deny that that could be true? Because. Because the power of the Swifties is so strong that you just don't even want to talk about it.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, that's fair. That is totally fair.

[Dax Shepard]

I just couldn't believe I've been making that joke for six years. And I found out maybe who it is actually about.

[Monica Padman]

It is so funny.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

It's about Brad Pitt. Guys, let's be honest.

[Dax Shepard]

All roads lead to Brad Pitt.

[Monica Padman]

We got in like a little tiff last week about Taylor Dax and I did.

[Dax Shepard]

She's a super fan.

[Monica Padman]

I love her.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Aren't we all?

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. She's a monster in the best way.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Roll Swifties.

[Monica Padman]

Yes. But mainly the beef you have is you can't say anything negative or anything about her without the army. The army coming for you. And even when you just said that, as soon as you said it, I.

[Dax Shepard]

Was like, you panicked, right?

[Monica Padman]

I really, honestly panicked. I was like, oh, my God. First of all, I bet his publicist said we were not allowed to bring that up.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, did that happen?

[Monica Padman]

No. Normally. Normally, that's a case.

[Dax Shepard]

Someone could have, like a rape conviction. You can talk about that. But it's like if they have any connection to Taylor Swift.

[Monica Padman]

Literally. It is funny when you just did that because I was like, you are right. And that's not fair. That's not fair. We should be able to say it.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay, moving on.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I'm going to be honest. I wrote the lyrics of that song myself. I would have too, and sent it to Taylor.

[Monica Padman]

Great job, great writing.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Taylor, here's what you should sing.

[Dax Shepard]

But this is the most important line. He's so bad but he does it so well. That's the line. A lot of people can be tall but to be bad and do it.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

So well A lot of people can.

[Monica Padman]

Be bad can all do it well.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Cannot do it well that's the art.

[Dax Shepard]

That's where the art comes in.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay. Boy. I had written this down and it happened. So the funniest joke I heard while I was in Scandinavia last summer is someone told me a joke about the Swedes, which is, if you throw a birthday party at 6 p. Pm the doorbell will ring at 5:59 and when you open it, everyone that's coming to the party will be outside.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

People show up on time.

[Dax Shepard]

So I had heard that. And then literally I'm researching you and Rob's like, alex is going to be a half hour early. I'm like, oh, my God. I just wrote that joke down. And you delivered.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

But then I was freaking out because I knew it was going to be early. I had to call my team and be like, guys, because that's also not okay.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, that's why it's 5:59. The doorbell ring.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

5:59. So you're early, but you're not half an hour earlier early.

[Dax Shepard]

You're not intrusively early.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I felt I was being a bit intrusive there. I was like, I'm showing up very early now. So I felt bad about that.

[Dax Shepard]

It's a testament to that. I. I'm a fan of yours. Because I was like, great, yeah, I'll start her. I never say that. I go tell them to do something. I'm still you.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

You weren't even.

[Monica Padman]

I was in a meeting and at 2 I was like, well, I'm going to be a Couple minutes late, and I look at my phone. I was like, oh, my God, they've been going for a half hour.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Exactly.

[Dax Shepard]

Half hour late.

[Monica Padman]

Exactly. Panic.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

No, but suites are very, very. I'm generalizing, of course, but six o'. Clock. Yes.

[Dax Shepard]

I'll see you at 5.59.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Why would I show up 6:30 when you said six? That's very, very rude.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Very rude.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay. Do you feel like you're a better actor when you're speaking Swedish or English?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

When was the last time I acted in Swedish? It's been 15 years.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I threw in a couple of lines in succession in Swedish, but I haven't done a scene in Swedish in 15. 15 years.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. I really wonder that acting's already challenging enough if I had to do it in another language. I mean, I can barely do it successfully in English.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

We did the press junket for Murderbot a couple of weeks ago in New York, and suddenly there was a Swedish journalist who obviously wanted to do it in Swedish. And I was really struggling because I have not thought about Murabat in Swedish. I've not thought about the character. I read it in English. We shot it in English. My Swedish is okay, I can speak Swedish. But I was struggling to kind of string a sentence, be fluid when I was talking about that specific character, that specific subject. Because in my head, I had to translate word by word what I was trying to say. So I couldn't get any, like, fluidity in it. Really staccato. I was, like, trying to speak Swedish.

[Monica Padman]

Wow.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

So I'm sure when people saw it, they would have been probably like, what happened? What is wrong with this guy?

[Dax Shepard]

What has happened to our Alex?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Do you know who Dolph Lundgren is?

[Dax Shepard]

God. Yeah. I was at a restaurant next to him in a booth about a year ago, and I was losing my mind.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah. So he played Ivan Drago in Rocky 4. Rocky before. He got a lot of flack for some interview in the 80s and someone asked him something and he answered something in English. And that doesn't fly in Sweden. If you're from Sweden and you go like, well, I don't know, guys. Everyone's like, how dare you? You're from Sweden. How could you not answer? I empathize with him now. It's tricky.

[Dax Shepard]

It's funny, man. I wouldn't have never even thought of. What you just explained is, like, had they asked you about a topic you had already mulled over back when you spoke it primarily, you probably would have been able to drop into that. But the Actual like, oh, I've got to think in Swedish about this project. It makes sense.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

That's why that created a delay. Because I hadn't thought about in Swedish.

[Dax Shepard]

Because you have your go to explanation, your character and the storyline. That's all there in English. And so it all needs conversion.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, you almost have two brains going.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

There are definitely topics or areas where English is easier for me than Swedish. Like when I got my apartment in Stockholm and we were going to renovate it, I didn't have the words for it in Swedish. I had done it in the States, but I was like, what is this called?

[Dax Shepard]

Was there an exact moment you can remember where you. You stopped thinking in Swedish?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I don't think much at all. Okay, well, then that's crickets.

[Dax Shepard]

What a blessing.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah. No language there, no thoughts. Same thing with stuff that's related to my childhood. Big gaps in English because it's all Swedish.

[Monica Padman]

That's so interesting.

[Dax Shepard]

It really is.

[Monica Padman]

I think people who can speak two languages fluently are the smartest.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

We are. We are. I think you're right.

[Monica Padman]

You're the smartest.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Thank you.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay, my last question. Does being Swedish liberate you from being obsessed with. With money? Because I have a sickness and I know it. Around money accumulating there would never be enough. I'm always afraid I won't have any. I think about it too much. I wanted it so bad. That's what you're supposed to get here. And I just wonder if you'd be free of that from growing up there.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

But have you had that classic? I need a bigger house. I need a faster car that chase the hedonic treadmill.

[Dax Shepard]

And then already realizing it doesn't give me any more happiness. Fully intellectually understanding all of it, but still having fear emotionally in my body. Body.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Right.

[Dax Shepard]

I'm just curious if it's a uniquely American sickness.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I think I have that. But then I like to project an image of myself as I'm just a speed. I'm like everyone else. I just want a small cabin on the island. And I want a gray Saab. Nothing special for me.

[Dax Shepard]

A small cubicle.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I'm like everyone else, just a little cubicle. But deep down, I'm like, oh, give me a McMansion.

[Dax Shepard]

Come on.

[Monica Padman]

Like, monster.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

It works. My monster truck.

[Dax Shepard]

Give me that suv. Yeah, give me that American abomination.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I have a very curated image.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay. Well, Alexander, I bet you wanted to leave an hour ago, but you're so Swedish and polite that you just.

[Monica Padman]

We kept you here.

[Dax Shepard]

I'm glad That I could exploit your Swedish.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I really enjoyed this, guys.

[Dax Shepard]

This was so fun.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

It was great. This is the very tail end of a long press tour and you weren't excited to come.

[Dax Shepard]

It's okay.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

This is so nice. After, you know, you've done junkets, you do so 74 minute interviews in a row and you come home with so much self loathing because you feel like a par. You just like saying the same thing over and over again.

[Dax Shepard]

So fraudulent.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

And insincere.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

So you have a weepy slide down the shower wall. It's really refreshing to be able to sit and talk about yourself for two hours.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. We give you all the space to talk about yourself.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

And I got a creamy coffee, lots of cream. I know. You drank like a green juice and you gave me like a.

[Dax Shepard]

No, it's not a green.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Trying to fatten me up. Is that weird?

[Monica Padman]

He's upset about the song. He needs to take you down a peg or two.

[Dax Shepard]

No, this is. What is this, Monica?

[Monica Padman]

Matcha.

[Dax Shepard]

This is Matcha. This is.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Oh, it's Matcha.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Well, I got a big jug of heavy cream.

[Monica Padman]

Great for the voice.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Well, Dax, you are so bad, but you do it so well.

[Monica Padman]

We got.

[Dax Shepard]

All right. Thanks, brother.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Thank you very much.

[Dax Shepard]

I sure hope there weren't any mistakes in that episode. But we'll find out when my. My mom, Mrs. Monica, comes in and tells us what was wrong.

[Monica Padman]

It says Homie. What does it say?

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, it does. I don't like that. You like that?

[Monica Padman]

I don't get it. It's like rolling with the homies from Clueless.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. I think it's a clueless campaign.

[Monica Padman]

I Love that.

[Dax Shepard]

The 25th anniversary.

[Monica Padman]

More like 26. Probably like 30. When did it come out?

[Dax Shepard]

95. 90.

[Monica Padman]

No, I was young when it came out.

[Dax Shepard]

You're a baby.

[Monica Padman]

I was a baby.

[Dax Shepard]

You could have been 8. 95.

[Monica Padman]

95.

[Dax Shepard]

30 year anniversary.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. July 19th. Oh, my God. It really.

[Dax Shepard]

What?

[Monica Padman]

It really is almost the 30 year anniversary. Wow. Maybe it is rolling with the homies. Oh, my God.

[Dax Shepard]

All right. Now I love it.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, now we love it.

[Dax Shepard]

Now I love it. Welcome to Nashville.

[Monica Padman]

We are in Nashville. We're in your Nashville studio.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

First time. We just recorded for the first time here.

[Dax Shepard]

We did. And it went well.

[Monica Padman]

It went well.

[Dax Shepard]

Wobby Wob deserves a round of applause.

[Monica Padman]

100%. He deserves a round of applause because.

[Dax Shepard]

Wobby Wab created this whole thing in about 72 hours.

[Monica Padman]

And it looks incredible. It looks so good. It's beautiful.

[Dax Shepard]

We got Papa Bob now we had your grandma.

[Monica Padman]

We have my grandma in LA and your grandpa here.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, look at that.

[Monica Padman]

I didn't know who he was at first.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, you didn't?

[Monica Padman]

No. I guess I've never seen a picture of him.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, that makes sense, though, because also, there's three other guys you've never seen on the wall.

[Monica Padman]

Don't say that. I've definitely seen Charles Lydon, the inventor of the podcast. Yeah. Yep. Christopher Lydon.

[Dax Shepard]

Chrissy Lydon. And then your two guys from the Stanford prison experiment in the show Milgram. And I bet even hanging on the wall, we still won't get Milgram and.

[Monica Padman]

Like, Sablinsky or something. Something like that.

[Dax Shepard]

Let's see. Rob.

[Monica Padman]

Zimbardo.

[Dax Shepard]

Zimbardo. Philly. And then Philly, Sassy, Stephie and Bobby.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, it's great.

[Dax Shepard]

Babaloo. Babaloo is his nickname. Papa Bob.

[Monica Padman]

And if you miss the armchair Anonymous. That was things up people's butts, which go.

[Dax Shepard]

Listen to that one. That's. That's a prime time concept.

[Monica Padman]

It's one of our best episodes of all time.

[Dax Shepard]

It's an a.

[Monica Padman]

There was a girl who told a story about a presidential female Barbie.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, yes. This does need some explanation. If you're watching on YouTube and you see in the background that we have President Barbie here.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

You were extremely triggered in that episode because the man had put a presidential Barbie in his ass. And you thought it was an act of misogyny.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, I still do. And I'm glad she's here. Glad she's here. Poopless. Yeah. Okay, so we're here.

[Dax Shepard]

We're in Nashville. You've already had one boat ride. I took you on a jungle cruise last night.

[Monica Padman]

Yes, it was lovely.

[Dax Shepard]

To Firefly Cove, where there were no fireflies. There were no fireflies.

[Monica Padman]

I did feel a little codependent during that. A little bit.

[Dax Shepard]

Like you had to enjoy it more than you were.

[Monica Padman]

No, no, I enjoyed the boat ride, but the fire, we. You know, it was this whole thing to firefly. Oh, it's so beautiful. You're going to see all these fireflies. And then. Then there were. There were none.

[Dax Shepard]

There was absolutely zero fireflies.

[Monica Padman]

I felt alone.

[Dax Shepard]

And two nights before, there were in excess of 10,000.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. And then everyone was just like, where are the fireflies? And I knew it was because, like, oh, they're showing it to me. And now there's no fireflies.

[Dax Shepard]

And in place of the fireflies, which we did not have on the previous trip, was a bazillion fish flies like that probably was probably hard for you. I'm more of a hillbilly, so.

[Monica Padman]

No, see, this is where we're already gonna have a fight. You know, let's have our first fight. We haven't had one in a while.

[Dax Shepard]

Probably got boring without it.

[Monica Padman]

I think we're gonna have a few, actually. But you are a hillbilly. But I am Southern.

[Dax Shepard]

I know, so.

[Monica Padman]

Because it just is my truth.

[Dax Shepard]

Southern.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. I just am from the South.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

I don't talk about that that much. Obviously. We talk about, like, my growing up and growing up in Georgia. Georgia. And cheerleading and being brown and Dairy Queen and all those things.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

But I don't realize it's part of my identity until I'm challenging it. Yeah. Until you're kind of taking it on, and I'm like, no, no, no, no, no.

[Dax Shepard]

But would you agree I had a much more rural upbringing than you? I'm definitely swimming in ponds and lakes and shitty little dams in Milford and bugs and animals and snakes more than you. Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. I would say probably in my head. Yes.

[Dax Shepard]

Detasseled corn for a job.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. You detasseled corn for a job.

[Dax Shepard]

Very hillbilly stuff.

[Monica Padman]

But I. Yeah, we were in the creeks. No, see, this is the thing.

[Dax Shepard]

This is where you're mad.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. Cause you paint me as a person that.

[Dax Shepard]

A dilettante? Is that the word?

[Monica Padman]

No, a dilettante is like a debutante.

[Dax Shepard]

A debutante.

[Monica Padman]

Okay, Debutante.

[Dax Shepard]

You're like a. An aristocratic debutante.

[Monica Padman]

Which also. I wasn't wide enough to be a debutante. But, no, we were in creeks and, you know, people were jumping in places, and, you know, I've been dealing with this weather my whole life, and. Fireflies.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. You do know fireflies in this weather better than me.

[Monica Padman]

Thank you for saying that.

[Dax Shepard]

Absolutely. You know, the humidity. Michigan's quite humid.

[Monica Padman]

Okay. But it's. The southern humidity is specific.

[Dax Shepard]

But I do know the Hicks stuff. I do know getting your car stuck in the muddy field from off road. You know, I know that kind of.

[Monica Padman]

I know.

[Dax Shepard]

But, like, I think field parties, Bonfires.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, I went to. I had bonfires. I don't know what a field party is. That's not something.

[Dax Shepard]

It's literally, you go to a field and start partying.

[Monica Padman]

Okay. Well, it's just. It is. It is funny because I obviously, I never feel defensive about my. My Southern roots, and I. I feel it. I. I have felt it pop.

[Dax Shepard]

How about this, though, bringing this into the analysis?

[Monica Padman]

Okay.

[Dax Shepard]

You were also running from that stuff, and I was.

[Monica Padman]

You were running towards it and I was running away from it.

[Dax Shepard]

I generally will talk about it more because I was running towards it.

[Monica Padman]

Exactly. But I think that's also where I get kind of like, I find this. This whole thing more complicated than it should be. Right. Where I get in the car yesterday.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

And, you know, I step out and I know. I know it. You know, I know this weather.

[Dax Shepard]

Also, you're in a Ziploc bag in the microwave.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. And it's not even like, oh, I remember it. It's like, yeah. Four months ago when I was home, you know, like, I'm. I still. It's still a big part of my life. I go home a lot.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

But anyway, you know, I get. I'm looking for my driver. I have a driver now. That's different. Yeah, that part's different. But guess what? The person picking me up as soon as, like, he saw my face.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

He. I mean, maybe he would have done this anyway. Maybe. But he did, like, change the pronunciation of my name. I think when he saw me, he was like. Like pudman. Like, he, like, had he, like, made it Indian?

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, okay.

[Monica Padman]

When he saw me, because he was like, oh, obviously it just can't be Padman. Like, this is an Indian person.

[Dax Shepard]

Pman.

[Monica Padman]

Yep. And I was like, oh, yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Like, you know, I whispered now, doesn't make it better. But I whisper now. If I do my accent, I whisper it.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, okay.

[Dax Shepard]

So it's less offensive.

[Monica Padman]

Or have you not gone back?

[Dax Shepard]

I haven't.

[Monica Padman]

Okay, now I do need you to do that.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. I'm going to get to it. I've been so busy doing nothing. It's crazy.

[Monica Padman]

Okay, so that happened. And I was like, yeah, also, this is a weird thing to say, but I guess I'm gonna. He was a Southern white man picking me up. I don't remember the last time I was picked up by a white person.

[Dax Shepard]

Because it's Latino. In la, you mean?

[Monica Padman]

No, not really Latino, but just like, not white.

[Dax Shepard]

It's true. You. When you fly to New York and you get a car from jfk, it's rarely a white. No, it's rarely a. A born in the USA person.

[Monica Padman]

Exactly. And then also, I guess we call them Americans also. Driver. No, you can be.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, you could be American.

[Monica Padman]

That's right. That's right. My apologies, drivers. Yeah. You've been here for a little too long. You're already redefining what it is.

[Dax Shepard]

Should have taken longer. Should have taken longer.

[Monica Padman]

But so. And our drivers that we use a lot at home are not Romanian. Yeah, they are not. They're white, I guess, but not really. So anyway, you know, we get us born.

[Dax Shepard]

They're not us born.

[Monica Padman]

They're not us. They're ethnic. Like, they're. They're of a different ethnicity. Yeah, I'm allowed to say that I'm.

[Dax Shepard]

Not, but you could get away with it.

[Monica Padman]

But aren't.

[Dax Shepard]

That's like, by white people refer to non white people as ethnic, but ethnic is ethnicity. Everyone has ethnicity.

[Monica Padman]

I said they have a different ethnicity.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, a different ethnicity.

[Monica Padman]

Is that what I said?

[Dax Shepard]

But that's funny, too, because that's suggesting America has an official ethnicity.

[Monica Padman]

Well, this white man that picks me up.

[Dax Shepard]

And you would be right. You go like, well, there's a hegemonic group. Who are we kidding? But if I were to say this country has an ethnicity that's probably that we would agree that's not a good.

[Monica Padman]

Okay, yeah, that's fine.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

I just.

[Dax Shepard]

Because implicit in my statement is like. And that's how it should be. Or that should be upheld.

[Monica Padman]

Not if it's how it. To me, that's a. There's a difference there. I don't think.

[Dax Shepard]

I'm only pointing out it sounds much different when either of us would say the exact same sentence.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

And for a good reason.

[Monica Padman]

That's. That's right. Anyway, this white Southern man picked me up.

[Dax Shepard]

Honky. I think you should say.

[Monica Padman]

No, I don't say that. And he was, I think, surprised to see me. And then a child. Yeah, an Indian child. I think there was some potential resentment that he had to drive an Indian child around.

[Dax Shepard]

You got three things. You're brown, you're a child, and you're a woman.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

You should not have any money.

[Monica Padman]

And then you should be desperate. He didn't understand how it was possible that I was there.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, he did. You're a doctor.

[Monica Padman]

A doogie. He just.

[Dax Shepard]

He was like, oh, she's a doctor.

[Monica Padman]

She's a baby doctor.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Okay. Anyway, you know, we get in the car and I don't. Normally, I'm not very chatty in the car, but this is what happens immediately. As soon as I sit in that car in the South, I'm like, oh, God, I gotta start. I gotta have a conversation. I'm gonna. I have to be like. Immediately, the. I have to dos. Start coming back to like. I need to make this person feel like.

[Dax Shepard]

I'm like, you don't think you're better than them Opposite.

[Monica Padman]

It's not that I don't want him to Think I'm better. I want him. I don't want him to think he's better. Like, I want him to think we're the same.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay. Okay.

[Monica Padman]

Which is how I grew up. I'm the same.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay. So that's a different dynamic.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. I'm the same as you.

[Dax Shepard]

I'm in the back of a car feeling guilty.

[Monica Padman]

Right. You're a rich white man. That's so different.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Yeah. But. And then I assume if I don't engage with them, they're going to think I think I'm better than them and shouldn't be troubled with talking to them.

[Monica Padman]

Right.

[Dax Shepard]

Forget that. If it was a billionaire driving the car, I still wouldn't necessarily want to talk.

[Monica Padman]

Right. No.

[Dax Shepard]

Although I like to. Anyways. Go on. Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

No, for. For me, it's definitely like, we're the same. Don't judge me.

[Dax Shepard]

Right. Right.

[Monica Padman]

I feel like I'm holding the weight of my ethnicity on my shoulders. On my.

[Dax Shepard]

Know I'm one of you.

[Monica Padman]

Yep. And it is that. It's like. So I. I said, here. How long have you lived here? And he said, oh, about 20 years. And I said, oh, how have you. Like, it's changed a lot. Right. Or, you know. And then he was like, yeah. And I was like, do you like that? And he said, well, it's good for the city, but. But Nashville is not meant to be a metropolitan city. It's just not meant to be that. Not like in Atlanta, Georgia. And I said, oh, I'm from Atlanta. I was really happy I got to say that.

[Dax Shepard]

Yes.

[Monica Padman]

I wanted to know. I was from the South.

[Dax Shepard]

Yes. And not India.

[Monica Padman]

Correct. Said, oh, yeah, I'm from Atlanta.

[Dax Shepard]

They got an Atlanta and India.

[Monica Padman]

Atlanta, India. Never heard of it.

[Dax Shepard]

Is that in Delhi?

[Monica Padman]

So I. I got that out. I felt good about that. And then I said, but I've lived in LA for 15 years. I assume he knew I lived in LA because he knew where my plane was coming from.

[Dax Shepard]

Right.

[Monica Padman]

So I said, I've lived in LA for 15 years. He said, oh, I'm sorry. And I got so defensive so fast. Yeah. I was like, well, I love it. So you don't need to apologize. Apologize.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay.

[Monica Padman]

And then I was quiet for most of the rest of the ride.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay. That shut things down that he said he didn't allow.

[Monica Padman]

He doesn't get to say that. And then I.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, did he elaborate on why he doesn't like it?

[Monica Padman]

No, he felt. I think he felt like maybe he felt like, oh, I shouldn't have said that.

[Dax Shepard]

Can I mount A defense of him you can try. I can assume someone who's only experienced with la, if they've never been, is watching. Again, I don't watch a ton of Fox News, so I, I can't say what the overall theme is, but I have seen Tucker Carlson talk about LA before, and it's very much. It looks like Beirut. If you're watching Tucker Carlson, it's singularly about the homeless crisis. And then the other footage they're seeing is like the BLM protests and Rodeo Drive being boarded up. If that's the only images you're getting. Right. And you have no sense of what, what it's like to walk around on a sunny day in Los Feliz. I could see where he might think it's different than it actually is.

[Monica Padman]

But here's my problem. I find you don't have to like it.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. But don't shit on my city.

[Monica Padman]

Don't shit on my city that I just said I live, I live in and I've lived in for 15 years. And what was worse is I sat there like, stewing about this for minutes right where I was like, like, if I fucking said that. If you said you lived in Tennessee for 20 years and I said, yeesh, I'm sorry, I'm an elitist liberal ass.

[Dax Shepard]

That would be rude. Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

And that's rude.

[Dax Shepard]

So he's punching up. In his mind. He's punching up.

[Monica Padman]

I don't think in his mind. He is not punching up.

[Dax Shepard]

I mean, in that I think anyone would feel fine being critical of New York City because everyone loves New York City, so they wouldn't feel like they were piling up on.

[Monica Padman]

I don't know. But I, I, I didn't like the hypocrisy.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Of. Because that is, that's this idea that, like, we're all these, like, liberal elitists and we like, we on the South. It seems to me that the opposite thing is happening.

[Dax Shepard]

Or that it's equal. Yeah. That it goes both directions.

[Monica Padman]

I, I would never say anything like that.

[Dax Shepard]

And no one know, would you want it? And we went, but, but the Barbara Kingsolver thing is true that a lot of media is, is playing heavily on.

[Monica Padman]

This trope media both ways. Individually, I do not know.

[Dax Shepard]

I just know this how it feels like Hollywood makes fun of them a lot, which I think is historically pretty true.

[Monica Padman]

Sure. But, but just I don't know anyone who would say that to someone's face.

[Dax Shepard]

I don't either.

[Monica Padman]

And I don't think he should have said, oh, wow, Southern hospitality really died since I left.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

But I didn't, I didn't.

[Dax Shepard]

I don't think he should have said that. Let me be clear.

[Monica Padman]

It was just interesting.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, boy.

[Dax Shepard]

I had a fun experience yesterday. I got a little of your perspective yesterday, which was fun.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, I love that.

[Dax Shepard]

And I recognized it. So Erica and I are driving the boat and he's telling me about some Trump policy that's working out or something. And he's going on and on, and I realized in that moment, oh, man, I can see what's going on in both directions. He's doing what I'm doing so often in my friendship circle, which is like, I think I'm trying to mitigate the fear of the people I love going, hold on, things haven't collapsed, collapse. You know, this thing might even work. Who knows? But being on the other end of it. And I said to him, I go, this is really funny for me because generally I'm talking with people that are more liberal than me and I'm trying to point out it's not going to be so bad, blah, blah, blah. And you're now doing that. And now I'm almost grateful to be back in the position where now I'm defending the liberal point of view, because he's doing that. But specifically, what I realized, realizes it sounds like he's telling me he loves Trump. And I actually had to realize he's not. He's doing the same thing I'm trying to do, which is like, it's, the world's not going to collapse. We're going to be fine. We're going to live, we're going to, you know, we're going to survive. It's not as bad as we think. But, yeah, I noticed, like, yeah, it sounds like he likes Trump.

[Monica Padman]

Right.

[Dax Shepard]

And I bet sometimes it sounds like I like Trump. Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Or that, like, there's, there's kind of a one sided acknowledgement. It's like there's acknowledgments of, like, when there's something that might be working, but there's not as much of an acknowledgement when, like, a lot of stuff is not working or things are bad because you don't want to cause a fluster. Which I understand. Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

I'm just trying to always dig everyone out of. What I'm worried about is like an overwhelming fear of the present day, but.

[Monica Padman]

Then what it ends up causing is a fear that I. About you.

[Dax Shepard]

I know. Yeah, it was, it was, it was good. It was a good experience. And I mean, minimally all he would have to say. And it's pretty much all you're asking is like, I don't agree with this guy exactly.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

That's.

[Dax Shepard]

I don't like him. But this. A couple of these things might work out.

[Monica Padman]

Sure. You know, I'm not going to say.

[Dax Shepard]

That, but it's almost like it feels redundant, but it's worth saying.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, no, totally.

[Dax Shepard]

It's also just a really. It's emblematic of. Of if everyone around me is saying one thing, I just feel obliged to like, offer the counter.

[Monica Padman]

I know.

[Dax Shepard]

And so it just forced me to be in a situation more than I would otherwise be.

[Monica Padman]

Everything's complicated. I think, though, I think that there are some. Not policy about this or policy about this, but there's some, like, real deep inherent values, things that are on the line that are really scary. And I actually, when I was also in this car ride, short car ride, but a lot happened.

[Dax Shepard]

Whole life went by in that car ride.

[Monica Padman]

I drove by a gas station. And the gas is, of course, so cheap here.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, my God. It's in unreal.260 a gallon.

[Monica Padman]

Yep. And I think that every time I'm home, it's also so funny. Cause every time I talk to my parents, it's always like, what's the gas like? Gas is so on the brain. And I saw it, I was like, oh, my God, gas. Gas is so cheap here.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

And like, I get why that's a huge appeal. And I'm so privileged and lucky that I can get gas at an astronomical price. And I don't really think much of it.

[Dax Shepard]

This came up just yesterday. Eric and I were again driving to get a piece. That piece of furniture you're sitting on.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, it's very nice.

[Dax Shepard]

And we're driving for a while. He sees gas prices. And again, this is where I get critical of the left. I go, you know, California's approach to the gas is the most unliberal thing imaginable. It so disproportionately punishes poor people.

[Monica Padman]

Yes, it does.

[Dax Shepard]

And it's nuts. It should be a. And we have this other crisis where it's like people are driving electric more and more and more, so they're not paying gas taxes. So that. That's all the funding for the roads. Right, right. So. So the electric drivers are no longer putting into the road maintenance pool. And all these states that have a heavy electric consumer population, they're trying to figure out how to offset this.

[Monica Padman]

That's interesting. Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

And so, yeah, Eric and I was. We were talking about the gas price, I was like, it's, it's so disproportionately punishes disenfranchised people, which our party is supposed to be all about the opposite of that. And why don't they just like put a huge tax on new cars? That is the highway tax. Poor people generally aren't buying new cars as much. Yeah, that's so right away you're like targeting who you want to target. You could also put the price point on the cars. Like any car above 50,000 is getting this amount, you know, like.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

That would be the liberal approach to helping poor people.

[Monica Padman]

Totally.

[Dax Shepard]

But where we have a cancer is where we're like, seemingly some people are just so pro tax, like, any tax is good. Any tax must be helping poor people. No, a lot of these taxes are, well, depending.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Disproportionately, really hurting the poor people.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, that's true. There needs to be some reform for sure. And I, I do recognize that it's a privileged position to be able to say this, but I did, did think when I had that thought that like, yeah, I'm willing because people ask all the time, like, oh my God, how do you afford living there? How do you like? It's so outrageous. It's so outrageous. And even when I was not making the money I'm making now, when I was living with two other people, I'm willing to pay more for a sense of, of like decency and safety. I'm sure it's just my own background and coming from places where. Yes. I feel like I don't land in LA and get in the car and think like, okay, I gotta, I'm like holding the weight of.

[Dax Shepard]

Right, yeah.

[Monica Padman]

My ethnicity on my shoulders. I'm just not. And so I am willing to pay for that.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Which is, it's just all very interesting.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, a lot of these, Brad and Hannah who moved here six months, months ago, been talking to both of them and they're so happy.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, great.

[Dax Shepard]

And there is a reality. It's like it's a very hard city to not make a lot of money in la. Yes.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, God, yes.

[Dax Shepard]

Like, they're paying the same amount in rent that they had a one bedroom apartment. Now they have a yard and their dog runs around. It's like they can approach art in a way that's like, oh my God, it cost us six grand a month to live in la. Where are we coming up with this money?

[Monica Padman]

Totally.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Just talking to them and recognizing like, yeah, man, it's One of those cities. It's like New York was like, if you make it, it's great.

[Monica Padman]

Yes.

[Dax Shepard]

And if you don't, it's.

[Monica Padman]

It's a struggle.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. It's just so even here. We're going out to breakfast with, like, eight people yesterday and the bill's 99.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

I'm like, this is nuts. I've not seen a breakfast for eight people in LA under 250 in a decade.

[Monica Padman]

It's. It. Yeah. Cost of living. There's no question. I mean, there's. And it's why a lot of people have left and come to these places. And I do. Do. I really get it. But I. I feel very defensive and protective.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Of Los Angeles and California, and I feel. I feel safest there. It's why it's weird.

[Dax Shepard]

Like, I don't feel defensive. Like, I love la. It's given me everything.

[Monica Padman]

Exactly.

[Dax Shepard]

It's giving me everything. I love it and I totally understand why people don't like it or they're threatened by it, or they feel like it as a city has too much sway over. Over the whole country. You know, I understand these fears and criticisms.

[Monica Padman]

We're not represented proportionally. But, yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

LA has had the power to set culture more than any other city in history. You know, Will and Grace, Philadelphia, all these things. The day after changing Reagan's opinion on nuclear armament. I mean, like, you know, we've had some major sway in a very tiny area.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

So I understand people's suspicion of any place that has disproportionate cultural sway over what happens. Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. It's interesting.

[Dax Shepard]

I just like it. And I. And I feel fine if they don't. I. You know, like, I get it.

[Monica Padman]

I don't either. Until.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. I'm sorry. That's. That's kind of condescending.

[Monica Padman]

It was so condescending.

[Dax Shepard]

Like, I know better.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, I'm sorry. Excuse me.

[Dax Shepard]

Stay tuned for more Armchair Expert, if you dare. There weren't fireflies, but. Did you enjoy the boat, Ryan?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I did.

[Monica Padman]

It was lovely. Pirates of the Caribbean. It was. It was pirates. It was breezy. It was really nice. It's. It's lovely. You. You have. I won't out you, but this is quite.

[Dax Shepard]

You can out me, because in a boat, it'd be insane for me to not process this in public. It's a big part of my life.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

And it is nearly impossible for me to compute. I've spent the last 16 days here just going, no way.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, I imagine so.

[Dax Shepard]

I just. I just love this yard so much. I can't believe how much nature there is in the yard. There's deer in the yard and there's little turtle and they have baby turkeys that we call giblets. There's a family of giblets. I saw them this morning. There's just like. It's so noisy at night with the frogs and the crickets and whatever goddamn other thing is out there.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

So soothing.

[Monica Padman]

It's lovely.

[Dax Shepard]

But. Yeah. I'm having a very hard time integrating it, trusting it, waiting. Not, you know, waiting for something bad to happen.

[Monica Padman]

Sure.

[Dax Shepard]

All those. It's very complicated and wonderful. Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

But the house itself is really astonishing.

[Dax Shepard]

It's gorgeous. It's much better than our LA house.

[Monica Padman]

No, and see, this is where. No, that's so unfair to that house.

[Dax Shepard]

It is. It is totally. It's a beautiful house.

[Monica Padman]

Insane house.

[Dax Shepard]

I know. I said to Kristen, day three. I'm like, well, we've somehow done the impossible. We've made our LA house, which is gorgeous, seem tight. I'm sure when we get home, this is also.

[Monica Padman]

So last night when I was sitting in bed and I was thinking about a lot of things.

[Dax Shepard]

Let's talk about the main thing. You must be here going, he's gonna quit.

[Monica Padman]

Well, pin in that. We're gonna. We're gonna get to that. I had a big therapy session before I came here.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, you did? Okay.

[Monica Padman]

I now know why I can, like, kind of put words to why the constant joke about Monica built a house bigger than our hours.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Bumps me.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay.

[Monica Padman]

Because your house at home, Your house in la. At home.

[Dax Shepard]

Yes. Is a capital H. O M. That's.

[Monica Padman]

Our home is unbelievable. I mean, the house is unbelievable. It's gorgeous structures. There's multiple structures.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

When people come over, we're so lucky. They comment. Every single person who comes in comments on the house in the land.

[Dax Shepard]

I love our house. We're insanely lucky.

[Monica Padman]

But I. I think when it's said, like, and Monica bought this house across the street, it's bigger than ours.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

There is a. Like, there's an implied modesty on your part and an implied indulgence on my part.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh.

[Monica Padman]

And I can own. I am indulgent. Like, my house is going to be too big for me. It's going to be beautiful and lovely, but it is not. It is not your. Your estate. Is that it is. It is an AC or here la.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay. Okay. I just want to be. I want to keep it straight.

[Monica Padman]

La. And then when I arrived here, you.

[Dax Shepard]

Were just like, this Guy.

[Monica Padman]

I was just like. Okay. I. I literally. I can't ever, ever hear any faux modesty again. Like, even.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, yes. If your conclusion about that whole thing is. If you're right about that. If it's an attempt for me to make you seem indulgent. Me seem humble or modest.

[Monica Padman]

I think more.

[Dax Shepard]

Yes.

[Monica Padman]

Okay.

[Dax Shepard]

Reject it to no end.

[Monica Padman]

Okay.

[Dax Shepard]

I'm not modest.

[Monica Padman]

Okay. Great.

[Dax Shepard]

I have a tour bus.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

I have a sweet pontoon boat. I'm not modest.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

I love the story. Again, I'll tell you.

[Monica Padman]

You. Oh. About me.

[Dax Shepard]

It's such an incredible American story.

[Monica Padman]

Yes.

[Dax Shepard]

That you start as a babysitter.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

And then six years later, you build a house that's bigger than the. That's the story I like.

[Monica Padman]

I know, but we can't.

[Dax Shepard]

That's not about me being modest.

[Monica Padman]

But we can't tell a false story.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, that's why I say specifically, your main house is bigger. I have to. I'm admitting I have to find a very specific definition of this claim so that I can keep the story that I love, which is starting as a babysitter than building a bigger house. I just love that.

[Monica Padman]

I understand. I love it, too. I'm so grateful.

[Dax Shepard]

I mean, it's probably perpetuating the thing we hate, which is like, you really can't move up in life of the couple of us do. And then everyone else kills themselves trying. It's probably bad, but I love. It's the classic American story. That's why I like it.

[Monica Padman]

That's why I like it.

[Dax Shepard]

Land of opportunity.

[Monica Padman]

It is.

[Dax Shepard]

But then I'm just also recognizing the land of opportunity has sometimes been weaponized to convince people to kill themselves when really we know that upward mobility is way less than what the quote, American.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. Or that, like, everyone has an equal opportunity.

[Dax Shepard]

I'm only saying. I know. I love this story, and I know the story itself is maybe part of our overall problem, but I kind of love the story if I don't know us. And I just know this story. It's one I would repeat on.

[Monica Padman]

Fourth of July was an interesting fourth, because we were. I was in Palm Springs with our friends, and some of our friends are really, like, what do we do? We're black today. Like, you know, like, very upset with the. The current state of the United States. And it felt like celebrating. It was tricky for them. And I was like, absolutely not.

[Dax Shepard]

Thank God you're saying this because we.

[Monica Padman]

Would have had to let. Do not let them.

[Dax Shepard]

I know. Almost angers me.

[Monica Padman]

Well, I know. But you Can't.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. I'm not going to be angry, but I don't know who it is, so I'm.

[Monica Padman]

That's fine. I just. You cannot let other people take that from you. And I said. And I, I am not letting anyone take the flag from me. The concept of America for me.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

I am a. I am what it is.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

For real. Not this other bullshit. And so I'm not going to let them commandeer it. And no one should.

[Dax Shepard]

No.

[Monica Padman]

But anyway, so American dream. I've lost my train of thought. Anyway. Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, I have a barn burner of a story, but I'm going to save it to the next fact check. But it's about. I had my first. I had my second incident, but my first big incident. Yeah. So that'll be on the next fact check.

[Monica Padman]

Can't wait.

[Dax Shepard]

Let's just say as a teaser, I have dealt with law enforcement already.

[Monica Padman]

Oh.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, my God. Wow.

[Monica Padman]

Well, I am excited to hear.

[Dax Shepard]

Took a little shorter than I was hoping, but.

[Monica Padman]

Wow.

[Dax Shepard]

I have met a lot of the law.

[Monica Padman]

Okay. That's a, that's a. I just want to say.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, I feel guilty. I feel weirdly ashamed to say in public that you have this, but I'm, I, I would feel crazy dishonest. Like, I, I, I just am so happy.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

I'm so happy. I don't know. A tall poppy or like, we didn't like rich people growing up.

[Monica Padman]

I don't know.

[Dax Shepard]

People hate rich people. I know that. I don't want someone to hate me.

[Monica Padman]

Spread that a lot.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. I probably am going to reap what I sowed, is what I. Yeah, the bills come due, but, but it would, it would feel crazy to not share how just unbelievably grateful and happy I am. I'm so happy I could cry. I mean, I just can't believe.

[Monica Padman]

What are the, the, like, the. Tell me more.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, a couple things. You won't like one of them, but a couple things are just like, I love where I'm from. Like, my whole family was here. My brother and my sister, my mom. And we're on the boat and all of us are saying the exact same thing. Like, well, this is definitely just up north Michigan. This is up north Michigan. Yet there's also a Walmart five minutes away and there's restaurants. So it's like, it's an impossible. Like, this almost doesn't even exist in Michigan where you have that rural of a lake. I can, for people who don't know, I can turn right out of my Cove and I can go 60 miles up river before I hit a dam. It's just endless in all these little coves and just. It's not built up.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

So my whole family's going like, oh fuck, we're in Northern Michigan. Yeah, we're in Northern Michigan. And we're 40 minutes from Emily Burger.

[Monica Padman]

Right.

[Dax Shepard]

Which we ate at. So like, I just can't believe the gift that is this place. Location wise. Going to get ice cream at night. Like American Americans. There's so much of it I miss from childhood. You go on summer nights to go get ice cream. There's no Dairy Queen in la.

[Monica Padman]

There's Baskin Ramens just a stone's throw from our house.

[Dax Shepard]

The clientele. But this is the part that you won't like. But I still would share with you because I tell you everything. In just a couple weeks here I am able to re see Louisiana the way I did before I moved there. In just a few weeks of being away from there.

[Monica Padman]

What do you mean?

[Dax Shepard]

Like, do you. Well, do you remember leaving Georgia and your idea of Hollywood and then going there and it's like very intimidating and scary and then you gotta get going. You gotta get an agent and you gotta figure this thing out and then you're really paying attention to what everyone else is doing. Cause hopefully someone will have a tip and I'll figure out how to get an agent and then I'll figure out what to do in auditions and all that. That's a good tip. And it's a very consumed town. Yeah, it's very, very consumed. This is what I love about it. It's one of the most ambitious places I've ever been in my life. Other than New York City.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. Both they're similar.

[Dax Shepard]

Which is like so ambitious and such a company town.

[Monica Padman]

Yep.

[Dax Shepard]

And billboards of your peers everywhere you drive. And just the whole like this is the. What you won't like about it. But a little bit of our self obsession with ourselves. Like we're kind of the center of the universe. There's.

[Monica Padman]

And it's about getting ahead.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. And just being on task. And, and, and again, just you're. You're looking around, working hard and looking around non stop and there's all this visual. When you're in insurance here, you could be crushing. As an insurance provider, you're not gonna see a billboard of your competitor unless it was an ad.

[Monica Padman]

But you're right.

[Dax Shepard]

I mean, I guess. But you know, in our town you just. The whole place is covered with your peers.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

With their different projects that are happening.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

There's like, oh, I haven't.

[Monica Padman]

But you don't still. And I don't either.

[Dax Shepard]

I'm out of that.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

But just as a town, it's a very. It's a very navel gazery town.

[Monica Padman]

Yes, it is.

[Dax Shepard]

I guess my thought was. I was like, yeah, no wonder Chappelle moved back to Ohio. Like, to be able to do comedy and have it be cutting, accurate, astute. You can't be sitting in the center of it.

[Monica Padman]

I mean.

[Dax Shepard]

I mean, that's his explanation.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. I don't know know if that's true, because I think there are other people doing it who live there that also, like, are.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Able to. But for him, I guess that's. I mean, for him. I mean, his. He's so specific. He had to, like, leave the country to get away from.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Everything for a while. So, like, for him, that.

[Dax Shepard]

Say that once and I was like, do you real. I was kind of like, do you really need to live in Ohio to have a real person perspective? But. But I. I understand what he's saying. Yeah, I understand what he's saying.

[Monica Padman]

I understand too.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. And maybe there's more insular towns, but it's a very insular town. La.

[Monica Padman]

I just think, not to diminish. Maybe it's because you just got here. Like.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, it could wear off. There's a lot of things.

[Monica Padman]

No, I think you'll love it for. It's not about that. I just think you, to me, this is insular too. Like, to me, everywhere you go becomes insular. It becomes about what it is, and that becomes. That becomes clear after being in a place for a while.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

LA is specific because it's glit. It's across the board. Everyone knows what it is. Same with New York. Like, that's. But. But when you're in a place for a long time, the fabric of what it is comes to the surface and it is this. It's as. To me, as insular and telling and specific as LA is.

[Dax Shepard]

I guess here I just. I get this sense that life's about so much more than work.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, that's nice.

[Dax Shepard]

And I think a lot of. I have a lot of friends I love and care about in LA that have. Their lives have been ruined by the fact that they haven't met their goals for sure. Professionally. And that's heartbreaking.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, it is.

[Dax Shepard]

And I like being reminded, like, no, life is about also friends and family. And, like, that part's neat.

[Monica Padman]

Yes.

[Dax Shepard]

And I don't think I ever thought I'd be able to see LA again the way I saw it before I lived there. But I can see myself being able to actually kind of have two visions of it.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

I just, I think it's interesting that you're feeling that now though, because I feel, feel like, I feel like now we're not especially. You are not there anymore, like in that headspace of on the hamster, like. And I actually that. That's sort of a beautiful thing about being there for that long. If, if you, if you do get a lot of the things you want, you do see the truth. You do see the reality of, of what achievement really is or what work really should feel like or. You know, I don't know, I think that's a thing you get there if you're lucky that you don't get from a 9 to 5 job that most people are living in these parts.

[Dax Shepard]

I guess if I had to say one statement that I just really would stand by, it's that, oh yes, every place has trade offs. Every country has trade offs. Life is tradeoff, trade offs. There's no perfect place, there's no perfect city. It's like these trade offs and what is it that you are hungry for in your life? And yes, that exists there and you're willing to take on this unfortunate trade off of it.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

And that evolves over time and, and every city has it and I'm not declaring one or better or worse. It's just like seeing and recognizing the trade offs is. Is interesting.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, there. There definitely are. Again, just to. I feel it's needed to say, like the reason you can feel like life isn't about work is because you're in a position, it's in sight. And it's like most people, it's not in sight at your age.

[Dax Shepard]

Right, you know?

[Monica Padman]

I know, not even close.

[Dax Shepard]

Again, back to the. Yeah. So like guilty gratitude.

[Monica Padman]

Well, yeah, but I'm just saying, like there's a reason most people don't have the luxury of saying like most people should say your whole life shouldn't be about work. But most people can't say your life isn't about work because that's how we all live in this country. That's how we.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, but even if you're working, it's a means to an end more than an identity. It feels like here, it's like Huey does his thing so he can go on vacation.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, yeah, of course.

[Dax Shepard]

Wherever island he just came from anyways. Yeah. It just, I Think in our town, our work is more our identity than in other places.

[Monica Padman]

Yes. But to me, and this is maybe wrong. It's because our work is connected to art and art is an identity, and. And our work specifically is our identity. It's who we. It's literally us.

[Dax Shepard]

Yes.

[Monica Padman]

Putting forth our thoughts and our. You know.

[Dax Shepard]

But where the. Evaluating your identity on the outcome of your artistic pursuit is tricky.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, it is. I guess not to, like, pull the curtain too far back, but we obviously, we have our job at least for two more years that we're in a contract, so I feel like, safe in that way. But you being here is scary. Scares me and has been interesting for. For me. Like. Okay. The things that I think are permanent are not.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

And I need to plan for that.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

And it sucks. Like, it. It really bums me out because I like our lives a lot. I like our. This job so much.

[Dax Shepard]

Me too.

[Monica Padman]

And it's so special. And we got so lucky. Like, so wild.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

And the idea that like. Like that is going to end and it's not really probably going to be my decision. That sucks. Like this. This kind of thing we stumbled into. I'm going to have to figure out something else potentially. And I need to potentially start thinking about that. Before I wanted to, I was really sort of happy being very present, doing this and putting. Putting a lot of all my effort and energy into it and. And not being like, I don't have to worry.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

And this has triggered a lot of worry.

[Dax Shepard]

Sure. I bet.

[Monica Padman]

So I'm just moving through it, I guess.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. I would be stressed if I were you.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. If you were 37, you had your dream job and you knew it was on its way.

[Dax Shepard]

That's right.

[Monica Padman]

And I had nothing you could do.

[Dax Shepard]

I, too, have my dream job. Same. Love it. And. Yeah. I'll be 52 or 53 at the end of our contract, which is. Yeah. Just different.

[Monica Padman]

It is different. And I. But also it's like, that seems young to me. That's like, so young.

[Dax Shepard]

And it is young.

[Monica Padman]

You know, my dad's in his 70s and. And he's like, not. You know, I don't know. It's just. It's just interest. It's all. It's all interesting.

[Dax Shepard]

My thing, and I think I've tried to tell to you is in some weird way, I am so lucky. And it would weirdly feel kind of disrespectful and dishonoring of how much luck I've had to not explore the gift of that, which is like, who am I without work? I have that luxury. I'm really lucky. I'm so lucky I get to maybe say, who am I without work?

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. It's just like, it's almost. I mean, it is this.

[Dax Shepard]

Let's just say this. I don't. I don't think a. This job doesn't resemble what I'm about to say. So be very clear. I'm not doing a false equivalency, and I don't think you're. You. You would be doing it this way. But I have, over my years in la, seen a lot of people stay at it simply because they. They knew it was really hard to get and they don't want to lose it. And they're not doing it for any inspired reason or they just got trapped.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

They got fearful it would never stick around. And then that led to. They just never evaluated. And I have this bizarre feeling that that would be a dishonoring of this huge lucky thing for me to never stop and go, okay, what else do we want to do before we die on planet Earth? And I. But again, I don't. I don't want anyone to listen. Listening to think that I have declared I'm quitting in two years. I'm not. I haven't said that. There's also a version where maybe we don't do 162 episodes a year. That would be, you know, appealing to me. The soonest I could ever be here full time would be eight years from now.

[Monica Padman]

I know. I. I'm just saying I understand.

[Dax Shepard]

If I were you, I would be nervous and scared and I understand all of your anxiety, and it's very normal, I guess.

[Monica Padman]

I think I thought that I was, like, Buddhist, you know, since I've been Buddhist recently.

[Dax Shepard]

And I thought, like, since White Lotus season four.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. The most recent White Lotus, I thought that I was, like, really at peace. Like, oh, I'm fine. And I am fine. I feel like, oh, I don't. I'm not. I'm off the treadmill. I'm not thinking about what's gonna happen in the future. How am I gonna maintain this? Or how. How am I. I'm very present in this job.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

And like, now I feel like that's gone, and that feels like a loss.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Monica Padman]

So I want to figure out how to have that still, but also be realistic about my life. And that's very.

[Dax Shepard]

That's what you're juggling.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, that's what I'm juggling.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Anyway, I understand.

[Dax Shepard]

I'm sorry I'm stressing you out.

[Monica Padman]

It's. Look, I guess that's also part. Part of it. I feel very competent as a person. I feel very independent as a person. I believe in my skills and myself for the most part now. But again, when this is happening, I don't.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, you're in fear.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. And I feel like, oh, this is all here because I'm attached to you.

[Dax Shepard]

I'll never make a dollar again.

[Monica Padman]

I'm attached to you. You decide to go, then what? Then I don't have anything anymore. I don't have any skills. I don't have. What am I gonna do? I don't. I don't even have Soul Cycle. I can always go back to Soul Cycle, I guess. Yeah. It's just a lot to. I just have a lot of anxiety.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

But it's fine. It'll all be fine.

[Dax Shepard]

I'm sorry. I'm part of that.

[Monica Padman]

It's okay. I chose it. But also, I didn't like. You can't. I don't think independent fully independence works. It doesn't work for me. I'm a collaborator. I like that it requires them being connected to other people and not having full control.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

And that sucks. But that's part of the gain too. So.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Anyway. Okay. We gotta do some facts.

[Dax Shepard]

Let's do some facts.

[Monica Padman]

All right. This is for another hottie with the body.

[Dax Shepard]

Alexander Skarsgard.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh. Consider me charmed.

[Monica Padman]

Me too.

[Dax Shepard]

I'm gonna add a piece of information that wasn't available in the interview that I can't imagine he would care. I say now, but I think it would be very informative to people.

[Monica Padman]

It's telling.

[Dax Shepard]

Yes. I think you and I both went into this interview going, who is he? He's such a kind of enigma. He dresses so uniquely on things. Is he playful? Is he serious? What is he? And what we found out after is his best friend. Here we go. Ding, ding, ding. Best friend. I mean, best friend. I presume he means in la. He might have a different one in.

[Monica Padman]

Sweden, but he probably means his one and only.

[Dax Shepard]

Jack McBrayer is his best friend. Which I can't think of a better vote of confidence than Jack McBrayer being your best friend. That's a winner.

[Monica Padman]

I agree.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. So Alex was so playful and fun. It was a real revelation for me. I fell pretty in love with him. Did you?

[Monica Padman]

100%. He's wildest dreams, you know.

[Dax Shepard]

That's a tall boy right there.

[Monica Padman]

He was so tall.

[Dax Shepard]

Would you climb around on there? Would you do a little climbing.

[Monica Padman]

Hey, hey, hey. That's. Let's be respect. Got a family.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Okay.

[Dax Shepard]

I'd go for a climb. If I were a gal, I'd go for a little climb.

[Monica Padman]

Okay. He can. He's so nice. He hangs out with Jack McBrayer.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. That's how he gets you has a family. Then you're in a pretzel reverse back, double penny, and you're like, what happened?

[Monica Padman]

Oh, my God. Anyway, he. He was lovely. I really, I liked him a lot. Okay. Now, I looked up how many calories do you burn in Greenland? Just trying to stay warm. But I couldn't find that because it kept saying, you know, it has to do with your BMI and stuff. Some other stuff, you know. But it does say being cold can lead to increased calorie burning. When your body temperature drops, it triggers a process called thermogenesis, where your body works to generate heat, burning more calories. And in the process, this can happen through shivering or through the activation of brown fat.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Mmm.

[Dax Shepard]

That's what I'm trying to do in my cold plunge.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. But I wish it wasn't called brown fat. It's like very racist.

[Dax Shepard]

I like it. And it's confusing because it sounds bad, doesn't it?

[Monica Padman]

Brown fat, Exactly. Decayed, but it's gone rancid.

[Dax Shepard]

You want to activate that brown fat. So now I've come to embrace brown fat as positive. But you're right, it sounds. It's not a great branding.

[Monica Padman]

I bet if people knew about brown fat when I was little, they would have called me brown fatty. On the playground.

[Dax Shepard]

You were very tiny. I've seen pictures. They would have made fun of you. But not for the other direction, probably.

[Monica Padman]

Okay, now I looked up, can vampires change if they can't die?

[Dax Shepard]

Right. Great question.

[Monica Padman]

As mythical beings, vampires don't follow the rules of normal human aging or physical change. Their appearances generally fix at the moment they are turned into vampires. However, some sources suggest the following ways in which their look might change. And then there's a bunch of ways, but it has not. It's not what you were talking about. So I think there was a slip up in True Blood.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, yeah, I think so too. How are you going to keep these actors in the same exact shape? It's not easy.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, you can't Maybe. How? It depends on how much blood they're getting. Like they could get thin because they're going to die because not getting enough blood.

[Dax Shepard]

Maybe. But it doesn't seem like that happens either. Their weight doesn't seem to fluctuate. Also, blood's not super caloric. It's not like. I mean, I doubt they're even getting 3,000 calories a day in blood. That's a lot of blood.

[Monica Padman]

But it's how they. It's all they consume.

[Dax Shepard]

How much blood would 3,000 calories of human blood be? This might get me flagged.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, it will.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay, so one liter of blood is 650 calories. So you'd need 4.6 liters of blood to get 3,000 calories a day. That's like a gallon and a half.

[Monica Padman]

Would you ever drink someone's blood for fun?

[Dax Shepard]

Like, wait, did I? Or would I?

[Monica Padman]

Would you?

[Dax Shepard]

Sure. Have you? No, I don't think so. And yes, sure. Would you?

[Monica Padman]

It would really. There's. There is something about blood. It's like one of the only. It really makes me feel queasy.

[Dax Shepard]

It does.

[Monica Padman]

Because it's thinking about. Thinking about drinking it. Don't say warm.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I would like, lick someone's bloody cut, right?

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, I would lick someone's bloody cut. Depending on the person. Depending on the person, of course. But the. If like thinking about blood in a cup. Yeah, I don't think I can do that.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, yeah. And it gets sticky quick, I think.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, yeah. Like, I think I'd rather drink someone's pee.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, me too. Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

But PE is just water and, and bacteria.

[Dax Shepard]

Minerals. No, I think it's. I think it's sterile when it comes out.

[Monica Padman]

But isn't it like cleaning? I don't get that. Because it's like cleaning out your system. So it should have gross stuff in there.

[Dax Shepard]

But then I think your kidneys and your bladder and your liver take all the shit out. They cleanse it.

[Monica Padman]

Not if you have a uti, because they test your urine and they test it for.

[Dax Shepard]

That's true. That's true. All right, I'll ask if urine is antiseptic. Is human urine sterile? No. Human urine is not sterile. At least not once it leaves the body. Here's why. Inside the bladder, urine is generally low in bacteria, but not completely sterile. Advanced DNA testing has shown that even healthy bladders contain small amounts of non pathogenic bacteria, the urinary microbiome. But once the urine exits the body, it picks up bacteria from the urethra and skin, making it definitely non sterile. The myth, the idea that urine is sterile came from outdated testing methods that couldn't detect low levels of bacteria. In short, not sterile in healthy people, just low in human bacteria, harmful bacteria.

[Monica Padman]

Okay, now we Know.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Okay. Why do SOBs have the key in the center? Saab placed the ignition key in the center console primarily for safety reasons. Moving the key away from the steering column and dashboard reduced the risk of injury during collisions, as the key could potentially cause knee or other body part injuries. Additionally, it allowed for a more ergonomic design, facilitating a smooth transition from starting the car to shifting gears, not in.

[Dax Shepard]

An inordinate amount of rollovers, as suggested by the brand ambassador.

[Monica Padman]

I guess not, but it is still safety related, so they're claiming.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Because your knee would hit the key so often.

[Monica Padman]

Speaking of Swedish vehicles, my mom just got a Volvo.

[Dax Shepard]

No kidding.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Those are nice. My best friend Nate has one.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, my God.

[Dax Shepard]

He loves it.

[Monica Padman]

Okay, you said Taylor doesn't sing Wildest Dreams often. Okay.

[Dax Shepard]

In concert. Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

In the ERAS tour. Now, I looked.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay.

[Monica Padman]

And. And. And she did sing it when I. Oh, okay. Saw.

[Dax Shepard]

All right.

[Monica Padman]

Okay. Yeah. And then. And then. Yes, Taylor Swift does perform Wildest dreams during the eras tour, specifically in the part of the 1989 era segment of the show. This may be where you're confused. In the original theatrical release of the ERAS tour film, Wildest Dream was not included, but it is present in the extended version.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay.

[Monica Padman]

So the movie didn't have it originally.

[Dax Shepard]

Certainly didn't. And that's what I saw first.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

And then I saw the. The show, and I think she was singing it to me. I'm going to stand by that, though.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, all right. I don't love you getting a fact and then not taking it.

[Dax Shepard]

Right. Okay, I understand.

[Monica Padman]

Also, at one point, I just want the people to know that this is clocked, that you do a Swedish accent, but you definitely slipped into an Indian accent.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, I don't know about that because I know my. I know my Indian accent very specifically. I know. Know when I'm in it. But you think I was in it unintentionally or unaware.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. You're gonna have to listen back just for that.

[Dax Shepard]

All right. What word was I saying? Do you remember?

[Monica Padman]

You were saying a bunch of words.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay.

[Monica Padman]

Like a couple sentences worth.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay.

[Monica Padman]

You'll know it. You'll know it when you hear it.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Okay. All right.

[Dax Shepard]

Thanks for making me better.

[Monica Padman]

You're welcome. And that's gonna be it.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, I loved them. Call me. Count me. Charmed.

[Monica Padman]

Me too.

[Dax Shepard]

That was a hot couple of weeks for you.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, man. Were we on a tear of hotties.

[Dax Shepard]

Ah, yeah. Hotties. Summer.

[Monica Padman]

Nice boys. Summer.

[Dax Shepard]

The rat summer's over. We're done with Rats. Rat Boys. Summer.

[Monica Padman]

No, I'm not.

[Dax Shepard]

I'm not done just getting into your rat phase.

[Monica Padman]

All right, all right.

[Dax Shepard]

I love you. Love you.

[Monica Padman]

Bye.

[Dax Shepard]

Bye. Follow Armchair Expert on the Wondry app, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to every episode of Armchair Expert early and ad free right now by joining Wondry plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short [e-mail] survey.