Episode 1658 - Alexander Skarsgård

Summary

WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1658 - Alexander Skarsgård
Release Date: July 7, 2025

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Introduction

In Episode 1658 of the WTF with Marc Maron Podcast, Marc Maron engages in a candid and insightful conversation with actor Alexander Skarsgård. The episode delves deep into Skarsgård's illustrious career, his experiences on various film and television projects, and his personal reflections on acting and creativity. The discussion is interspersed with anecdotes, personal stories, and thoughtful insights, providing listeners with a comprehensive look into the life and mind of one of Hollywood's most respected actors.

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Backgrounds of the Guests

Alexander Skarsgård is renowned for his versatile roles in projects such as True Blood, Big Little Lies, The Northman, Infinity Pool, and the science fiction series Murderbot. His ability to embody diverse characters has earned him critical acclaim and a dedicated fan base. In this episode, Skarsgård shares his journey through the acting world, his approach to character development, and the challenges he has faced along the way.

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Key Topics Discussed

1. Early Career and Family Influence

• Introduction to Acting: Skarsgård recounts his unexpected entry into acting at the age of eight, influenced by his father’s connections in the Swedish acting community.

  "So that's how I kind of ended up doing that. And then like, you know, it wasn't like I was a Hollywood in the Hollywood sense of like a child actor."
  [34:07] Adam Pally

• Family Dynamics: Discussing his large family, Skarsgård highlights the artistic environment he grew up in and his siblings' involvement in acting.

  "And so, yeah, I'm the oldest than Gus, who's an actor. Sam was a doctor. He followed like, moms, Pat. And then Bill, who's an actor."
  [24:15] Adam Pally

2. Transitioning Roles and Industry Challenges

• Typecasting and Role Diversity: Skarsgård talks about the challenges of breaking away from being typecast as a "global sex symbol" and his desire to take on more complex and diverse roles.

  "But it's wild, though. You've had. It's like to be somebody who is. You're seen that way, yet still have a career where you're like a character actor in a lot of ways."
  [68:22] Marc Maron

• Notable Roles: Reflecting on his roles in True Blood and Murderbot, Skarsgård shares insights into his character development and the creative processes behind these projects.

  "Murderbot is funny. Like, it's funny Murderbot is funny."
  [52:02] Marc Maron

3. Working with Visionary Directors

• Collaboration with Robert Eggers: Skarsgård discusses his experience working on The Northman with director Robert Eggers, highlighting Eggers' meticulous approach to filmmaking.

  "Rob is like a visionary. It's so fucking rare that, like, he's not going to bend to expectation. No, he's gonna make exactly the movie he wants to make."
  [30:22] Marc Maron

• Directing Under Strict Protocols: He recounts the challenges of shooting long takes and maintaining authenticity on set.

  "They did most scenes as a oner with just one long camera take that he plans six months in advance."
  [26:28] Adam Pally

4. Personal Growth and Overcoming Insecurities

• Military Service and Personal Discipline: Skarsgård shares his time in the Swedish military and how it shaped his approach to discipline and teamwork in his acting career.

  "I was just like, I gotta do this. So when I, several years later, got to a place where I had options where I could choose to play the jock or boyfriend number four or something weird a bit weirder or psychologically more interesting, then of course I'm gonna gravitate towards that."
  [68:22] Adam Pally

• Handling Fame and Recognition: Discussing his experiences with fame, Skarsgård emphasizes the importance of maintaining humility and focusing on his craft.

  "I'm not letting myself be kind of put in a box. But I think I was just. When I."
  [68:27] Adam Pally

5. Future Projects and Reflections

• Upcoming Work: Skarsgård hints at future projects, including his participation in the science fiction series Murderbot, and a kinky gay biker movie premiering at Cannes.

  "It's a Sub Dom story set in the world of gay bikers. So I play a biker who takes on a submissive. So it's like a."
  [76:12] Adam Pally

• Creative Aspirations: He expresses his desire to continue taking on challenging roles that allow him to explore different facets of his acting abilities.

  "I just want to work. I need to find a job."
  [68:36] Marc Maron

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Insights and Conclusions

Throughout the episode, Alexander Skarsgård provides a nuanced perspective on the acting industry, highlighting both its challenges and rewards. He emphasizes the importance of versatility, dedication, and staying true to one's artistic vision. Skarsgård’s experiences underscore the value of collaboration with visionary directors and the impact of personal growth on professional success. His reflections serve as an inspiration for aspiring actors and creatives, illustrating the balance between embracing opportunities and maintaining personal integrity.

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Notable Quotes

• On Music and Comedy:

  "The difference between music and comedy is that music is magic. I'll stand by that."
  [12:35] Marc Maron

• On Facing Insecurities:

  "Maybe if I keep doing it, I'll let go. I'll let go and I'll ease into it."
  [05:22] Marc Maron

• On Collaborating with Directors:

  "That guy Eggers, a fucking genius. He's like a visionary."
  [30:22] Marc Maron

• On Typecasting and Versatility:

  "I didn't want to be lazy, but, Yeah, I guess be lazy through it because I didn't really have to work that hard. It was so well written."
  [73:16] Adam Pally

• On Personal Growth Through Acting:

  "Has a character that had a lot of love for his sons and a lot of love for his wife as well. There's an incredible deep darkness there, but there's also light and playfulness."
  [73:18] Adam Pally

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Conclusion

Episode 1658 of WTF with Marc Maron Podcast offers a deep dive into Alexander Skarsgård's career and personal journey as an actor. Through engaging dialogue and thoughtful reflections, listeners gain valuable insights into the complexities of the acting profession, the importance of personal growth, and the relentless pursuit of creative fulfillment. This episode is a must-listen for fans of Skarsgård, aspiring actors, and anyone interested in the behind-the-scenes realities of Hollywood.

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Note: All timestamps are approximations based on the provided transcript.

Transcript

[Marc Maron]

Hey, folks, today's episode is sponsored by Squarespace. And if you have a business or you sell things online, you know how important a good website is. Not just to showcase your stuff, but to make sure you get paid. Squarespace gives you everything you need to sell whatever you want to sell. And they make sure you get all your payments on time with professional invoices and online pay portals. Plus, streamline your workflow with built in appointment scheduling and email marketing tools. Check out all Squarespace has to offer, first by going to wtfpod.com and seeing a website powered by Squarespace. Then head to squarespace.com wtf for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use offer code WTF to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. That's squarespace.com WTF offer code WTF. All right, let's do this. How are you? What the. What the Buddies? What the Nicks? What's happening? I'm Marc Maron. This is my podcast. Welcome to it. How's it going? How's your. How. How are your hands? Did you keep all your fingers over the blasting over the weekend? Everybody okay? Nobody blew up any snakes or frogs or anything horrible? What'd you do? What did you do out there? How did it all go? Have good food? Did you have good food? Did it, did it all work out? Was there any sense of celebration? I don't know. It all seems a little contrary in terms of freedom and independence to what a lot of people are experiencing right now in the world, in this country. But let's not, let's not get. Let's not get sad. I don't know. I have been. Yeah, I mentioned, I think last week the. On the show that I was going to listen to the Del Shannon record. Didn't I mention that it was. I didn't even know the name of it, but I knew it was a record that I was supposed to have in my collection and I got a reissue. I knew it was. It was. It's called the Further Adventures of Charles Westover. It was a 1968 Del Shannon release, years after the Runaway guy. Trying to hold on, trying to make the shift from the early 60s to the late 60s. Big jump for some of those guys, right? Bobby Darin did a couple of hippie records. It's always interesting. The hippie records from the. The kind of late 50s, early crooners. What, am I running a record podcast now? The fuck is happening? I guess after last week and after the conversation I had, I. I must have made myself feel a little guilty because now I'm kind of reengaged with the records and I'm taking the time when I have it, which is rare for some reason. I'm still very busy and, you know, I'm listening to the records. It's very nice. Time travel, man. It's time travel, mystical, magical stuff. And it was weird because I've said on this show a lot of times that the difference between music and comedy is that music is magic. I'll stand by that. But I had a conversation with Adam Pally on his show and he kind of shifted my thinking a little bit, which isn't always. I mean, I'm open minded, but he made me look at it a different way a little bit. But nonetheless, it landed. But before I get into that, today, I'm talking to Alexander Skarsgard. You know, he's a lot of stuff, this guy. True Blood, Big Little Lies, Robert Eggers, the Northman, Brandon Cronenberg's Infinity Pool. He played Lucas Matson on Succession brilliantly. And now he's in this science fiction series called Murderbot. But I think calling it a science fiction series kind of undermines it. It's a comedy and it's pretty funny. I watched a bunch of episodes in order to talk to him and I'm still watching them. I think he's amazing at it. It's a very interesting character he plays. I guess it would be some sort of cyborg is that it's. It's kind of a robot, but it's like a flesh one, you know, I don't know. I'm not up on this, the sci fi lingo. But yeah, it's a flesh robot. The ones that are kind of mostly people but also programmed. And he sort of is one that's been refurbished and he did some. He might in his robot brain kind of remember bits and pieces of an erased event that he was probably at the center of, which we. I don't know for sure, but it looks like he, he, he might have had a glitch and killed a lot of humans at his last job. And he also sort of stacks his, his memory up with kind of garbage space sitcoms which kind of eventually make him learn how to, to be a human in a way. And he's stationed on this somewhat of a progressive, almost a hippie mission with this crew of researchers. But it's funny. I will be back at Largo for a comedy and music show on Wednesday, July 23. Tickets are at largo-la.com and I'm playing with some new people this time, and we're doing, like, a few of the songs I've done before, a couple of new ones. And look, man, I know that some of you sit through my guitar at the end. I don't expect a lot of people to do that, but it keeps me engaged. It keeps me playing. I think I've gotten better. Sometimes I sound better than others. Also, it's like, with the weekly update that I think you can still sign up [e-mail] because it looks like, yeah, I'm going to try to keep that going after the podcast ends, but that keeps me writing. But there is this part of me that thinks, like, well, I got to focus more on music. And then I spend time with real musicians trying to work out songs. And one of the reasons I'm playing with these different people is because I wanted more practice time. I wanted to really feel the vibe of playing with people because I don't do it enough. And when we do do it, it's only for, like, a day, couple of rehearsals before the actual performance. And I don't feel like I've fully acclimated to playing with other individuals. I don't feel like I'm good at that or know how to do it that well. And then I play with them, and then, like, you know, I want to have fun, but I'm so hard on myself and ultimately so insecure. It's a nightmare. Not a nightmare. I mean, I did have some fun, but I. I just. I wish I was more proficient. I've been playing a long time. I think I'm good at something. I think I'm good at how I play, but it's just. I'm not. It's. I choke, man. And I'm tired of it. So there goes that hobby in terms of really kind of leaning into it. Yeah, I mean, like, yeah, I'm just gonna. I'm gonna probably do a lot more music. It's like. It's like, oh, my God. Every time I do it, I'm like, jesus, I kind of suck. What the fuck, man? I know. I know these songs that when I sing, I get, like. I choke up. Like, I get nervous or vulnerable or whatever. My throat kind of closes up. I just. Maybe if I keep doing it, I'll let go. I'll let go and I'll ease into it, because I have had moments where I feel like I'm pretty good at it in my own way, which is all that's important. I think I can do it. But Jesus, any creative endeavor, the main thing you're up against is just that wall inside yourself. Geez, man. This is an ad by BetterHelp. And did you know that workplace stress is now one of the top causes of declining mental health? 61% of the global workfor experiences higher than normal levels of stress. Sometimes things slow down in the summer, you get a vacation, or maybe your workplace is relaxed Fridays, or you just get more chances to go outside and unwind. But those are not long term solutions to stress. Something that can help you for the long haul is therapy. And BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform. I take the small steps to manage my stress. I exercise, I take care of errands, I play guitar, which is causing me a little more stress, but that's my problem. But I also see a therapist because it's the. I can maintain a balance when I can't squeeze in the small steps. BetterHelp lets you join a session with a therapist at the click of a button. As the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expertise. WTF? Listeners get 10% off their first [e-mail] WTF. That's betterhelp.com WTF. We are playing some interesting songs. I mean, I kind of teased it. For those of you who are listening to the guitar at the end. I'm going to cover a Taylor Swift song. Maybe I told you that. But it's the one that kind of blew my mind and broke my heart. And I don't want to talk about it too much. Maybe some of you will come and maybe it'll be part of my repertoire. I don't know. But we figured it out. It's four chords, but it's. Yeah, well, I guess I can tell you we're going to cover Bigger than the Whole sky. And, you know, that's the kind of risk I'm taking. I'm not just up there playing some dirty blues, not doing some white guy barroom blues shtick. We're doing. We're doing solid numbers, man. We're doing Buddy Holly, we're doing Velvet Underground. We're doing the Band. All right, there's a Jimmy Reed song in there, but, you know, for the most part, I'm trying to. I'm trying to work a lot of muscles on the music thing, but it makes me very raw. Not raw. It makes me vulnerable. It makes me insecure. I've been in a war against embarrassment. My Entire life. But you know what? You will be humbled. You will be humbled by age, and hopefully at that point, you won't give a anymore. Hopefully. So this observation that Adam had about. Because he brought it up, Adam Pally, about music and comedy, and he was trying to tell me that they were similar, and I stuck by my old kind of rule, which is like, not really. But he was talking about crafting a bid, making it work, taking it out on the road, making it like a song, making it sing, making it, you know, do what it's supposed to do is like. It's like music. And I. And my argument with that is always. But music is magic. And a piece of music can live with you forever and you can return to it. And every time you listen to it, you might have a different experience. It might trigger memories, it might take on a whole new meaning. You might hear things you didn't hear before. You might realize that it doesn't hold what it used to. But either way, it's ethereal. And even bad music, even catchy music, there's nothing more consistent than locking into a song. And jokes just aren't like that. Because he was talking about when you put a joke on a record, I'm like, yeah, but who the fuck listens to a joke more than once or twice? Really? I think with the Internet. Yes, the Internet. I think with YouTube and stuff and everything that's available, you can poke around in the history of everything and find something funny from the old days that you can watch a few times. I've definitely done that. But generally speaking, a joke kind of, you know, it's one and done. My argument is that music can change you and it can change with you. And his argument is that, yeah, but some jokes stay with you forever, and they change the way you think, or they provide you a certain amount of relief in moments that you need it, or they make you look at things in a different way. Or you can tell a joke in relation to something that somebody's talking about or you're talking about, and it kind of heightens that conversation or buttons it or is the last word on it. There's something about jokes that are kind of designed to be the last word on things. That's the nature of a punchline, I guess. But I don't think I'd quite thought about it like that. And that was kind of an exciting little revelation there, that there's so many jokes that represent a way of understanding or have shown me how to understand something or see something in a Different way. I've always felt that that's why I like comedy, but I didn't really put it together that you hold those in your mind or you can go find them again, or you can paraphrase them badly, or you can kind of remember them and they give you that same sort of like, you know, not necessarily an out loud laugh or anything, but that moment that you had with that joke at another time kind of, you know, kind of reignites. So they stay with you in a different way. It's kind of in your mind. And songs can do that too. But when you hear a song outside of you, it's always like, holy shit. When you hear a joke outside of you, it's like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know this one.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

No, it's a good joke. A lot of people are away from home this summer and that's okay. Because vacationers can get the very best in home security from Simplisafe. We've been recommending SimpliSafe since 2016. And now it's even better. Simplisafe stops intruders before they break into your home. Older systems only take action once someone's already inside. That's too late. Simplisafe Active Guard. Outdoor protection stops crime before it even happens. If someone's lurking around or acting suspiciously on your property, the Simplisafe agents see them in real time, talk to them directly, set off your spotlights, and even call the police before anyone has a chance to break in. Hey, pal, what are you doing out there? What are you doing? You have business there on the porch. Plus there are no long term contracts, no cancellation fees, and it's around a dollar a day for all this protection right now. WTF listeners can get the same peace of mind we get by using Simplisafe and we wanted to make sure you can get the best deal possible. WTF listeners get 50% off a new Simplisafe system with professional monitoring. And the first month is free. Go to SimpliSafe.com WTF. That's SimpliSafe.com/WTF for 50% off and the first month free. There's no safe like simply safe. Yes. Yes. I'm going to sing some Taylor Swift. That's something I never thought I'd do in my life. That is something I never thought I'd do. And it's happening. See, See there? There's no, there's no limits, folks. There's no limits to what you can do when you wanna. I'm gonna play a Taylor Swift song so, okay, look, you guys, this guy I'm gonna talk to right now is really, really one of the great actors working today. Totally Alexander Skarsgrd. And this show, this show Murderbot is funny. It's streaming on Apple TV. The season finale premieres this Friday, July 11th. And this is me talking to Alexander Skarsgard. So Sweden, dude.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

You know, Sweden has changed the world with snus. You know that, right?

[Adam Pally]

Have you tried snooze?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Really, dude, I'm on it right now.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Are you?

[Adam Pally]

I mean, well, which one?

[Marc Maron]

Well, Philip Morris, I guess, bought Zinn. So Zinn's like a non tobacco.

[Adam Pally]

The white one.

[Marc Maron]

The white snus.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

But back when I first got into snus, like when I found about, found out about Swedish snus, I had to go on a website. I was ordering all these different kinds from Sweden. They'd come in the, you know, international packaging is very exciting.

[Adam Pally]

General. General.

[Marc Maron]

General, sure. But then there was another one. Oh, I think, man, there were some ones that were so strong. There's general. That's the one that was sort of over here a bit in smoke shops. But there's like 100 different kinds here.

[Adam Pally]

Yeah. And there's one very popular in Sweden. And I think for marketing reasons they should probably change the name because it's called in Swedish. It's. But it's spelled Gothenburg Rape.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. R E, P E. Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

So that, that, that's not, not great marketing. Not great marketing here in the States.

[Marc Maron]

There was one that I was on that was like, you know, had so much nicotine. I just remember it like I'd be sweating. But I, I, I was on the tobacco snooze for a long time. And now this is American product and it's. But it's Swedish in origin.

[Adam Pally]

How many? They have different dots, Right. The levels.

[Marc Maron]

This one's just three, three milligrams. So I get, when you get up to six for me, it's a little sweaty. And then some people are doing 12s and I'm days over.

[Adam Pally]

Three me up.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

I like, I, I was never a snooze. Like I was never a smoker. And I didn't really snooze growing up either.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And then I started to party. Snooze when I was in my 20s.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And I just like put one little guy up.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And when I was just like drinking.

[Marc Maron]

Right.

[Adam Pally]

It would give me a little buzz because I was in, you know, used to nicotine. So I get. Sure.

[Marc Maron]

Oh yeah, of course.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And I Still do occasionally. Like, I'll have a little. A little snooze here and there. But. But those guys, the. Are they stronger, the. The non tobacco nicotine ones?

[Marc Maron]

Because I don't think so. Maybe. Maybe they are. I don't know, because I remember doing, like, some tobacco ones that were like 22 or 21 milligrams, you know, and it was different because these things, like three gets me.

[Adam Pally]

I found. I feel nauseous if I. If I have to leave that in for like 10, 15 with the white snooze. The white snooze.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

But the other one didn't do the same thing.

[Adam Pally]

Not really.

[Marc Maron]

Yeah, I think it might be a little different. Yeah. Because it's just pure nicotine. You don't have to get it out of the leaves.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

It's just this white powder soaked in nicotine. So it's probably a little more efficient in terms of the delivery.

[Adam Pally]

But I didn't know that they. Because I remember, like, years ago, they would. You would have to ship it from Sweden.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Like, to get it out here. And then a couple of delis in New York started selling. And I remember that was a big thing when general, probably. General.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Adam Pally]

I remember, like, Swedish friends in New York, like, was. It was big day when you could actually buy it there. But now I think it's, like everywhere. Right.

[Marc Maron]

Well, these are. The white snooze is now an American phenomenon.

[Adam Pally]

But what about the. Cause I know that Camel started doing like a similar thing, like a tin can that look kind of.

[Marc Maron]

That was. I don't think that's around anymore. That's true. That was a tobacco snooze, but it was an American. But you can't get the. The Swedish brands aren't. You can see them in smoke shops. Sometimes they only have a couple.

[Adam Pally]

Okay.

[Marc Maron]

But not the white snooze. But now there's like 10 different kinds of this white snooze.

[Adam Pally]

But you're not on tobacco at all.

[Marc Maron]

No, no, man. I, you know, I'll have a cigar. I smoked. I used to smoke all the fucking time. It's been a long time. I've been like. I've been on nicotine on and off for most of my life. Sometimes I do the. I thought I had them with me. Now I'm going to panic. What happened to those?

[Adam Pally]

Well, yeah, you had them in your hand just like a minute ago.

[Marc Maron]

I had those. But I also do these nicotine lozenges. God damn it. I'll be all right. I'll get through this. Which are just. They're actually a smoking cessation thing, like a nicotine gum.

[Adam Pally]

Okay.

[Marc Maron]

And they make them. You know, Walgreens makes them. They're like a. Like, they're for. To quit smoking.

[Adam Pally]

Okay.

[Marc Maron]

But they're good. You know, they get the cinnamon ones.

[Adam Pally]

What about the vapor vaping?

[Marc Maron]

No, I don't do no vapes.

[Adam Pally]

No, no.

[Marc Maron]

What the fuck is in vapes? I mean, I'd rather. Whatever. I'm.

[Adam Pally]

Whatever you want.

[Marc Maron]

Yeah, I know it's all kinds of flavors. No. But I don't know what the smoke is. I don't know how it generates. I don't know the chemicals. I'd rather just deal with something kind of in my mouth and going into my stomach than filling my lungs with some sort of weird fake steam.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, yeah.

[Adam Pally]

No, I stay away from those as well.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

A little snooze here and there. That's. That's about it for me.

[Marc Maron]

Right.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

But, like, I love Sweden. I was there for, like, a few days once.

[Adam Pally]

And do you stand up or.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, yeah.

[Marc Maron]

In Stockholm, I went to see that ship that they have preserved. Yeah, it's kind of wild, man.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Because it's sort of like they got to keep it moist.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Like, it's this giant ship that didn't.

[Adam Pally]

Even go anywhere it went. It sunk on its maiden voyage after about five minutes in Stockholm harbor.

[Marc Maron]

But it's not even a Viking ship.

[Adam Pally]

No, no, no. It's like. No, it's from the 1600s.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And it was like the crown jewel of the Swedish Royal Navy.

[Marc Maron]

Right.

[Adam Pally]

It was a big, big thing when they're gonna.

[Marc Maron]

You know, and it just went right down.

[Adam Pally]

It went right down. And then they. Well, they picked it up and it was in the 60s.

[Marc Maron]

They pulled it up.

[Adam Pally]

They pulled it up in the 60s. And now it's a very moist museum.

[Marc Maron]

Yeah, it's so well preserved. It's kind of crazy. The whole thing's eerie. Yeah, I went to a few museums there. I went to some. I saw some of those Viking ships, too.

[Adam Pally]

Yeah, they have the Viking Museum right next to the Vasa Museum.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Not. Not as in good shape.

[Adam Pally]

No. Slightly older as well.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

So did you grow up? And also there's beautiful art museum there right down the street, too. Right, Right on the water there.

[Adam Pally]

Yeah, they got the Modern Museum. At the Modern Museum.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Marc Maron]

That was it.

[Adam Pally]

Well, they know they always have the naturist. And Nordiska, like the one that looks like a big castle almost.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Adam Pally]

That's the Nordic Museum.

[Marc Maron]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I found it to be quite a nice place. Felt very comfor. Comfortable.

[Adam Pally]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Not too stressed.

[Adam Pally]

I just moved back, like two years ago.

[Marc Maron]

Where were you?

[Adam Pally]

I was well out here in LA for many years and then. Well, first New York and then out here and then moved back to New York.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And then about two years ago, I moved back to Stockholm.

[Marc Maron]

Did you grow up there?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

I grew up there, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Wow. So how does it feel to be back?

[Adam Pally]

It feels pretty good.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

I was. I was here for 20 years, but my family were always based in Stockholm. All of them? All of them, yeah.

[Marc Maron]

The acting dynasty.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

The 57 siblings and my parents and everyone was in Stockholm. I was the only one out here. Obviously. My. My dad and my brothers who are actors.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Come out here a lot for work, but everyone was based in Stockholm.

[Marc Maron]

That's crazy that you're. That they're all actors.

[Adam Pally]

Yeah, I mean, we're. I mean, yes, it is crazy. We're not all actors. We have.

[Marc Maron]

How many siblings are there?

[Adam Pally]

I have no idea. We're eight. Six full siblings and then two. Two half brothers on my dad's side.

[Marc Maron]

Six full siblings. And out of them, like, four act.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah. Wow.

[Adam Pally]

That's right.

[Marc Maron]

Four.

[Adam Pally]

And the kids, my brothers, they're teenagers and they're also kind of.

[Marc Maron]

You mean your nephews?

[Adam Pally]

No, no, no, My. My. My. My brothers. My. But the young ones on my dad's side, the teenagers that.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, he's got some young kids.

[Adam Pally]

Yeah, well, they're. Yeah, 12 and 15.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, my God. How old is he?

[Adam Pally]

He's 74.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Keeps doing it.

[Adam Pally]

So I was born in the 70s and dad had kids in the 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s and tens. So over five decades.

[Marc Maron]

So there's really a lot of them.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And more might be popping up down the road.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, no. And all the other kids. You're the oldest one. And then you have. There's four of you, right?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

With.

[Marc Maron]

With. In the first batch. Four or five total.

[Adam Pally]

Six. Total.

[Marc Maron]

Six total. And you're the oldest?

[Adam Pally]

I'm. I'm the oldest. Yeah. And so, yeah, I'm the oldest than Gus, who's an actor. Sam was a doctor. He followed like, moms, Pat. And then Bill, who's an actor.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And our. The one girl, a.

[Marc Maron]

She an actor.

[Adam Pally]

She's not an actor. And then Walter, the young one, also an actor.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Which was the one who played in Nosferatu.

[Adam Pally]

That was Bill.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, yeah.

[Marc Maron]

That's crazy.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

So you both played vampires yeah, we did.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

What did you think of that performance?

[Adam Pally]

It's incredible. And it was also. It was directed by Robert Eggers.

[Marc Maron]

He's the best. I've talked to him.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

I did a movie with him, the Northman, a couple years ago.

[Marc Maron]

That's fucking crazy movie, dude.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

That guy Eggers, a fucking genius.

[Adam Pally]

I adore that guy. He's incredible.

[Marc Maron]

He's like a visionary.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Like, very unique style of type of filmmaking.

[Marc Maron]

It's because, like, the Northman, after I talked to him, he's such a. Like a meticulous about history and about how he wants things to look and about the way he shoots.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

So by the time, like, I finished talking to him, you know, it must have been for the Northman. And I watched that in the theater. That thing is fucking crazy.

[Adam Pally]

Well, it was. It was hard, my friend, because the thing is, like, both the witch and the lighthouse are a bit more contained in terms of the scope. And I'm not going to say character driven, but, like, it revolves. It's a smaller story, smaller cast. The Northman is a epic viking film. And the way that Rob and Jerry and his dp, the way they shoot is very meticulous and very planned and very detailed. And Rob doesn't like cuts, so most scenes are shot as a oner with just one long camera take that he plans six months in advance. Oh, man. But when you have a scene with 40 Berserkers and 300 extras and horses, but to do that as a oner with no cuts is. It's hard. And we all came to realize that it was really. Yeah, it was daunting to get one take.

[Marc Maron]

Could take a week.

[Adam Pally]

Yeah. And also kind of demoralizing sometimes because if you. You do a long. Basically a long fight scene, a big battle scene, and. And everything works. And you, like everyone, all the ever, you know, everyone's just like, yeah, we got it, we got it. And then Jerry and the DP is like this chicken in the background. Like 45 minutes into this long shot. Just flew in the wrong direction or something. Like, then you got to go. It's not like. Because you can't cheat it normally on a normal movie, you'll have like, oh, but, you know, B camera got that. Or we'll just focus on this one little jump or this one stunt.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yes.

[Adam Pally]

But this was like. Well, then you're like, okay, back to one.

[Marc Maron]

And how mad can you get at a chicken?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

You know, poor chicken. So we, you know, ended up doing those long, long fight scenes.

[Marc Maron]

And you can wear an armor.

[Adam Pally]

Yeah. I mean, or naked in the middle of the night, freezing.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, those ones, yeah.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

But it was so. It was hard. But I also knew that going into it because we'd been prepping and planning for the movie for many years, and I obviously knew Rob's style and his way of work, and so it wasn't a surprise to me. It was a very different way of working from what I'm. How I'm normally working on set, so.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

What do you mean?

[Marc Maron]

Like, why?

[Adam Pally]

Well, you know, usually you're a bit more liberated and free and you can move around.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Specific.

[Adam Pally]

No, it's not as specific. And I think that can feel creatively claustrophobic if you're like, wait, I gotta walk up here, turn, hit the light, and then slowly move and the camera will come around. Then you feel like a robot.

[Marc Maron]

Right.

[Adam Pally]

But again, going into it, I knew that that was gonna be. That's Rob's process. So then I was like, well, my job is to try to instill some life, I guess.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And try to make that feel organic in some way.

[Marc Maron]

Wow. So how long was that shoot?

[Adam Pally]

It was seven months during the pandemic, before the vaccine was out. It was one of the first productions. Well, yeah, we weren't. But obviously when we were shooting the film. But, yeah, whenever the camera wasn't rolling, we were masked.

[Marc Maron]

And were they testing every day?

[Adam Pally]

Every day. Because we were kind of like a guinea pig production. Because we were in March, beginning of March, we were in Belfast, where we're going to shoot the film six days from principal photography. And as everything was starting to shut down in Italy, you know, in Milan, all that, like, the hospitals and everything, the chaos out there.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And we were like, are we still starting this film in six days? And we never. We didn't really know. We were just like, okay, well, guess we continue with this prep.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And then finally they pull the plug. So everyone went home for a couple of months, and then we came back in June, end of June, to start. But again, that was one of the first productions to be up and running, so there was no real protocol of how to do this during the pandemic. So it was a little trial and error, I guess, and, like, trying to figure out how to do that.

[Marc Maron]

And on top of it being such a strenuous production.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Fucking crazy it was. But again, like, in a sadistic way, I enjoyed every second of it as well, because I was so excited about working with Rob on that movie and playing that character, and so.

[Marc Maron]

And it looks so good. It looks so good. Like, you know, it's one of these movies where, like, I get excited because a guy like him, like Eggers, you know, you got. You're dealing with, like, a real genius here who has a vision and it's so fucking rare that, like, he's not going to bend to expectation. No, he's gonna make exactly the movie he wants to make.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

And it must be, you know, pretty exciting to work with a guy like that, especially if you trust him.

[Adam Pally]

Oh, very much so.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

And because Nosferatu, that. That fucking movie's great.

[Adam Pally]

Well, he does so much research. Like, it's in just the attention to detail and everything. Like, you know, that we had 400 fittings and he would be like, well, this seam looks a bit more like the 11th century than the 10th century. Can we try this? And the stitching here's a little, like, more.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

You know, 11:45. And that's like a. Or a slightly regional difference.

[Marc Maron]

Who's gonna catch that? Like, who gives a fuck? On some level. But it's in there, you know, And Eggers is like, you know, that stitching's gotta be in there for one nerd. Like, he really nailed the stitch. It was definitely 1100.

[Adam Pally]

But then, you know, like, in a way. And I'm not. I'm too lazy for that kind of preparation. But personally. But there's something about. Because Rob makes 2000 decisions like that with the stitching combined, it will make, I think, like, watching his films, it feels authentic. You may not know that the stitching is perfect, but it is. But it all adds up and gives it richness, and it just feels like you're transported into a different time in a different place.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

So what was it now in terms of the family business?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

I mean, dynasty.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

But I mean, like, do you grow up knowing that you're gonna do that?

[Adam Pally]

No, no, I. I was. My brother Gus always knew from. From a very early age.

[Marc Maron]

Your younger brother?

[Adam Pally]

My younger brother, yeah.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

He.

[Adam Pally]

He always knew. He was like, I'm gonna be a dad. An actor. Like that.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

I was. I went the opposite direction. I was like, no, no, no, this is not for me. I wanted to.

[Marc Maron]

What?

[Adam Pally]

I don't know. I didn't. Not. I didn't want to rebel, but I guess, like, I wanted to. My family is. And was very bohemian. It was all obviously dad and actor, but, like, the extended family was. It was all, like, composers, artists.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Painters, writers, poets.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

That's so funny.

[Adam Pally]

It was a very. In Hindsight, like, incredible household to grow up in because it was like a huge family.

[Marc Maron]

What'd your mom do?

[Adam Pally]

Open. She's a doctor.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Oh, yeah.

[Adam Pally]

But. But she was kind of the only academic out of the bunch.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

So in hindsight, it was again like big open door. Everyone was there, but like everyone lived in the same neighborhood in South Stockholm. So grand grandma and grandpa across the street and cousins above us in the apartment.

[Marc Maron]

They were all like, like artists and weird.

[Adam Pally]

Yeah, a lot of artists and eccentric weirdos.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

But as a 13 year old, I just wanted to be normal. I just wanted to have a normal family. This was like, you know, you're like walking around like dudes walking around in caftans and like reciting poetry. I was like, this is. No. Like, I.

[Marc Maron]

You want a little more control.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

A little less creative chaos.

[Adam Pally]

Well, I mean, I think, I don't think that's very uncommon for a teenager who's trying to figure out.

[Marc Maron]

Sure.

[Adam Pally]

Who. Who he or she is. Like.

[Marc Maron]

Sure.

[Adam Pally]

But it's just a funny normalcy, you know, like you want just like to blend in. You don't want to stick out or like be like.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

You don't want your parents. It's like, I saw your uncle down on the street wearing a hat.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

The other.

[Adam Pally]

Exactly, exactly. Like my dream was to have a dad who wore like a gray suit and drove a Saab 9000 to his office, you know?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Just a little like, you know, it's not all about them.

[Adam Pally]

Exactly. And I think I was very much. Because people kind of assumed that I was gonna become an actor. I did a couple of things when I was young. Like very young. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.

[Marc Maron]

How'd you get dragged in? What? Your dad was like, I got a friend if you're gonna.

[Adam Pally]

No, dad's friend. Alani Adal, who's legendary Swedish actor, director was Infinion Alexander and tons of other fantastic films. He was going to direct the film in the. When I was like 8. And he needed an 8 year old kid for the movie.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And he was over at our house with all the other eccentric artists and he was just like. I guess he saw me in a corner.

[Marc Maron]

I was like, hey, can I have that kid?

[Adam Pally]

Can I have that kid? I need an 8 year old kid. So then, yeah, that's how I kind of ended up doing that. And then like, you know, it wasn't like I was a Hollywood in the Hollywood sense of like a child actor. I didn't have like headshots.

[Marc Maron]

Right, right, right.

[Adam Pally]

I didn't know how to tap dancers.

[Marc Maron]

Like, didn't have a full resume of.

[Adam Pally]

Skills, but it was kind of like that dad's friend would be like, hey, Alex, you want to jump in and do this thing? And I did, you know, here and there until I was 13. And then I kind of stopped and was just like, I'm gonna do something completely different.

[Marc Maron]

And that's when you rebelled. It's so funny. Most people choose acting to rebel.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, yeah.

[Marc Maron]

You're gonna like, what, what did you choose?

[Adam Pally]

My way to engineering. Go buy a gray suit and study engineering.

[Marc Maron]

Did you?

[Adam Pally]

No, no. But I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I studied political science and. And then I went into the military in Sweden, which is, I guess, a way to rebel against my pacifist hippie family.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, yeah.

[Marc Maron]

What's. What were the requirements of the military in Sweden? 1 Do you end up having to do? What branch of the military?

[Adam Pally]

I joined a unit called Sak Yukt, which is technically part of the, the Royal Navy, but we were land based on the small islands in the archipelago outside of Stockholm. And our job was to basically secure, protect the islands from any kind of sabotage or terrorism.

[Marc Maron]

And did you see a lot of action?

[Adam Pally]

Well, it was during the, it was like late 90s, so like the, the, the tail end of the Cold War.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Okay.

[Adam Pally]

When everyone was saying, like, you know.

[Marc Maron]

Russia's going to take over.

[Adam Pally]

No, the opposite. Everyone was just like, all right, we were done with the Cold War. Russia will never again be a threat to anyone. Yeah, there's, you know, it's like eternal peace now. Because I, I didn't join for any like, patriotic reasons or because I love guns or anything like that. I just, again, I think it was.

[Marc Maron]

Just like a uniform.

[Adam Pally]

I was, I just wanted to wear a sexy uniform. I was 19. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I knew that I didn't want to go to drama school. So I was just like, I don't know, I'll do this. And I was walking through this park or square in Stockholm and recruiters were out there handing out pamphlets for this unit and obviously they made it look like super cool, you know, exciting. Yeah, yeah, because you're like, you know, the pictures were all like, you know, you're diving and kayaking in the, on the island and just like, you know, jumping off boats and like helicopters and.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

So for a 19 year old, I was like, all right, that sounds fun.

[Marc Maron]

Did you learn how to scuba dive or anything?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, I did, yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, that's good. So, like, what. But what. Your old man, was he like, what are you doing?

[Adam Pally]

No, no, I think he saw what I was up to.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Because again, he. And again, like, there was also, like. I think it's a bigger decision. Last time Sweden was at war was, like, in 1812, so it's been like.

[Marc Maron]

200 years, so there wasn't a big threat of him.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

So.

[Adam Pally]

And again, this was like late 90s. It was a very stable time in Europe. It was like, you know, it was like the. It was post The. The war in Yugoslavia, and it was just, again, an era of, like, all right, eternal peace now.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

So he knew that it was very. Just kind of like, selfish endeavor for me, just like. Or a way for me to grow up and become independent. So he knew that I wasn't going to get shipped overseas or deployment somewhere.

[Marc Maron]

How long were you in?

[Adam Pally]

A year and a half.

[Marc Maron]

And did you learn anything?

[Adam Pally]

Nothing.

[Marc Maron]

Zero. You learned how to be on an island?

[Adam Pally]

I learned how to, like, fall off a bunch of other dudes, fall off a boat without hurting myself, like, as it's going 40 knots, you know, and so, like.

[Marc Maron]

All right. But your other siblings were there, like, what the fuck are you doing?

[Adam Pally]

I think maybe a little bit.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Again, Gus was very. He was like, already, like, getting ready to go to drama school and was like, why? But they also knew that I was not interested in acting at the time, and I was very adamant about doing something else and just kind of finding my own path. And so I think they weren't that surprised.

[Marc Maron]

Did your dad know Bergman?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Yeah. He worked with him on stage.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, yeah, yeah. So was he one of the people that was around? He.

[Adam Pally]

Nah, not really. They didn't socialize much outside of the theater, but. But yeah, we would. Because dad did repertoire theater when I was a kid. So he rehearsed during the day, perform at night, new plays constantly. And, you know, it's. You spend several hours there.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

So a way to kind of hang out with dad was to go to the theater and hang out there. Because, again, he was there all day.

[Marc Maron]

And then at night watching him repeat things.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

So. And technically, I have worked with Amber Bergman.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Yeah. Because he. I can't which play, remember which play it was. But he directed something with my dad.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And the backdrop was going to be a photo of my dad of three kids. So they. They shot. Took a photo of myself, Gus and Sam.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Dressed up in, like, a sailor outfit.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

That was going to be projected as a backdrop of that Play.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

So.

[Marc Maron]

So it was.

[Adam Pally]

Well, I don't know. You tell me. Can I say that I've worked with Emma Bergman? Like, I was 8 years old. They took a photo of me and it was the backdrop of.

[Marc Maron]

Absolutely.

[Adam Pally]

So I guess I wasn't really directed by him.

[Marc Maron]

No.

[Adam Pally]

I don't even know if he was there when they took the photo.

[Marc Maron]

But it was in the show.

[Adam Pally]

It was in the show. A still photo of me. So I wasn't really on stage, but.

[Marc Maron]

No, I think that counts.

[Adam Pally]

All right. I'm gonna put that on top of my resume right now.

[Marc Maron]

Appeared in an Ingmar Bergman play.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

I did a horror show where, you know, they cut me up into pieces and they did the molds. Right.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

So.

[Marc Maron]

And part of. Part of my head and, like, my arm was hanging in a meat locker, and I got paid for that.

[Adam Pally]

Did you get to keep it?

[Marc Maron]

No, no. If I have a picture of it, I just thought it was funny that. Because it was me that, you know, there's. It's. It's carved out.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

As a paying acting job, just like my head hanging on a meat hook. I was like, that's pretty good gig. But it's similar.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

I got two heads at home.

[Marc Maron]

You do?

[Adam Pally]

On my own. Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

From what?

[Adam Pally]

One from Infinity Pool.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Brandon Cronenberg film. And one from Martabot, the Apple TV plus show.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, the one you're on now.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Marc Maron]

You got ahead from that.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

I don't know what happens. I only watched the ones that were available. They didn't send me the whole. I've seen four of them before. Before we get to that, though, where do you end up training?

[Adam Pally]

Well, after the military, I moved to Leeds in England to just. I don't know what I did there, but. Well, I know exactly what I did, but I didn't study. That was sure.

[Marc Maron]

Like, is that what you were supposed to be doing?

[Adam Pally]

Yeah, I enrolled at a university in Leeds, but it was mostly just, like, going to pubs and.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And while I was out there, I kind of started thinking about acting again. And it was like. And I. I resisted it. I tried to find something else to do, considering a bunch of other things, like, into architecture for a while and.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Considering that. But then I was like, all right. Well, because I did remember, like, having fun when I was young on those jobs.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

When I worked with Ingram Bergman in the Still Work. When I worked with Ingmar Bergman when I was Bergman's muse. I remember being creatively fulfilled as an 8 year old.

[Marc Maron]

That would have a big impact.

[Adam Pally]

Yeah, yeah. No, but I, I remember that, like, I had a. Being on set, I had no creative process. It wasn't anything like pretentious like that. But like, I just remember, like, that sense of camaraderie, family on set was really, like, fun and exciting.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And I was. So I quit when I was 13 partly because I, I did a TV movie in Sweden that got a little bit of attention and that, that freaked me out because people started recognizing. And I was again 13 and I didn't love it. Well, that, no, because I wanted just to blend in. Yeah. The whole point of, like, my bohemian family.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Weirdos.

[Marc Maron]

Now I'm one of them.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Them.

[Adam Pally]

Now I'm one of them.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

So, like, that's, you know, I, I, I, you know, it's a 180 turn and just went in a different direction. But then when I was living in Leeds, I was trying to figure out, like, most people in, I guess when they're 20, 21, like, what do I want to do? And then I remember thinking back, like, well, it wasn't so much about the job itself that I didn't like. It was everything around it. So before I kind of dismiss it for good, maybe I should just go to drama school and just feel it out and see what it's like.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

So I don't end up like 30 years from now being bitter for not trying.

[Marc Maron]

Are you having conversations with your dad about it?

[Adam Pally]

Yeah, because someone had to pay for that drama school and it sure as hell wasn't going to be me. So, So I did have a conversation.

[Marc Maron]

But, like, was he, you know, like, excited or do you feel like, you know, all right, go give it a try.

[Adam Pally]

Or like, I think, no, he's, he's always been.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

And.

[Adam Pally]

He doesn't care about us. He's not excited.

[Marc Maron]

Is that a Swedish thing?

[Adam Pally]

Selfish. No, he. But he's been very. I've kind of admired his approach. He's always been incredibly supportive no matter what we do, like, and what. Or our choices in life. And he just wants eight happy kids.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And he doesn't care if we're. What, you know, what we do and, or if it's a prestigious job or not. Or he's just like, well, do what makes you happy.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, yeah.

[Adam Pally]

If you feel this, then, yeah. So he's been very hands off in his approach to, like, getting us into the industry or keeping us out of the industry. He's always been like, you'll Find your own way.

[Marc Maron]

What about your mom?

[Adam Pally]

Very much the same.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Because they weren't together for most of your life, or.

[Adam Pally]

They were together till I was, well, 30.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Okay. Yeah.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And then they split up, but remain close friends.

[Marc Maron]

Like, is she down the street kind of deal.

[Adam Pally]

Well, to the point where she moved out to our summer home permanently on one of the islands in the archipelago.

[Marc Maron]

That you used to protect.

[Adam Pally]

That I used to protect with my wife. So she's very safe out there? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Good. Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

I was crawling around in the bushes, and then dad and Megan, his wife, we're gonna build a house on the same property just, like 50 yards from mom's house.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And they were all really excited about it, but it was, like, for topographical reasons, they couldn't do it.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Wow, that's pretty.

[Adam Pally]

It was, like, rocky.

[Marc Maron]

And they really are bohemians.

[Adam Pally]

Yeah. But then they ended up buying a cottage, like, 100 yards down the. Down the road, Your dad did.

[Marc Maron]

And his new wife.

[Adam Pally]

So. So they're on the same island where, like. Yeah, they're very. You know. And we go on vacation.

[Marc Maron]

Wild. It's a nice story. And did she remarry?

[Adam Pally]

No, no, she didn't.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

But.

[Adam Pally]

But they. Yeah, I'm very fortunate. They all remained friends. Very civilized in a way. But she was also very. Yeah. Kind of hands off. And again, like, the approach was like, we're here if you need us, and. But. But find your own way.

[Marc Maron]

It's also good that, like, you didn't have this, because it seems like I meet people who, like. Who act, and they have a very sort of reasonable approach. Like, they like working. They do the work, and they're not, like, you know, hung up on, you know, necessarily doing the right thing all the time.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Do you feel that way, like, when you were starting out, you're just working?

[Adam Pally]

Well, when I was starting out, so what I did was basically from Leeds, I applied to a theater school in New York, a college.

[Marc Maron]

Which one?

[Adam Pally]

Marymount, Manhattan.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Okay. Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

So that's when. Yeah. I was. I was like, dad, I'm gonna try this now if you're cool with it.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Can you pay my tuition?

[Marc Maron]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And so I moved from Leeds to New York.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And it was incredible. And then I dropped out.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah. How long?

[Adam Pally]

I lasted about four days.

[Marc Maron]

Four days?

[Adam Pally]

No, I didn't. No, it was six months.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Okay.

[Marc Maron]

At the acting school.

[Adam Pally]

At the acting school.

[Marc Maron]

And he bailed.

[Adam Pally]

A bail?

[Marc Maron]

Why?

[Adam Pally]

A girl.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Oh, yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Where was she?

[Adam Pally]

Stockholm.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, my God.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

So then you go back Home.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

I mean it. So I met a girl three weeks before moving to New York. So I was home and I was in Sweden over the summer between Leeds and.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And New York and fell in love with her. And this was like, you know, in the 1900s.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

So this was. Communication was tougher. Yeah, sure. Plus, I didn't have money to like fly home over Thanksgiving or anything like that. It was like, you know, so I.

[Marc Maron]

Was in New York. Phones and. And snail mail.

[Adam Pally]

Pretty much.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Like, we would. I would call from. I couldn't afford calling from the cell phones. I would go down to like a phone booth.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, yeah.

[Marc Maron]

And we had some like, international phone booths.

[Adam Pally]

Yeah, it's like an international phone booth because it was cheaper.

[Marc Maron]

Buy a card.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And call likes. We talked once a week, but then.

[Marc Maron]

Don'T know what's going on. Once a week.

[Adam Pally]

I think she went back to her ex boyfriend during that time.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, yeah.

[Marc Maron]

And you went back to. Save it. You went back to.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Make your stand.

[Adam Pally]

I don't blame her because again, like, I was. I was going to be there for four years.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

So that kind of broke my heart a little bit. And then the school was fantastic. I really liked. It had nothing to do with the school. And I was. I really felt excited about, like being in that kind of creative environment and doing plays with. With the other students and.

[Marc Maron]

But you went back heartbroken and you got your ass handed to you.

[Adam Pally]

I went. I was like, you know what, I gotta go back and salvage this because she's the one.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

I've known her for three weeks, but I was like, this is.

[Marc Maron]

It felt good.

[Adam Pally]

Sorry, guys. Yeah, so I went back to Sweden and then, yeah, we got back together.

[Marc Maron]

Oh. So it worked out for two weeks and you'd already dropped out of school.

[Adam Pally]

I'd already dropped out of school. Went back, we reunited and it didn't last very long. But then I was in Stockholm and I'd already dropped out. So then I kind of started working. Started working? Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

You had a few chops. You did six months solid drama school work?

[Adam Pally]

Well, I felt like I've learned everything I need to know.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Did you?

[Adam Pally]

No, no.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

God no.

[Adam Pally]

Yeah, so then I started doing, like, odd jobs in Stockholm. I was working in a coffee shop and a clothing store. Not acting busboy. No, just doing like, odd jobs.

[Marc Maron]

So when do you, like, when do you make your break?

[Adam Pally]

Couple of years later. I didn't really have a big break, but I started getting, like, small parts in Swedish films. Swedish films?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Television, smaller things.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And then I was out here in L. A. Dad was shooting something. I was on vacation. I think it was in 2000.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And his manager knew that I had just started in Sweden doing like the little, you know, smaller job. So, like, I was definitely not like a star in Sweden, but I was like a young working actor, occasionally working actor. And she asked if I wanted to go to an audition and it was for Zoolander, Ben Stiller, comedy, to play one of his roommates. And it's like only two, three scenes, but. But yeah, I did and I ended up getting the job. And.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Which was obviously surreal and kind of.

[Marc Maron]

A dream funny movie.

[Adam Pally]

It was incredible. It was incredible. And again, like I was a kid on vacation here, didn't have representation or anything, and then ended up getting that.

[Marc Maron]

Well, you kind of fit. They needed the. It's almost exotic. It made sense, right?

[Adam Pally]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Swedish guy.

[Adam Pally]

Well, yeah, exactly. Because there was going to be three roommates. It was going to be like one of those, like, we live together, but like models from around different parts of the world. Right.

[Marc Maron]

I remember. I remember it was Owen too, right?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, yeah.

[Marc Maron]

I just did a show with him. He's a funny guy.

[Adam Pally]

Oh, did you. I didn't get to work with him, unfortunately.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, yeah. Because he was the competition.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Adam Pally]

I think I auditioned for that role.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

I think the first audition was.

[Marc Maron]

Yeah. Was for Hansel.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And obviously didn't get that. But then they called me back to do audition for one of the roommates.

[Marc Maron]

Well, that's. What's the funny thing about you is, like, you know, even on the. This Murderbot show, and I'm not like, I'm. I'm not. Comedy isn't. You know, it's rare that I like them do, you know, because a lot of them are not great.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

But this one is pretty funny. Like, it's funny. Murderbot is funny.

[Adam Pally]

I was excited when I read it. I thought it was like a funny character. Very funny. It wasn't what I expected when I heard the title, like, oh, sci fi called Murderbot. I was expecting something way more kind of classic tough guy protagonist, and then instead it's like this socially awkward.

[Marc Maron]

Socially awkward guy who's kind of half trying to learn how to be human from watching old science fiction TV shows.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, yeah.

[Adam Pally]

No, I found it quite endearing and that's kind of what drew me to it.

[Marc Maron]

But it's a real comedy. I mean, it's not like. Cause I didn't know what I was getting into Murderbot. It's like a satire of a sci fi thing.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

In a mix of that and like, workplace comedy.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Like, it's just so funny that, like, once again, you know, as this guy. As Murderbot, as a security robot who has overridden his main panel.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

And then you're surrounded by bohemians again.

[Adam Pally]

Exactly.

[Marc Maron]

Again, like, you're in the one sort of interstellar exploratory crew that's just a.

[Adam Pally]

Bunch of bohemians who just like, tactile, want to hug me. And like, it's just like. And it freaks Murderbot out because it's not used to that kind of treatment.

[Marc Maron]

How many episodes are there?

[Adam Pally]

10.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, see, like, because I'm just at the end of four where, you know, you've pulled the thing off the back of your neck, but you're already wired to kill.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

So I have no idea what happens. I imagine you learn how to become a human kind of.

[Adam Pally]

Well, it's. It's again, Murderbot is. Finds itself and surrounded by these press ox people that are very like. Like space hippies.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And they treat space hippies and it's freaks murder. In a way. It's like. Like you mentioned, Murderbot has hacked its governor module. So it's. It's gained free will, economy. But. And it calls itself Murderbot and it has all these plans about. Of going out into like a distant galaxy and go on these epic adventures. But then it's kind of like waiting for the right moment to take off.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And starts to kind of procrastinate and watch a space soap opera.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And. But while it's doing that, it's kind of reluctantly forming relationships with these humans around it. And. Yeah, like you mentioned a way to learn about. Because it's. It's an Android, so it's like it has organic components.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

But a way to learn about who it is is by watching this space soap opera.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Because then it's like. Yeah, it feels safe to watch that and learn about, like, as an anthropological study because then you can pause whenever you want.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

It's way more uncomfortable when you actually, like, have to deal with a human yourself.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

But.

[Adam Pally]

Yeah. So over the course of these 10 episodes, it's like they get thrown into a lot of crazy stuff, but Murdabot is just constantly trying to kind of distance itself from them emotionally. But then obviously it's hard and it starts to kind of care about them in a way.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Yeah, it's very funny because the space soap opera is so over the top.

[Adam Pally]

Oh, that was a dream. It was a dream. And my buddy. Do you know Jack McBr?

[Marc Maron]

I. I've never. I met him once. I've never interviewed him.

[Adam Pally]

So. Jack is an. An old friend of mine.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, he is?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

How do you know that guy?

[Adam Pally]

He did a show movie called. I want to say movie 42.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

My girlfriend, 15, 14 years ago.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Was doing a show with Jack.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

One of the skits for that movie, it was like. The movie was like a bunch of short films, basically.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And another buddy of mine, actually, from. From back home in Stockholm, had written that sketch.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, okay.

[Adam Pally]

So. And they were shooting in New York and, you know, my old childhood friend wrote it and my girlfriend was in it.

[Marc Maron]

So you met him then?

[Adam Pally]

I went to set and just fell in love with Jack. So I lost a girlfriend, but I gained a Jack.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

There you go. Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

That's probably a longer relationship to gain a Jack.

[Adam Pally]

It is. It's a lifetime.

[Marc Maron]

He's a funny guy, right?

[Adam Pally]

Oh, he's incredible. So he was kind enough to come up. We shot it in Toronto, so he came up to play one of the crew members there.

[Marc Maron]

It's so funny because you got this range where, like, I can tell you really like doing comedy.

[Adam Pally]

I loved. Was also kind of. When it landed in my lap, I think it was totally something I was so ready for and excited to do because I'd done the Northman that we just talked about.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And he had Succession and also, like, Infinity Pool, which was also quite intense and dark.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

I mean, Succession was definitely more comedic. But I think after the Northman and Infinity Pool, two great experiences, but, you know, pretty intense, dark subject matter.

[Marc Maron]

Sure.

[Adam Pally]

This felt just like a little palate cleanser. Yeah. I just wanted to do something a bit lighter and.

[Marc Maron]

But it's crazy how you came up, though. I mean, you were in these, like, that Generation Kill thing. I mean, that was kind of this big, menacing, kind of real historical war thing, right?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

How'd you get cast in that?

[Adam Pally]

I got lucky, man.

[Marc Maron]

But I mean, like, you gotta be real American to do that thing.

[Adam Pally]

Well, it was. The thing was, they. I'd been out here, so after Zoolander, I. Because Zulnet was my first audition.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Out here.

[Marc Maron]

And you just stayed here?

[Adam Pally]

Well, I went back to Sweden because I was doing a play in Stockholm, so I went back. But I remember going back and telling. And then after Zoolander, I. Because, again, I didn't have representation. I didn't have an agent.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

When we did that. But then after That I got an agent.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And she said, well, if you. You know, when you're done with the place, you come out here.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And I. Because I was like. I'd done one audition, I booked the job. I remember coming in. Sweet. I was like, it's easy in Hollywood. So you just, like, roll up and Ben Stiller's in the room, and then, you know, you book the job.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

So I came back here very naive.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And. And then I didn't book a job for. Till 2007.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, my God.

[Adam Pally]

I was here auditioning for a lot. A lot of. Really?

[Marc Maron]

How many years is that?

[Adam Pally]

Six years.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, my God.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

I mean, I went back and forth. I was in Sweden a little bit, and then I would do these, like, smaller things in Sweden to try to save up a little bit of money. Come out here, rent an apartment somewhere, and do all these, like, pilot seasons.

[Marc Maron]

And audition for everything. Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Did the whole thing. And then when Generation Kill came up, because I found that often anything that I got excited about, in the end, they would always hire someone who was a bit more established. But when this came up, they wanted not unknown actors, but quite. Most of the guys. It's about a platoon of Marines during the first five weeks of the invasion of Iraq. And they intentionally wanted a lot of unknown faces because it's like their style of shooting was also kind of documentarian.

[Marc Maron]

Right. And it was good to create an ensemble that wasn't distracted by stars.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And it was a bunch of young guys, and they so had been out here and was slightly disillusioned, and I was, like, auditioning for everything. And then that came up, and it was just so phenomenal. The writing was just so good. And I was like, there's no way I'm gonna get this. Because it was, like, a great role in a great piece by David Simon and Ed Burns. And. But then. Yeah. And it was like, a grueling month of auditions, callbacks. I was in London auditioning for the director. I was in New York. I went down to Baltimore because they were shooting. Shooting the Wire at the time. Audition there. And then it was one of those where it's like. It's between you and another guy, and I'm like, oh, God. And then four days of just, like, waiting for that phone call. And it was again, like, at the time, I hadn't basically worked in six years, and I was going to go back home to Sweden to, like, unemployment, and it was either going to need that or, like, go to Namibia and do your dream Job for seven months. Like, with. With. With incredibly talented people. And then. And then I got a call for. After four days.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And then. And they're like, it's between you and two other guys now.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, Christ.

[Adam Pally]

I was like, what? It was just me and it was down to me and one. One other guy. And now it's like a third guy comes in.

[Marc Maron]

You're freaking out.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Then I was like, oh, now some, like, established dude is coming in. And like, I'll take that one, thank you very much. And then I think it was four rounds of more callbacks. I went down out here to LA for another callback and then up to New York.

[Marc Maron]

Are you. Are they reading you with the other guys that are already cast and that kind of shit?

[Adam Pally]

No, no.

[Marc Maron]

Just you?

[Adam Pally]

Yeah, just me.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, wow.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Did you know how to, like. Were you still speaking with Swedish accent?

[Adam Pally]

Not really. I mean, because I'd spend quite a. I also went to. When I was 13, we lived in. In Budapest, in Hungary.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

My dad was shooting a movie there, so I went to an American school there. Okay, so handle on it a little bit. But still, like, they knew that I was Swedish. And I think some studio people were probably a bit like, well, yeah, it's a very American role. So like. Or is this kid. Yeah, the Swedish kid. Is he right?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

But I didn't think I was going to get it. And then. And then they call and then they're like, all right, well, you're flying to Namibia tomorrow. Wow.

[Marc Maron]

And then how long were you there?

[Adam Pally]

Seven. We were there for seven months. We were started in Namibia and then northern South Africa and then we ended in Maputo. And I was so certain that I was gonna get fired.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Replaced. Because it was. It was. You know, to this day, it's like one of the best scripts I've ever worked on.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

It was so good.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And I was like, there's no way I get to play Iceman in this. In this. On this show. Like, it's. Of course they're going to bring in like a big, you know, someone established.

[Marc Maron]

Like, you were there already. You still thought you're going to lose your gig.

[Adam Pally]

Not. It took me three months. So, like, I would. I would calculate how much it would cost HBO to replace me as.

[Marc Maron]

As it kept going on, because I.

[Adam Pally]

Knew that they were going to replace me. I was like, they are definitely going to be bring in, you know, the real actor.

[Marc Maron]

Yeah, right.

[Adam Pally]

It's like the real guys do this. So the first couple of weeks, I was just Waiting for. For someone to come knock on my trailer door. You can pack up and go. And then we did a couple of big battle scenes that I knew would cost a lot of money to reshoot. So I think we were, like, probably two months into production when I started, like, calming down a bit and be like, you know what? I think right now at this point, it's crazy expensive to replace me, so maybe I get to finish this. You.

[Marc Maron]

So you were able to enjoy it for at least a month or two.

[Adam Pally]

I was still really nervous and really stressed about everything. It was an incredible group of guys, and again, like, creatively super fun. But I was. I did enjoy it, but I never really relaxed. Even though I didn't think they're going to replace me, I was still a bit stressed out about the whole situation.

[Marc Maron]

That's probably good. You were in a war.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Maybe they added something.

[Marc Maron]

But then, like. And then the huge break was the vampire thing, Right?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

And that was after.

[Adam Pally]

Well, it kind of coincided, and I wasn't gonna be able to do it initially.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Because True Blood. True Blood, Yeah. So I had auditioned for Bill, the other vampire in the love triangle, a year before this.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And didn't hear back, which I never did after any audition. I was like, all right, that's another one that I don't have to think.

[Marc Maron]

About, you know, worst.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And. And then they call me when I'm in Maputo shooting, like, the. We're, like, five months into Generation Kill, and they're like, well, we are now shooting. And they'd shot the pilot already because Eric Northman doesn't show up till episode four.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

So they're like. So you remember that show True Blood, that you auditioned for a year ago? They are in production, and there's another role that they want to see you for, and it's like this Viking vampire. That's me. But they were supposed to go in the fall of 2007, and I had two months left on Generation Kill, so I wasn't going to be able to do it. And then the writer strike happened.

[Marc Maron]

Ah.

[Adam Pally]

And. And we. Because we were in production, we already had all the script, we could finish shooting. But True Blood ended up pushing.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Right.

[Adam Pally]

2008.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Which enabled me to finish Generation Kill, come back to la, audition for True Blood.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And so thank you, all you writers out there, for striking for me.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

I know you did it just for me.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

It was fortuitous.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

I hope you got what you wanted in the strike. But you gave me a big opportunity. Because that was fucking huge, man. That's a lot of episodes.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

I mean, you were. What were you employed for four or five years?

[Adam Pally]

We did seven seasons.

[Marc Maron]

That's crazy.

[Adam Pally]

Yeah, but it was, it was, it was a really nice job because it was also like, we shot it here in L. A and I lived in LA at the time. And the best it was. The stuff I got to do on the show was just so fun and crazy and over the top. It never felt like procedural. It wasn't. It didn't feel repetitive. It was just like, what am I doing today? I'm ripping a heart out of a guy's chest and I'm drinking his blood through the aorta. You know that.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, it's a lot of.

[Marc Maron]

That sounds like a fun day.

[Adam Pally]

It was, it was so much fun. And we had about five, six months off every year, so I could go off and do a movie or go see my family in Sweden. And like, so it really was. You know, in hindsight, when you hear seven years, I don't know how many episodes with like 80, 90 episodes, like, it's a lot. But I loved it.

[Marc Maron]

Yeah, it was a huge show. And now you've got like, you know, all of the sort of young vampire freaks.

[Adam Pally]

Yeah. When we started out, it was before Twilight had come out. So it was like. Yeah, it was kind of before the, the vampire craze, you know, so it was a bit like. Well, like, I obviously knew that Alan Ball was very talented.

[Marc Maron]

Sure, Six Feet under and American Beauty.

[Adam Pally]

But I was still a bit like this long haired Viking vampire. Are people gonna like. Like this? I don't care about this.

[Marc Maron]

But didn't it like put you on the map?

[Adam Pally]

Yeah, I mean, it definitely hit the zeitgeist in a way that.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

I mean, Generation Kill was limited series and sure.

[Marc Maron]

But when do you become this like, global sex symbol from the.

[Adam Pally]

I would say I was probably born a global sex symbol, my friend.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

I noticed a difference when season two of True Blood started, because the first season I. I had this, like. Because in the books, it's a book series that it's based on. Eric has long blonde hair.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Like a Viking mane. Like a Viking Fabio.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

So I wore a wig the first season. So I never got recognized after the first season.

[Marc Maron]

Right.

[Adam Pally]

And it was also like a kind of a smaller, more antagonistic character the first season. And then the second season, it's my own hair. We cut the wig and. And yeah, so I remember it was like when season two started airing, that's.

[Marc Maron]

When I started to get the attention.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, yeah.

[Marc Maron]

It all had to do with your own hair. That was the big change.

[Adam Pally]

These beautiful locks. Yeah, golden locks.

[Marc Maron]

But it's wild, though. You've had. It's like to be somebody who is. You're seen that way, yet still have a career where you're like a character actor in a lot of ways, which I've said to actors before, and they take that offensive. But I don't mean it that way. But to go from that and still be able to kind of lose yourself in roles that don't require you just to be like some hunk.

[Adam Pally]

Yeah, but where's the fun in just playing the hunk over and over again?

[Marc Maron]

I agree, but I think that's, like. The interesting thing about you is that you can do all these different things and you didn't let yourself be kind of, you know, put in a box.

[Adam Pally]

But I think I was just. When I. After all those years of not being in a position where I had the privilege of choosing projects, I would just be like, all right, I gotta audition for this jock boyfriend number four in this movie. And I did it. I was like, I just want to work. I need to find a job. So when I, several years later, got to a place where I had options where I could choose to play the jock or boyfriend number four or something weird a bit weirder or psychologically more interesting, then of course I'm gonna gravitate towards that, you know.

[Marc Maron]

So in entering these roles, I mean, did you do any other acting training outside of the six months at.

[Adam Pally]

No, but I mentioned that I worked with Ingmar Bergman.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Right. Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

So I have that, you know, but.

[Marc Maron]

You just sort of picked it up. You just put your own craft together and put your own shit together on your own from working.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Igmer said, you're ready to fly, my friend. Yeah, yeah, go soar.

[Marc Maron]

And he rolled up the picture of you and he gave it to you. Never forget this work we did together.

[Adam Pally]

No, I didn't. It was just those six months at Marymount Manhattan. And then when I was out here and not getting any jobs, I would go sit in at the Actors Studio in West Hollywood.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Oh, really?

[Adam Pally]

And. And just. Yeah, do a little stuff. Some. Some work there and stuff.

[Marc Maron]

Did that have an impact?

[Adam Pally]

It did, yeah, it did. I was just soaking it all in. And then I got to. Then when they had the. The writers of. From Actor Studio, they would, you know, do little scene work for. For when. As they were writing. Then I got to participate and be in those scenes. As the writers. And then, like, they would get notes from the other writers and then they go home and rewrite stuff.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

A little place. And so I was never like a member, but. But I. They were kind enough to let.

[Marc Maron]

You were around.

[Adam Pally]

I was like a hang around.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

And they knew you were. You were doing things.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah, kind of.

[Adam Pally]

Well, they knew I did nothing because I had all the time in the world. I was there a lot. But it was. It was really. I was inspired by it for sure. Because, like, going to all these auditions for projects that I didn't really believe in anyways, but doing it because I just had to audition sure was a bit soul crushing sometimes. So this was. It was really nice to go and sit there and just watch great actors do scene work or do the acting do. Yeah. And just like through osmosis, just, like, feel that even though I wasn't a central part of it.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Well, I mean, I think that the audition process is humiliating. And a lot of times it's like two lines that you're, like, trying to get.

[Adam Pally]

Yeah. But it's. It's hard. It's really hard when you know that you're not right for the role.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Because you're just like. You're volunteering to go get humiliated.

[Adam Pally]

But you're also in a position where you like, I haven't had an audition and audition in three months. It wouldn't be that long. But, like, it's been several weeks of nothing. And now my agent, that I'm worried, constantly worried that she's going to fire me.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Or drop me, you know.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Calls me, is like, all right, I have this audition for you. And then you read the material and you don't like it.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And you're completely wrong for the role.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

But you're in no position to be like, you know what? I don't respond to this, so I'm not gonna deal. Because then I'm like, she's gonna drop me tomorrow. You know, like, I'm not booking any job.

[Marc Maron]

I guess it toughens you up.

[Adam Pally]

But then that. That's hard because you step into the room and you don't believe in yourself in this. And then. But you're like, I gotta do this.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

So. So.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Then it was nice to have to.

[Marc Maron]

Be able to drop in the actor studio, watch people pursuing the truth, and.

[Adam Pally]

Hang out with my best friend, Martin Landau.

[Marc Maron]

Martin Landau, the guy. I interviewed him years ago.

[Adam Pally]

Did you?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Well, you know, it's great because there's none of those old cats around anymore.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

No.

[Marc Maron]

You know, that really kind of believed in the thing.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

And the Actors Studio was a real thing.

[Adam Pally]

It was really. Did you ever go there? No, no, but it was really. And I was inspired by it.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

But when you did Big Little Lies, it's interesting that you have this image and then you get to be that guy who's still the good looking guy, but to be a monster.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

I assume that some of these roles you're sort of like, well, now this will put to rest that other thing.

[Adam Pally]

Well, that was just such an incredible character. So that. And again, to explore that relationship with Nicole Kidman. Come on. What a dream. You know, because he was also not just a monster.

[Marc Maron]

Right.

[Adam Pally]

It didn't feel like a cartoonish villain.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

No, no, no.

[Adam Pally]

Because it was, you know, a character who had a lot of love for his sons and a lot of love for his wife as well. And just there's an incredible deep darkness there, but there's also light and playfulness. And so there was a complexity there that was just like, just extraordinary.

[Marc Maron]

It was a monster role, man. I mean, in terms of, like, what was available to explore and play well.

[Adam Pally]

And I felt I don't want to be lazy, but, Yeah, I guess be lazy through it because I didn't really have to work that hard. It was so well written. And Jean Marc Vallee, the late Jean Marc who directed it, was just extraordinary to work with and again, to kind of work on such fantastic material with someone like him and Nicole Kidman was just like. I mean, it was soul crushing at times because again, it was really, really dark and intense. But I didn't really. It was when you could have writing and collaborators that are so extraordinary, it makes it quite easy.

[Marc Maron]

Yeah, I get. Well, yeah. Because you don't have to worry about that.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

No.

[Marc Maron]

You know, everything's in place for you to just do the thing.

[Adam Pally]

And I just. From reading it, I could see who the character was, and I was intrigued by him.

[Marc Maron]

And that's awesome.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

So what happens now, like, after you do this? Are you gonna do. You got a movie in the Hopper?

[Adam Pally]

Well, this is like the tail end of. I've been bouncing around these past two months promoting. Promotion for Murderbot. And then this movie called Pillion we went to Cannes with.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, you're just in Cannes?

[Adam Pally]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, that. That did well, right?

[Adam Pally]

Yeah, it's a. It's a little kinky gay biker movie.

[Marc Maron]

Yeah. I think I saw some real of you with Pedro. Did you, like, hug him or something?

[Adam Pally]

Yeah, yeah, I gave him a sloppy Kiss.

[Marc Maron]

Yeah.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

He's better as a friend and he was at our premiere. Yeah, it was. It was an extraordinary experience.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

The only time I've had a film at Cannes was. Was it 2012, maybe with melancholia, Larson, Trier.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And I was shooting True Blood at the time.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

Here in la. So I couldn't go.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

So this, this was the first time I was there with a film.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, that's exciting.

[Adam Pally]

It was extraordinary. And. And also like, I was there with a film that I. Actors always say that they love their project, but like this is. Was a special one because it was also like a first time, very young, first time filmmaker. We did it on a shoestring budget. No one got paid, but it was just like an incredible experience.

[Marc Maron]

What was it about?

[Adam Pally]

It's Sub Dom story set in the world of gay bikers.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Oh, wow.

[Adam Pally]

So I play a biker who takes on a submissive. So it's like a. An, I guess a love story. Yeah, but yeah, and it's. It's about basically their relationship.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, wow. I didn't know there was a gay biker community.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Adam Pally]

We have a bunch of GB mcc. Gay biker motorcycle club in England. They are. So the other bikers are members of gbmcc.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Oh, okay.

[Adam Pally]

Yeah, so it was. And they came down to Cannes as well. So they were there.

[Marc Maron]

That must have been a party.

[Adam Pally]

It was one of the best nights of my life, like to have them there. One guy in a pup mask. Yeah, it, you know, on the red carpet can. And then just to celebrate with. It was a phenomenal night.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, that's exciting.

[Adam Pally]

Yeah, I. I love that little film. So. But. But we're not. That was. It's not coming out anytime soon. So I'm not on.

[Marc Maron]

No, I get it.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

So like it's.

[Marc Maron]

But the experience was great.

[Adam Pally]

The experience was great. And then we'll see when they. It's 8:24. So. Yeah, it might be end of the year or maybe.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

But just because Khan looks like. It looks like a very. You know, it's the thing. It's like the prestige. It's Khan, right.

[Adam Pally]

It's Cannes or Con.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

I don't know what they call it.

[Marc Maron]

No, it can. Yeah, the can. I don't know why I always mispronounce words my entire life. Can. It's can.

[Adam Pally]

I don't think you're there or not. No. I've heard a lot of people say con.

[Marc Maron]

Okay. Yeah, I like can.

[Adam Pally]

I wasn't trying to correct you. I'm sorry if you came across as that.

[Marc Maron]

No, I get what you're doing.

[Adam Pally]

Just because I'm European, I'm trying to be like, no, no, sir. It's calm. Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

But it always looks like that you've, like, arrived at something important.

[Adam Pally]

Yeah. I mean, it definitely feels, like, incredible to be at the most prestigious film festival in the world.

[Marc Maron]

That's it.

[Adam Pally]

With a kinky gay biker movie, at least.

[Marc Maron]

Well, I'm looking forward to seeing that. It was good talking to you, pal.

[Adam Pally]

I really enjoyed this.

[Marc Maron]

Yeah.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

And congratulations on your retirement from.

[Marc Maron]

Well, we're gonna. This show is coming to an end, and it's been a long time. I'm not retiring, but I think you are.

[Adam Pally]

I think you are.

[Marc Maron]

You're really. Am I out? Is it time. Time to just.

[Adam Pally]

I'm here to tell you that it's done.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

You're done.

[Adam Pally]

It's over.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

I'm doing. Doing other stuff.

[Adam Pally]

Of course you are, but congratulations. Thank you. 16 years, right?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Adam Pally]

How many guests?

[Marc Maron]

Well, there's been, like, over 1600 episodes, so.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah. Wow.

[Marc Maron]

There's been a lot of guests, dude. Like, it's. It's at the point now where I'm not sure who's been on, who hasn't.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Like, I always think, like, oh, I know you haven't, because you're here.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

But a lot of times, like, did I interview him?

[Adam Pally]

Did I. Like.

[Marc Maron]

Because Martin Landa, that's a great example of.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Who would know that I did that? But I. I got him, you know, and he was very lucid. And as I became more interested in acting, I was able to talk to all these people. Like, I have master classes.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Like, I had Pacino in here, I had Landau in here.

[Adam Pally]

Alexander Skarsgard. All the big ones.

[Marc Maron]

Yeah, you. Then the Skarsgard. Not the Skarsgard. That guy.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Oh.

[Adam Pally]

Everyone thinks we're brothers.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

You're not. What's his first name?

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Peter. Peter. Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

He's great.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

But, you know, I can pick brains. Paul Dano was in here, and he's pretty good. A lot of big actors who I talk to.

[Adam Pally]

But not to be presumptuous, but the timing of it all, like, when we confirmed this, that I was going to be on your show, the next day you announced that the show's coming to an end.

[Marc Maron]

Who else is there to talk to?

[Adam Pally]

I mean, it might be a bit presumptuous, but was it, like, 1600 episodes of leading towards finally getting me on the show? And then you were like, now that I have the pinnacle of my career.

[Marc Maron]

We've been talking about it since. Since you were in Zoolander. You know, we're like, if we ever do a podcast when they're invented, we got to get this guy on.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

So finally, we. Our mission is complete.

[Adam Pally]

Well, Mark, you're welcome.

[Marc Maron]

Really appreciate it, Alex, and best of.

[Adam Pally]

Luck with your retirement.

[Marc Maron]

Thank you. There you go. The season finale of Murderbot premieres this Friday, July 11, on Apple TV. Plus, hang out for a minute, folks. For you full Marin subscribers, you can hear me and Chris and Brendan on last Friday's bonus episode, Talk to a real deal Mount Everest climber. It's AEW wrestler Darby Allen, who made it to the highest point on earth last month.

[Darby Allen]

A lot of people say it's not about summoning Mount Everest. It's about conquering, like, yourself and your inside and pulling stuff out.

[Marc Maron]

So. Okay.

[Adam Pally]

All right.

[Marc Maron]

Well, I got some questions then. What? Let's start with the dead people. Now, how many dead people did you walk by?

[Darby Allen]

I. I believe there was, like, a total of eight. But, you know, the crazy thing is when I went up and then I instantly. When I did the summit, I was coming back down. You see all these new dead bodies that you didn't see within the last 12 hours that were.

[Marc Maron]

That just got there?

[Darby Allen]

Yeah. Like, new ones that died. Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

People just dropping dead up there, like, every day.

[Darby Allen]

Oh, I don't know about every day, but it was literally. I went up. I. When I did the summit, and then I was coming down, all of a sudden, you see a new dead body that wasn't there on the trail 12 hours ago.

[Marc Maron]

Different jacket.

[Darby Allen]

It was. It was pretty crazy because then you start thinking about your own situation, and obviously, they don't go there with the death wish. They go there thinking, oh, like, I'm gonna do this mountain. And then it just doesn't work out. And it just, like, you're like, oh, my God.

[Alexander Skarsgard]

Did.

[Darby Allen]

How are the Sherpas? They just, like, leave. It's just like, a whole thing.

[Marc Maron]

Yeah. I don't know what. I don't know why they leave there, but maybe the guy's like, you know, I'm gonna climb this mountain if it's the last thing I do. And it turns out it was. Yeah.

[Darby Allen]

There is a thing called summit fever where people just don't know when to turn around. And I felt that. I felt that 100%.

[Marc Maron]

We'll have some more of that talk on this Thursday's WTF Episode. But full Marin subscribers can hear the whole thing right now. To sign up, go to the link in the episode description or go to wtfpod.com and click on WTF Plus. And a reminder before we go this podcast is hosted by Acast, Boomer Lives Monkey and La Fonda Cat Angels Everywhere.