Alexander Skarsgård brought an added edge to his latest red carpet outing.
Skarsgård, 49, stepped out at the BFI London Film Festival premiere of his movie Pillion on Saturday, October 18, showing off his rather impressive physique.
Skarsgård donned a sleeveless, halter-style button-down that flaunted his toned biceps, which he wore with a pair of fitted leather pants. The actor completed his look with a matching leather tie.
Skarsgård stars opposite Harry Melling in the upcoming Pillion, a film about a same-sex and dominant-submissive relationship between two members of a motorcycle gang.
“I’m no Ray, but I have a little bit of experience from that world and I know that’s not the truthful depiction,” Skarsgård told Variety earlier this month about playing the leader of the motorcycle crew, detailing how director Harry Lighton handled the intimate scenes. “He embraced the awkwardness of it. All these characters were fully fledged and the sex scenes weren’t graphic for the sake of being graphic.”
He continued, “Harry did a beautiful job of calibrating it. You don’t shy away from it because, ‘Oh, we can’t show men having sex,’ but you also don’t show a closeup of a d*** just because you can, for the shock value. I think my mom will like this movie, and it’s about kinky gay bikers and a D/s relationship, portrayed with the perfect amount of respect.”
According to Skarsgård, Pillion felt “so original” when he first read the script ahead of signing on to play bike gang leader Ray.
“That’s quite rare. I’ve read great scripts where I’m like, ’This is great, but it reminds me of 10 films I’ve seen,’” Skarsgård told Variety. “I was invited into this world with so much love and compassion, but [ Lighton] didn’t do it with too much reverence. Sometimes, when you portray a subculture, you’re so worried about offending [someone] or getting something wrong that you’re too precious about it. I immediately called my agents and said, ‘I wanna talk to this mad child.’”
Skarsgård and Melling, 36, worked with an intimacy coordinator — like most recent film productions — though the process was admittedly different from Skarsgård’s previous projects.
“On this one, Harry [Melling] and I were excited about just literally throwing ourselves into that ring. On Big Little Lies, it was important for Nicole [Kidman] and I to get to know each other before and really build that trust,” Skarsgård recalled of filming with Kidman, 58, on the HBO miniseries. “We knew we wanted to shoot in a very safe but authentic way.”
Skarsgård played Perry, the abusive husband of Kidman’s character, on Big Little Lies.
“A lot of those scenes are shot with a single camera,” Skarsgård added of the two-season drama. “The whole scene plays through from the beginning till the end and they are quite violent physically and really difficult emotionally. I would go over to Nicole’s house, play with her kids and just hang out and have lunch and talk. By the time we started shooting, we were like two friends getting into this together.”
Pillion premieres in theaters Friday, November 28.
