Alexander Skarsgard Says He Loves Being Naked 'Because I Was Born That Way'

Alexander Skarsgard Says He Loves Being Naked 'Because I Was Born That Way'



Why do we love Alexander Skarsgård so much, you might ask? Is it because he refuses to wear a modesty patch during his many nude scenes in "True Blood"? Is it because he's 6'4", blond and drop-dead-gorgeous? Is it because he's just that goddamn sexy? Well, it's all of the above and more, and fortunately all of those reasons collided in a recent interview he gave to GQ UK.

Everyone's been jumping on what Alexander had to say about working with Rihanna in "Battleship"—"She's great, she's really really good in it and her working... She's got a crazy schedule. She's really diligent and I'm impressed"—but we were more excited by what he said about that Rolling Stone magazine shoot and how he originally tried out for Bill in "True Blood."

Apparently the bloody, sexy "True Blood" Rolling Stone cover was not what the magazine originally had in mind. "We showed up and we shot very PG-13 with our clothes on for basically the whole day, like six or seven hours," he explained. "Then towards the end the photographer said, 'I have this, these shots are beautiful and the magazine is going to be happy with them, but I'd like to try something if you guys are game.'"

Alexander said that the idea was "just one of those things in the moment where we all looked at each other, we'd spent all day with the photographer, we felt comfortable with him, we knew that he was great and the atmosphere was right and we were like, 'F--k it, let's do it.' No one thought that the magazine would go for it. They want to sell at Walmart. We thought this was going to be too offensive. But I guess they did. [Laughs] I'm glad they did! I liked it a lot. It was definitely more interesting than the safe version."

"True Blood" production doesn't begin for another two months, and Alexander said that he has no idea what season four has in store other than what has already been spoiled (read: witches!). But he did add that he originally had to audition to play the character of Bill Compton because that character was the only one creator Alan Ball was casting for at the time.

"I'm pretty sure that he didn't have Bill in mind when he brought me in to read. Eric shows up later, he's not in the pilot. They were auditioning for the pilot," Alexander explained. "So I'm pretty sure Alan already knew that I was better for Eric than Bill. It wasn't really a case of me and Stephen [Moyer] for Bill. I think Alan was just scanning the market and meeting actors and everyone read for Bill. But, of course, I couldn't play him. I'm definitely not right for Bill."