For most casual movie fans, it might seem as if it’s been a while since they last saw Bill Skarsgard‘s face. The 35-year-old shape-shifting actor has made his name under the iconic cinematic disguises of It‘s Pennywise, the Crow and Nosferatu — even though those roles are but a small slice of his robust filmography, which also includes Barbarian and The Devil All the Time. “Most of the things that I’ve done in my career have not been makeup monsters — it’s just that they’ve had so much exposure,” he says. “It’s not like, ‘Oh, can I play a person?’ Most of my characters have been people.”
Still, as far as starring vehicles go, Skarsgard has never had the opportunity to deliver as magnetic yet stripped down a performance as he manages in Gus Van Sant’s Dead Man’s Wire, which hits select theaters Jan. 9 before expanding Jan. 16. (It’s eligible for this year’s film awards following a qualifying run.) “It was very juicy,” he tells The Hollywood Reporter of the hauntingly playful ’70s-set docudrama. “And it’s a character that I was so blessed with: very complex, fun and dynamic, and [it required] a type of performance I certainly haven’t done in America before.”
The Swede plays Tony Kiritsis, an aspiring Indianapolis real estate developer late on a mortgage payment. He believes the value of his land is increasing right as his broker, Richard Hall (Dacre Montgomery), argues he’s run out of time to pay and cuts him out — which leads Kiritsis to take matters into his own extreme hands, wiring a shotgun to the back of Hall’s head after visiting his office. Hall is held hostage at Kiritsis’ apartment, attracting the attention of law enforcement and national media. Convinced he’s been wronged by predatory lenders cornering him into an impossible financial situation, Kiritsis wants an apology, compensation and immunity from the kidnapping. His behavior turns so erratic that most seem to believe him capable of pulling the trigger if he doesn’t get what he wants.
At the end of last year, when Van Sant sent Skarsgard the script written by first-time screenwriter Austin Kolodney, he was in the midst of a lengthy acting break after filming Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu. Everything about the project excited Skarsgard — except the actual character. “I was worried that I wasn’t right for it: The real guy is a foot shorter than me and quite a lot older — he doesn’t look anything like me,” he says. “I studied this guy for 50 hours. I’ve played real guys before — I study the person. I was getting bogged down in that, but Gus was just not really concerned about it. Eventually, I let the real guy go and tried to honor him in spirit.”
But he had to let go fast. Dead Man’s Wire had been in development for years — Werner Herzog had been attached to direct, with Nicolas Cage starring — before Van Sant signed on at the urging of producer Cassian Elwes. They needed to shoot immediately to pull the film off, meaning Skarsgard only had about a month between saying yes and getting to set. Just about 10 months were covered from Skarsgard’s casting to the movie’s acclaimed premiere at the Venice Film Festival.
Dacre Montgomery (left) and Bill Skarsgard in Row K Entertainment’s Dead Man’s Wire.
Row K Entertainment/Courtesy Everett Collection
The speedy turnaround proved eerily prescient. On Dec. 4, 2024, Luigi Mangione was arrested on charges of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, leading to a surreal frenzy of identification, even sympathy with the alleged vigilante killer on social media. This unfolded during Dead Man’s Wire‘s narrow, pivotal preparation period, thereby infusing the filmmaking process — since Kiritsis’ bizarre actions similarly resonated with the era’s growing unrest around corporate greed and social inequality.
“I thought the movie was quite current before [Mangione], but when that happened, I was like, ‘Oh, shit,’ ” Skarsgard says. “There are a lot of parallels to that time in what we’re going through now, in terms of the instability of the world and the loss of faith in institutions. The little guy is getting stamped on and is not happy about it.”
Skarsgard channels that fury in his portrayal, which is imbued with a dangerous charisma and laced with absurdist humor. “I read that a male menopause actually happens for men in their mid-40s that can trigger these sort of manic episodes, and I thought that was hilarious — so I brought it up to Gus, like, ‘He’s going through a male menopause here,’ ” Skarsgard says. “He’s so incredibly angry, but then he’s also chitchatty and kind of funny. He’ll apologize seconds after being so volatile.” Amid the blinding rage, the actor held true to one principle: “He’s not a dummy. He’s a smart guy who feels entirely justified in what he’s doing.”
The actor’s energy is matched by scrappy filmmaking. This is Van Sant’s first feature in seven years, and its probing take on violence in America is of a piece with his award winners To Die For (1995) and Elephant (2003). Dead Man’s Wire was shot in a mere 19 days, and Van Sant didn’t go in with a shot list; he and cinematographer Arnaud Potier worked mostly with two handheld cameras, bringing a liveliness to sequences to maximize tension. Skarsgard, Montgomery and a stacked supporting cast including Colman Domingo and Myha’la — who play a radio host and a TV reporter, respectively, drawn into Kiritsis’ manic web — were encouraged to experiment from take to take.
“There’s no blocking, there are no real hit marks,” Skarsgard says. “That presents accidents and spontaneous things. You feel very free.”
Being under the gun, as it were, of such a tight schedule left little room for nerves. Yet Skarsgard and Montgomery had all of four days to film everything inside the apartment, the location that features the most scenes and the thorniest drama. A bit of panicking was justified. “I literally had 15-plus pages of ranting in one day,” Skarsgard says. “The more scared and uncomfortable I am going into something, the more I’m drawn to it. It might be entirely masochistic. I want to be a little scared and uncomfortable and unsure if I can do it. That makes me just work harder and fight for it more.”
Skarsgard had to trust Van Sant’s instincts that he was right for the part, since he wasn’t the obvious choice. It helped that they met nearly 30 years ago on the Toronto set of the director’s Oscar-winning Good Will Hunting, which starred Bill’s father, Stellan. “The whole family was out there for the entire shoot, it was wild,” Skarsgard says. During his first phone call with Van Sant for Dead Man’s Wire, they reminisced — and Van Sant revealed he’d been looking through photos from their time together in Canada.
“Gus sent me this picture of me as a 7-year-old with my siblings at the time, on the set of Good Will Hunting — very strange how life works,” Skarsgard recalls with a laugh. “My dad loves him and they’ve remained friends. He talked to me about Gus’ approach to filmmaking and how he works. I think the Gus that did Good Will Hunting is quite similar to the Gus of today.”
For his part, Skarsgard feels like a different kind of actor these days. His post-Nosferatu hiatus may as well have been a lifetime ago: Despite the intensive, contained making of Dead Man’s Wire, Skarsgard only had a few days to come down from the experience. “I wrapped this movie, and then three days later I was in Northern Ireland playing Little John in Michael Sarnoski’s [The Death of] Robin Hood for A24 opposite Hugh Jackman. So I didn’t have time. It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever done,” he says. “I shaved my head and they glued this big beard on my face and I was saying ‘Brother!’ in this Yorkshire accent in a medieval fairy tale movie.”
It’s about as far from the demands of Dead Man’s Wire as he could get. “I wouldn’t recommend it,” Skarsgard adds. “I think it worked out, but it was a bit too much.”
This story first appeared in a December stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.