New Alex Interview with Ynet!

“True Blood” Star: “We Needed Israelis on the Set”

Alexander Skarsgård, the Swedish actor who became famous for “True Blood” and won the Golden Globe for his role in “Big Little Lies,” plays an Israeli Mossad agent in the new series The Little Drummer. In a special interview with Ynet he talks about his work alongside Meryl Streep, why he is not yet married and how the presence of Michael Moshonov, Daniel Litman and Shlomo Bar-Aba helped him on the set

by Shirit Gal Kedar, London (Published: December 3, 2018)

“Skarsgård, Alexander Skarsgård,” 194 centimeters of Nordic genes smile at me. “The Americans never managed to pronounce our surname properly, ScarsGard got out all the time, so I decided there was no point in fighting it, my father gave up and I gave up too.”

When Skarsgård (42) was twenty, he decided to give the [acting] game a chance. At the same time, he left his home in Sweden and came to the city of Leeds in England, from all the cities of the world, where he learned English. The dilemma was between [the acting] game and architecture. “I was like all the young people my age, looking for something to do,” he recalls. “In the end, I said, ‘To hell with it all, Daddy (actor Stellen Skarsgård - SG) is a player and he’s really happy, so I’d better give it a chance … it’s better than looking back in twenty or thirty years and regret not trying it. I’d love to say that it was destiny, my creative calling me, but this is not true.”

Two decades later, Skarsgård seems to have bet right. His first international role was in the movie “Zoolander” as a top model alongside Ben Stiller. He thought that from then on he would live the dream, but then two and a half years of drought came. The wilderness was broken in 2007 when Eric Northman, the hot vampire in the cult series “True Blood” arrived. Since vampires do not really die, the role of the owner of the fangs lasted seven seasons and made Skarsgård a synonym for “sex symbol” and a wanted player.

Then came the role of Tarzan and abs from Disney, followed by the role that brought him the Emmy Award and the Golden Globe, that of the charming and abusive husband of Nicole Kidman in the acclaimed drama “Big Little Lies.” Now, before the second season of the series is back on screen, he can be found again on the TV screen (on HOT VOD and NEXT TV) in a new mini-series, “The Little Drummer,” by the BBC.

The series is based on a 1983 novel by John le Carré (and was also adapted into a 1984 film starring Diane Keaton), and tells the story of Charlie (Florence Pew), a young and opinionated British actress who meets on the beach in Greece a mysterious and enigmatic man (Skarsgård), which draws her into the dangerous world of international espionage. Charley is recruited by the same man who later turns out to be an agent of the Israeli Mossad - a special brigade commanded by Kurtz (Michael Shannon), promising to infiltrate a Palestinian terror cell that has set itself the goal of blowing up Jews in Europe.

Gadi Becker, the Mossad agent played by Skarsgård, is a particularly complex figure. He has a rich military background that left him physically and emotionally scarred and shaken with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, when Kurtz, his former commander, finds him in Berlin and calls him to the flag, he stands up.

“Gadi’s background, how he feels and his involvement in the conflict were very challenging for me,” explains the actor. “Because he fought in the Six-Day War and during the Yom Kippur War, and because he worked in the past with Kurtz at an institution at a time when he believed that the organization was acting cautiously, ‘as surgeons and not as butchers’, as he put it, he justified what he was doing morally. When that feeling changed, he could no longer stand behind the actions they took, and therefore he left Israel and moved to Berlin, leaving the Mossad behind him. He felt that there were people in the higher echelons who had lost any appreciation for the price paid by innocent people.”

Ynet:  Gadi’s character does not speak much. How hard was it for you to play him? Alex: “The advantage of filming a six-hour series on a film is that you do not have to cram the whole intro into the first thirty minutes, you can spread the character, let the audience know Gadi in the same way Charlie knows him. To the viewers’ world, slowly and in the course of peeling layers of his personality.”

Ynet:  The basis of the plot revolves around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Did it help you understand or learn the conflict more deeply? Alex:   “What is saddening is that the plot of the series takes place 35 years ago and the conflict has not yet been resolved - and is not even close to a solution … Unfortunately, I do not see a way forward, it feels that the peace talks have been completely abandoned, the understanding and the recognition that led to the Oslo Accords has disappeared and the American administration is only threatening the sides and in fear it will not bring them to the negotiating table.“

"Of course, there is a lot of guilt that can be divided among all those involved,” he says. “And you know the subject much more than I do, but it feels as if the political mood in the country is tilting to the right, and if you express reservations or doubts about the government or its moves, you’re considered not patriotic and even a traitor, and in a democracy, such a situation must not happen.”

In addition to the main actors, there are a number of familiar faces, among them the excellent Michael Moshonov (who plays Simon Litvak, Kurtz’s right hand), Daniel Litman (Mossad agent Daniel), Amir Khoury (terrorist Michel) and Shlomo Bar-Aba (as head of the Mossad, Misha Gavron). Skarsgård claims that the Israeli presence on the set was very important. “I’m a Swede who has never been to Israel, the series is staged by a Korean and Michael Shannon is an American, and we definitely needed the Israelis to be on the set, even in pre-production, when I sat with them and talked about the conflict and the situation today. The material we are dealing with. They gave us a real opening to learn and understand the characters.”

Ynet:  Is it true that you served in the army in the counter-terrorism unit? Alex:  “I was 19 years old and served in the army for a year and a half, and that taught me a lot about commitment and cooperation: It was a small unit against terrorism that independently defended islands outside of Stockholm. I grew up in Stockholm in a very urban area and felt that I needed a physical and mental challenge, and it helped me a lot, not only in the [acting] game, when I played characters with similar backgrounds, but in life in general.“

According to Alex, he does not have a certain method in which he assumes the character. Most of the answer lies in the script, how far it connects to it and manages to get to the bottom of it. What’s more, he tries to read the script at least once a day until filming begins. "I also learned about the region, about Gadi himself, where he came from, why he left Israel, why he left his wife, things that are essential to the character’s base. Ideas and thoughts to imagine, so I discover something new about the character every day, and eventually infect everything together,” he explains.

“Gadi wants Charlie to fall in love with the character of Michel the terrorist and so he does everything to become Michel, as he feels it will be easier to penetrate the terrorist cell if her feelings are real,” he says. “It blurs the lines between Gadi and Michel and Charlie is really beginning to develop feelings, but it’s hard to understand who she falls in love with - the Israeli intelligence officer or the Palestinian figure he embodies.”

There is no doubt that the handsome actor is considered a hot commodity in Hollywood, especially following the dizzying global success of “Big Little Lies.” The character he plays, Perry, was a monster who physically and mentally abused his wife Celeste (Nicole Kidman), but Skarsgård also managed to show Perry’s complex and insecure side as well as the relationship itself. In his Golden Globe winning speech, the actor said that participating in the series was “the best experience in my career.” The series returns for season two where the sparkling cast joins the biggest name in show business, Meryl Streep, as Perry’s mother. Skarsgård was photographed on the set, which led to the assumption that he is returning for the second season, despite Perry’s dismal fate at the end of the first season.

“I can not share much about the story of the new season,” he says. “I’ll just say that Meryl Streep is my favorite actress and I was willing to do anything to play in front of her … I’ve already agreed to take on a role only because I knew she was participating in the film too, and in the end she appeared as a hologram so my dream was not realized … I can not yet tell if this time I played alongside her , But I will say that I’ve met her and spent time with her on the set.”

Ynet:  Are you impressed with the descriptions that Hollywood gives to actors? Alex:  "Hollywood is a funny place, there’s the 'hot player of the week,’ but nobody promises it will last forever. It’s here today and could disappear tomorrow. I do not take it seriously and I just try to enjoy the moment.“

Ynet:  You’ve been very busy in recent years. Is it still fun? Alex:   “If you do not enjoy the set, the work can be very exhausting. If you are not satisfied creatively, the struggle is very tiring, but if you work on exciting projects with amazing people, I have no problem finishing one project and flying to the next. Apparently that’s why I do not have a wife, children and family yet.”

Source:  Shirit Gal Kedar for Ynet (x) , Translation:  Google + Cleanup & Interpretation by The Library, Promo still:  DrummerGirlShow twitter (x)

激情转发，随心翻译

A better, more positive Tumblr

Since its founding in 2007, Tumblr has always been a place for wide open, creative self-expression at the heart of community and culture. To borrow from our founder David Karp, we’re proud to have inspired a generation of artists, writers, creators, curators, and crusaders to redefine our culture and to help empower individuality.

Over the past several months, and inspired by our storied past, we’ve given serious thought to who we want to be to our community moving forward and have been hard at work laying the foundation for a better Tumblr. We’ve realized that in order to continue to fulfill our promise and place in culture, especially as it evolves, we must change. Some of that change began with fostering more constructive dialogue among our community members. Today, we’re taking another step by no longer allowing adult content, including explicit sexual content and nudity (with some exceptions).  

Let’s first be unequivocal about something that should not be confused with today’s policy change: posting anything that is harmful to minors, including child pornography, is abhorrent and has no place in our community. We’ve always had and always will have a zero tolerance policy for this type of content. To this end, we continuously invest in the enforcement of this policy, including industry-standard machine monitoring, a growing team of human moderators, and user tools that make it easy to report abuse. We also closely partner with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Internet Watch Foundation, two invaluable organizations at the forefront of protecting our children from abuse, and through these partnerships we report violations of this policy to law enforcement authorities. We can never prevent all bad actors from attempting to abuse our platform, but we make it our highest priority to keep the community as safe as possible.

So what is changing?

Posts that contain adult content will no longer be allowed on Tumblr, and we’ve updated our Community Guidelines to reflect this policy change. We recognize Tumblr is also a place to speak freely about topics like art, sex positivity, your relationships, your sexuality, and your personal journey. We want to make sure that we continue to foster this type of diversity of expression in the community, so our new policy strives to strike a balance.

Why are we doing this?

It is our continued, humble aspiration that Tumblr be a safe place for creative expression, self-discovery, and a deep sense of community. As Tumblr continues to grow and evolve, and our understanding of our impact on our world becomes clearer, we have a responsibility to consider that impact across different age groups, demographics, cultures, and mindsets. We spent considerable time weighing the pros and cons of expression in the community that includes adult content. In doing so, it became clear that without this content we have the opportunity to create a place where more people feel comfortable expressing themselves.

Bottom line: There are no shortage of sites on the internet that feature adult content. We will leave it to them and focus our efforts on creating the most welcoming environment possible for our community.

So what’s next?

Starting December 17, 2018, we will begin enforcing this new policy. Community members with content that is no longer permitted on Tumblr will get a heads up from us in advance and steps they can take to appeal or preserve their content outside the community if they so choose. All changes won’t happen overnight as something of this complexity takes time.

Another thing, filtering this type of content versus say, a political protest with nudity or the statue of David, is not simple at scale. We’re relying on automated tools to identify adult content and humans to help train and keep our systems in check. We know there will be mistakes, but we’ve done our best to create and enforce a policy that acknowledges the breadth of expression we see in the community.

Most importantly, we’re going to be as transparent as possible with you about the decisions we’re making and resources available to you, including more detailed information, product enhancements, and more content moderators to interface directly with the community and content.

Like you, we love Tumblr and what it’s come to mean for millions of people around the world. Our actions are out of love and hope for our community. We won’t always get this right, especially in the beginning, but we are determined to make your experience a positive one.

Jeff D’Onofrio CEO

激情转发，练练阅读