Stellan Skarsgard’s youngest son gets “bullied” at school for being a “nepo baby”.
Stellan Skarsgard’s son has been bullied
The 74-year-old actor told how 13-year-old Kolbjörn – who made his acting debut in 2022 miniseries Clark and has had a number of other roles since – “doesn’t have any friends” and feels isolated because other kids have questioned his talent and claimed he’s only got work because of his famous name.
The father-of-eight told Vulture: “My 13-year-old, Kolbjörn, the youngest, suffers from that.
“When his pals at school call him nepo baby, he gets so sad. He doesn’t have any friends at school. He gets isolated. Cruel kids — or cruel and ignorant. They love it on the internet.
“But it is such a bulls*** thing. Because nobody would hire you, at least not for anything good, if you’re not good enough.”
The Sentimental Value actor – who has Alexander, 49, Gustaf, 44, Sam, 43, Bill, 35, Eija, 33, and Valter, 29, with ex-wife My Skarsgård and Ossian, 16, and Kolbjörn with spouse Megan Everett – has not “reduced” himself to being just a father and thinks his kids have benefitted from his passion for his work.
He said: “Your work is you to such a big extent. It’s not like being an accountant. If you’re a painter, if you’re a musician, you go to work with you and your own material. Combining that with family life is hard.
“But if you become a really good father and you are at home more than you want to be, then suddenly you reduce yourself….
“You’ve become some other person. It’s like you would think differently. You would act differently. You need your creative art. It’s your stimuli.
“And you are more fun to the kids when you come home and tell them a story that you can’t tell them if you haven’t been stimulated. I’m trying to defend myself now.”
Stellan has a “very good relationship” with his kids.
He quipped: “I wouldn’t have spent 50 years with them otherwise. But they have no respect for me just because I’m their father. Because that’s bulls***. You shouldn’t be respected for five minutes of joy.”
The Mamma Mia star “usually” takes not just his family but a number of their friends along when he works overseas.
He said: “You also have to bring your wife’s friends because otherwise she will be alone in a foreign city babysitting.
“You have to get some of the kids’ friends. They’re a social functioning unit. We had 43 Swedes living in Frescati outside of Rome when I was shooting the first Exorcist movie there.
“I worked 12 hours a day because I was the lead. I barely saw them. I saw them on the weekends. But the house was vibrating with joy because they were having a party. I made a lot of money on the film, but there wasn’t that much left. It was worth it.”
