{"id":14845,"date":"2022-05-05T12:00:32","date_gmt":"2022-05-05T10:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1636440"},"modified":"2022-05-05T12:09:23","modified_gmt":"2022-05-05T10:09:23","slug":"bill-skarsgard-i-dare-you-to-watch-clark-once-you-start-its-going-to-be-hard-to-turn-off","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/bill-skarsgard-i-dare-you-to-watch-clark-once-you-start-its-going-to-be-hard-to-turn-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Skarsg\u00e5rd: \u2018I dare you to watch Clark \u2013 once you start, it\u2019s going to be hard to turn off\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By James Hibbs\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 05 May 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Bill Skarsg\u00e5rd isn\u2019t messing around \u2013 he knows he\u2019s got a hit on his hands.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s widely believed that the Swedish actor dropped out of appearing alongside his brother Alexander in Robert Eggers\u2019 The Northman to star in the Netflix<\/a> series Clark<\/a>, so you\u2019d have to assume he knew he was on to something special.<\/p>\n

When we speak on Zoom, Skarsg\u00e5rd is utterly effusive and passionate about the series, telling viewers: \u201cI dare you to watch it and I don\u2019t think you\u2019ll be bored. Once you start this thing, it\u2019s going to be hard to turn it off. That was one of our main objectives with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s right. Clark is many things but it\u2019s certainly never boring. From the very first moment you feel as though you\u2019ve been given a shot of adrenaline (and maybe some hallucinogens) and the pace doesn\u2019t slow. The fact that it\u2019s telling a true story makes the amount of outrageous content packed into this show all the more remarkable.<\/p>\n

For those who aren\u2019t aware, Clark Olofsson is a Swedish criminal, whose high profile prison breaks and bank robberies made him an unlikely celebrity. He is perhaps best known for his involvement in the Norrmalmstorg Robbery, which gave rise to the term Stockholm Syndrome after the hostages publicly defended their captors.<\/p>\n

Skarsg\u00e5rd explains that he was approached by director Jonas \u00c5kerlund very early on in development for the Swedish language series, which led him on a deep dive into Olofsson\u2019s story.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m too young to have lived through Clark as a public figure, most of my life he\u2019s been in jail,\u201d Skarsg\u00e5rd explains. \u201cSo growing up, I didn\u2019t know more about him than just this kind of vague name. If you asked me when I was younger who I thought Clark Olofsson was I would probably say, \u2018isn\u2019t he some kind of criminal?\u2019<\/p>\n

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Bill Skarsg\u00e5rd and Vilhelm Blomgren in Clark<\/span><\/figcaption> Eric Broms \/ Netflix<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

\u201cAnd then literally just reading his Wikipedia page, it\u2019s like, how can one person be involved in so many things in one lifetime? It\u2019s just one thing over the next, over the next, over the next and some of these very historical moments. Like the Stockholm Syndrome is obviously something that everybody knows what it is, and of course he was involved in coining that!<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I was just like, \u2018how do you even begin to tell this story?\u2019 because it\u2019s just so much to tell.\u201d<\/p>\n

For starters, you need a star that is also, at his heart, a character actor, unafraid to go to dark places and portray a deeply complex figure. He needs to be at the height of his powers, fully committed to what is an astonishingly energetic role that shifts and changes across multiple decades. Check.<\/p>\n

Next, you need a director who\u2019s up to the challenge, so it\u2019s a good thing Jonas \u00c5kerlund was on board. \u00c5kerlund has been behind such films as Polar and Lords of Chaos and, as Skarsg\u00e5rd puts it, is \u201cprobably the most iconic music video director of all time\u201d. His work seems to live and die by the motto \u2018go big or go home\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew from Jonas\u2019 previous works that he\u2019s very extravagant and flamboyant. There\u2019s so much flair in everything that he does,\u201d Skarsg\u00e5rd explains. \u201cWhich is funny, because it\u2019s very anti-Swedish almost. We\u2019re known for being subtle, timid, minimalistic, and we\u2019re great at that, just look at our cars or look at our interior design. Everything is understated. And Jonas is overstated. It\u2019s so unique and refreshing in television today, it\u2019s just not like anything you\u2019ve ever seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pairing seems perfect. Everything about Olofsson\u2019s life was crying out for an exaggerated and bombastic approach. You don\u2019t become a celebrity criminal without a flair for the dramatic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at Jonas\u2019 style and you look at Clark\u2019s story, they fit very well together,\u201d Skarsg\u00e5rd continues. \u201cYou can tell this story in a very exaggerated way, and in a very subjective way. You\u2019re in the head of this crazy person and you probably shouldn\u2019t believe everything that he\u2019s telling you as the audience. You know this is probably not exactly how the robbery took place but maybe it is sort of what it was like for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, you\u2019ve got the style sorted \u2013 next, the structure of the show needs to be set, and Skarsg\u00e5rd confirms the series\u2019 break-neck pace was no accident.<\/p>\n

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Clark at the Norrmalmstorg robbery<\/span><\/figcaption> Netflix \/ Eric Broms<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

\u201cWhat Jonas and I talked about even early on was like, \u2018we\u2019re gonna cram so much into this. This show is never going to be boring, and it\u2019s never going to be lacking, right? It\u2019s going to be like a reduced sauce, where it\u2019s just so rich and there\u2019s never a beat, it\u2019s just constant\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course the real Clark would have these big pauses of like four years of isolation in a cell. We don\u2019t go into that very much but it\u2019s a crazy lifestyle \u2013 either you\u2019re locked up and everything\u2019s the same and it\u2019s so boring, but for him maybe even relaxing, and then he breaks out and it\u2019s just chaos, chaos, chaos until he gets caught, on repeat for decades. It takes a particular type of character to sustain that type of lifestyle.\u201d<\/p>\n

But who is that character? The series is notably not<\/em> about the Norrmalmstorg robbery. That touchpoint in Olofsson\u2019s life does of course appear, making up the bulk of episode 4. But this is a six-part season, and while Skarsg\u00e5rd confirms he was at one point involved in the development of a different project, one revolving more around the robbery, this show is far more interested in the man behind it, and what makes someone like that tick.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me it was like, \u2018OK, I love the heightened reality, but I also need to ground the character in something that\u2019s very real\u2019,\u201d Skarsg\u00e5rd confirms. \u201cAnd hopefully people will see either themselves or people they know in Clark.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s one of these eccentric characters that a lot of people have in their families,\u201d he continued. \u201cThis kind of super eccentric crazy guy who\u2019s doing everything wrong but somehow you can\u2019t help but forgive him, because of how he twists reality. You go, \u2018I\u2019m going to sit down with my uncle and I\u2019m going to tell him that he screwed up\u2019 and then you sit down with him and you leave afterwards going, \u2018now I\u2019m the bad guy\u2019. And you\u2019re like, \u2018how did he do that?’\u201d<\/p>\n

This ability is key throughout the series, as Clark utilises his charisma and good looks to get exactly what he wants at every turn, managing to convince even those most alert to his tricks that, this time, he truly has changed. Of course, the show is told from his perspective, so just how charming Olofsson actually was is left somewhat in doubt. However, there\u2019s clearly some truth to it.<\/p>\n

Skarsg\u00e5rd tells a story about how, when looking back through the Swedish television institution\u2019s archives, he came across footage of Clark at 15 when he was working on a ship. \u201cThis was in the early \u201960s when, like, nobody was on camera. And there was a documentary team on the boat filming,\u201d Skarsg\u00e5rd explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe documentary was supposed to be about someone else, another kid, but Clark was so charismatic that it ended up being about him. It\u2019s like the camera, or fame, was gravitating towards him even before he began his journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Bill Skarsg\u00e5rd in Clark<\/span><\/figcaption> Eric Broms \/ Netflix<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Of course, as with any series revolving around a real life criminal, our own fascination with such a morally murky figure comes under the microscope. Skarsg\u00e5rd notes that public interest in Olofsson marked the beginning of sensationalised news, as personal TVs started appearing in homes in the \u201960s.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe became notorious because of a police shooting when he was 18. And you had a manhunt for this guy who looked incredibly dangerous but good looking with the black eye on that headshot, and nobody knew where he was. You had a whole media frenzy about him and he hadn\u2019t even turned 19 yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis guy was basically famous his entire life for doing everything wrong, and I don\u2019t know what it says about our culture at that time or even our culture today, it\u2019s just whatever it is, it was worth sensationalising.\u201d<\/p>\n

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