Alexander Skarsgård knows how to make an entrance.
The Swedish actor has been turning heads with his wacky red carpet looks while promoting his new fantasy romance “Wicker.”
At the London premiere earlier this month, he donned a metallic gold Saint Laurent suit. If that wasn’t bold enough, he slipped into a pair of clear plastic lace-up shoes.
“They were surprisingly comfortable, and I was worried that they would steam up in five minutes, but that actually didn’t happen,” Skarsgård told me Saturday at the Academy Museum Gala. “But I’ve been getting a lot of comments from friends and family about my little piglets sticking out. They make fun of me. They make fun of my feet.”
At the “Wicker” premiere in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Skarsgård wore a multicolored skirt and a whimsical black shirt adorned with his co-star Olivia Colman’s face from London fashion house Chopova Lowena. “We’ve been on a press tour for a couple of weeks, and now we’re in L.A., and it’s our final big premiere before the movie opens on Friday,” he said. “I wanted to wear something special for this lovely lady over here, Olivia, whom I adore.”
As for the purple and green skirt, Skarsgård said, “It’s very comfortable. It’s quite a hot night, and it’s light and breezy. I’m enjoying it.”
Earlier in the day, he shocked attendees at a SAG-AFTRA screening and Q&A when he arrived in a long gray wig. “I got a little jealous because everyone is complimenting Olivia on her beautiful hair and beautiful hair color,” Skarsgård said. “I got no love for my hair. As a narcissistic actor, I need a little bit of attention, so I threw on a beautiful gray wig to match Olivia today.”
“Wicker” co-star Elizabeth Debicki praised Skarsgård’s fashion choices. “He can do no wrong,” she said. “I love the man. What can I say? I’m biased.”
In “Wicker,” Colman plays an outcast in a medieval town who falls in love with a man made of wicker (Skarsgård). Debicki plays a housewife who burns with jealousy over the attention the townspeople give to Colman and Skarsgård’s characters.
Skarsgård’s wicker look was a practical costume created by the Wētā Workshop in New Zealand, with lead makeup effects artist Sarah Rubano, prosthetic designer Joe Dunckley and lead weaver Jasmin van Lith.
“Amazing,” Colman said of seeing Skarsgård in the costume for the first time. “We’d seen backward and forwards from Weta Workshop in New Zealand images for about 18 months, and so suddenly he puts it on, and we were all going, ‘Oh God, I hope it works.’ And he came out of the makeup trailer and went, ‘Oh God, it’s beautiful.’”
“Wicker” is in limited release starting Oct. 23 before expanding on Oct. 30.
