
A new interview with Alexander Skarsgard and his “Diary of a Teenage Girl” co-star Bel Powley has been released today by Vulture
They talk about their characters relationship in the movie and about sex scenes and 70’s mustaches:
If you’ve been missing Alexander Skarsgård’s naked torso since the finale of True Blood, never fear. There’s plenty of Skarsgård to be seen inThe Diary of A Teenage Girl, one of the highlights of this very sexy Sundance. Diary is the directorial debut of actress Marielle Heller, who wrote the screenplay adaptation of Phoebe Gloeckner’s graphic novel herself. The film tells the story of precocious 15-year old artist Minnie (newcomer Bel Powley), who lives with her very permissive single mother (Kristen Wiig) in 1976 San Francisco, and is in the midst of experiencing a sexual awakening in the very capable and surprisingly not lecherous hands of her mother’s boyfriend, twenty years her senior (Skarsgård, 38). “I just had sex. Holy shit!” is the first line of the movie, narrated from Minnie’s thoughts. Sony Pictures Classics picked up the distribution rights and Powley, who’s 22 and pulls off an American accent so seamlessly you’d never suspect she’s British, is enjoying the well-deserved heaps of praise and “It Girl” status Cary Mulligan enjoyed back in 2009 for the similar (but more creepy and less naked) An Education. Jada Yuan caught up with the pair as they scarfed down hamburgers to talk unorthodox auditions, on-screen chemistry, and why the ‘70s were the golden age of mustaches.
First of all, why did both of you want to sign on for this? It’s a beautiful story and beautifully told, but there are a lot of sex scenes.
Powley: I think it’s a really important story for women and for young girls and I think it needed to be told. The character of Minnie, everything she does, the way she feels, the way she acts really resonated with me. It’s what I was like as a teenage girl and I think it’s going to resonate with every woman. I was also 15 seven years ago, so I can remember.
Were you that precocious at 15?
Powley: Yeah, I was, at times. You don’t have to have an affair with your mum’s boyfriend to be able to relate with Minnie and how she acts. I think it’s just more the extremity of feelings that you have when you’re a teenager and like, the frustration and when you’re really hormonal and you flip between emotions.
Skarsgård: And she’s not always precocious. I feel like sometimes she’s like a little child. And I feel like Monroe has that quality as well. I think that’s kind of how they find each other in a way. There are moments where he’s like a 15-year-old boy and then he pulls himself out of that, like “Oh, no, now I’m a grown man.” And I think that gives life to their relationship.
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