Alexander Skarsgård reveals we have been saying his name wrong the entire time

Alexander Skarsgård has revealed that everyone has been saying his last name wrong for years and cleared up exactly how to pronounce it.

The True Blood star’s father, Stellan Skarsgård, said last week on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert that people continued to mispronounce the family’s Swedish surname.

On Tuesday, Colbert put the question to Alexander.

“He said one thing,” Colbert said, referring to Stellan. “He said we are mispronouncing the name. It’s ‘Skars-gourd’. Is that how you say it?”

“Exactly. That little umlaut is an ‘oua’, it's not an ‘a.’ Skars-gourd,” Alexander replied.

The actor, 48, who was on the show talking about his forthcoming Apple TV series Murderbot, had talked about his surname and its frequent mispronunciations previously as well.

In a 2016 skit on the same show, Alexander and Colbert performed a sketch where they made fun of the most common mispronunciation of the name.

Stellan, 73, and his sons Alexander, Gustaf, 44, Bill, 34, Valter, 30, Ossian, 16, and Kolbjörn, 12, are all actors. Of Stellan’s eight children, only son Sam, 42, and daughter Eija, 33, do not work as actors.

The Independent reviewer Nick Hilton gave Murderbot three stars and described it as being a “romp” despite lacking soul.

“Skarsgård’s ability to pair his chiselled, leading man good looks with a very goofy sense of humour (recently utilised to good effect in Succession) makes Murderbot an enjoyable, lightweight watch,” he wrote. “It might not grapple with the big philosophical questions of the present day, but it might give you a – brief – respite from thinking about the coming AI apocalypse.”

In the Colbert appearance, Alexander also spoke about his father’s tendency to embarrass him growing up because he was not “a fan of clothes”.

“I noticed that he was wearing clothes when he was on your show. That made me very proud,” he joked.

Stellan “wouldn't wear clothes at home really”, he explained. He would be “dancing salsa naked on his own while I brought friends over”, something that teenage Alexander didn’t appreciate.

“As a kid, it didn't really bother me. When I was a teenager, I wanted to have a normal family.”