‘I Was Struggling’: Alexander Skarsgard Tells Us The 'MurderBot' Scene That Kept Cracking Him Up Despite Playing An Emotionless Robot

Cinema Blend

"Murderbot" has entered the back half of Season 1 for viewers tuning in weekly with an Apple TV+ subscription, with leading man Alexander Skarsgård continuing to prove that sometimes not emoting at all can be much funnier in a quirky comedy than any slapstick antics. As SecUnit – or the self-titled "Murderbot" – Skarsgård has to keep an almost entirely straight face, with his character's snark (and obsession with the soap opera "The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon") mostly coming across via narration. According to the actor, however, there was one particular scene that was a real challenge when it came to staying expressionless.  And considering the ordeal for the actor when it came to putting on his "Murderbot" costume, it says something that this interaction is what had him "struggling" while filming.  When I spoke with Skarsgård during Apple TV+'s press junket for "Murderbot," I had to know: did he have an approach to keeping that incredibly straight face?

Transcript

00:00Did you have an approach to keeping an incredibly straight face as Murderbot?

00:04I was struggling. I can't lie, I was struggling because they are so funny, the other actors.

00:12Especially, I remember one scene with Anna Conkle who plays Labibi,

00:18when she thinks that there's like sexual chemistry between herself and Murderbot,

00:26and there's zero of that from Murderbot's point of view, but she reads the room completely wrong

00:36and tries, thinks it's the right moment that she's leaning in for a kiss.

00:42And I was, I'm supposed to be completely blank, just like standing there as she tries to lean

00:52in for this, what she thinks is a passionate moment. And I was really struggling that day,

00:58because Anna is so incredibly funny, and she would do like little things differently in each take,

01:04and I was constantly corpsing. I couldn't keep a straight face, so that was, I felt really bad,

01:12because she like delivered such great comedic takes, and I was just like laughing my ass off.

01:17I think we finally got it, but that was one of quite a few days where it was hard to be just

01:27an emotionless robot.

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