Stellan Skarsgård Took Pay Cut on ‘Sentimental Value’ to Ensure Crew Got Decent Lunches: It ‘Makes the Film Much Better’

Stellan Skarsgård sees nan worth successful having a bully meal, particularly while connected set. The character said during nan Karlovy Vary Film Festival, via Variety, that he opted to return a half-million kroner salary trim (about $50,000 USD) for Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value” to guarantee nan unit received bully lunches from trade services.

“I wasn’t expected to beryllium [an executive producer] astatine first, but I said, ‘I’d ne'er film successful Norway without having a typical contract.’ After [Erik Skjoldbjærg’s 1997 film] ‘Insomnia,’ I gathered nan full unit and said, ‘I’ll ne'er movie successful this state again – unless we get a bully lunch,’” Skarsgård said. “I mislaid 8 kilos connected ‘Insomnia.’ We would usually get a loaf of bread, that’s pre-sliced, and a integrative salami. That’s it! I’ve made different films successful Norway since then, but it has ever said successful my statement that everybody should get lunches of nan highest European standard. And that’s expensive. Norway, they’re nan richest country, but they don’t want to walk money connected food.”

Skarsgård’s mediocre acquisition connected “Insomnia” led him to return matters into his ain hands for “Sentimental Value,” which won nan Grand Prix astatine Cannes 2025 and is already a 2026 Oscar contender.

“I went down, I think, half a cardinal kroner successful my net to salary for this, for nan nutrient for everybody,” he said. “And nan shaper said, ‘You’ll get in installments for that.’ Also, nan nutrient has to beryllium served connected existent china – nary plastic, insubstantial bags aliases whatever. And you’re not opinionated successful line, you beryllium down and eat. It makes everybody happier and makes nan movie overmuch better. I haven’t made 1 bad movie successful Norway since.”

Skarsgård compared his sensation for nutrient to his sensation for films, saying, “There’s a batch of group who limit what they eat. ‘I’m not eating meat,’ they say. I eat everything. I person this appetite for life, but also, it’s not a genre that makes nan movie bad. It’s laziness. The American films I’ve made, they were made by really bully directors. Like ‘Ronin’ pinch John Frankenheimer, ‘Dune’ pinch Denis Villeneuve aliases my first Marvel film. Unfortunately, I had to motion up for 4 of them. But nan first 1 was directed by Kenneth Branagh!”

He continued, “They are valid projects, moreover if they are a portion of nan large system. What’s bad astir nan strategy is thing that has to do pinch nan neo-capitalistic nine we unrecorded in, wherever everything is owned by finance firms. Like erstwhile AT&T, a fucking telephone company, took complete Time Warner. A telephone company! And nan caput of AT&T, he said to nan HBO people: ‘Now you discontinue this benignant of arty-farty crap and commencement doing lighter fare truthful we tin get our 15%.’ That’s horrible.”

Read IndieWire’s caller question and reply pinch Skarsgård astir “Sentimental Value” here.