Stellan Skarsgard Pokes Fun at Himself (and Fatherhood) in Golden Globes Acceptance Speech

Stellan Skarsgård brought self-deprecating humor to the Golden Globes stage as he accepted the award for Best Supporting Male Actor in a Motion Picture for Sentimental Value at the 2026 ceremony on January 11. .

While thanking those who helped him bring the role to life, the actor couldn’t resist poking fun at his own parenting. “My children have been very educational,” Skarsgård said. “I’m playing a father who is a bad father, and my children have really told me what a bad father is.”

The win marked another Golden Globe for Skarsgård, who previously took home the honor for his role in HBO’s Chernobyl. 

A father of eight—including actors Alexander, Gustaf, Bill, and Valter Skarsgård, the actor also made a point to credit his wife, Megan Everett Skarsgård, for helping him prepare for the film.

“I’ve got to thank my wife, Megan Everett Skarsgård,” he said. “She’s been amazing—brutal support, a tough lover, and very educational.”

Skarsgård’s candid remarks echoed a moment from an earlier Actors on Actors conversation with his son Alexander, where the True Blood star joked about his dad’s role in Sentimental Value. “It’s a beautiful film,” Alexander told him. “You play yourself, right? An absentee father?”

The Globes speech was also not his first time leaning into humor on the awards stage. When he won a Golden Globe in 2020 for Chernobyl, he famously thanked the show’s makeup team for giving him eyebrows, joking that director Miloš Forman once told him he could never remember Skarsgård’s face.

“I realized it was because I don’t have any eyebrows,” the actor said at the time. “Nobody could tell if I’m angry or surprised. It’s not like Colin Farrell—you can tell if he’s angry from 20 miles away. For this film, they finally made a couple of eyebrows for me.”

Skarsgård ended his speech Sunday by urging viewers to experience the Norwegian film on the big screen in theatres. 

"Hopefully you'll see it in a cinema because they're an [extinct] species now. In a cinema where the lights go down ... cinema should be seen in cinemas,” he said.