10 International Stars You Never Realised Weren’t American

9. Alexander Skarsgard - Swedish

Before he played a Scandinavian vampire in True Blood, Alexander Skarsgard was the none-more-American monikered Marine by the name of Sgt Brad 'Iceman' Colbert in David 'The Wire' Simon's Generation Kill, about the 21-day US invasion of Iraq in 2003. As Colbert, Skarsgard is the picture of an all-American soldier, cool under pressure and something of a hero, admired and respected by his fellow troops. Skarsgard, however, was born and raised in Sweden, and his natural language is Swedish. His father is the almost impossibly Scandinavian actor Stellan Skarsgard, the long-time Lars Von Trier collaborator best known for putting his pronounced accent to use in a host of menacing, generic European villain roles. Since breaking away from True Blood and into (mostly independent) film, there's been no trace of Skarsgard's heritage on-screen, the actor instead mostly playing character's whose names are as American as they can get; think his Lincoln in What Maisie Knew, Benji in The East, and, quite probably the best example of all, Commander Stone Hopper in Battleship.