Best Supporting Actor 2025: Stellan Skarsgård in Sentimental Value

Stellan Skarsgård received his first Oscar nomination for portraying Gustav Borg in Sentimental Value. 

Sentimental Value follows a noted film director as he tries to reconnect with his daughters after their mother’s death. 

Stellan Skarsgård, who really is just one of the faces of cinema with how commonly he appears in so many different projects, finally earns Oscar recognition. Although there’s a reason I mentioned his character first in the brief plot description because this is a lead performance by Stellan Skarsgård, who despite having a little bit less of screentime than his onscreen daughter Nora (Renate Reinsve) the character of Gustav Borg is just as important to the narrative of the piece. Skarsgård enters the film as the family is hosting the funeral reception for his deceased ex-wife at his family’s longtime home. So much of the film is a showcase for Skarsgård and in many ways utilizing his presence in an expected, though very effective fashion. As we get Skarsgård coming into any scene and very much taking the space up with his combination between charm and grouch, where in a way part of the charm is the grouch. An aspect that instantly makes you accept him as this larger than life director with the will very much all his own and the man whose name does precede him, unfortunately in a way his name means more to his daughters than his presence given he was largely away from them during their childhood. Skarsgård very easily has this idea of the power of a personality director and sets up with ease that perspective of the man. 

This is not a coasting performance whatsoever by Skarsgård however as he very much is challenging his own presence by often deconstructing more of that expectation with what is going on with Gustav within his own mind. As really a remarkable moment in his first scene is as he approaches the house you do see the regrets flowing through his mind, his sadness perhaps over his disconnect with his family, perhaps even with his wife, before then entering the home where he becomes the larger than life, life of the reception in many ways with Skarsgård’s very particular charm of his. Skarsgård naturally crafts the history of the relationship with the family in the first major scene he shares with his eldest daughter Nora/Reinsve. Where he wants her to lead his next film and Skarsgård throughout the scene naturally fluctuates towards maybe how Gustav could improve himself while also falling into his old ways. When talking about the script and offering it to her, there is a really quiet passion that Skarsgård brings to every word in the offer, however when she battles back by his lack of knowledge of her acting since he’s failed to ever watch and stay at one of her stage performances. Where we then get his dismissiveness which Skarsgård delivers as essentially a relaxed setting for Gustav to attempt to explain himself as simply not liking theater and knowing a great actor in 2 minutes. After Nora rejects the offer, maybe the most honest Gustav is left behind, where Skarsgård’s expression speaks of so many burning emotions he wants to express but cannot. 

Skarsgård’s performance during his sequence at a film festival, where he comes across famous American actress Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning), because he utilizes it as an alternative side of himself as we see him in a situation where he is not in control. Something we first see when he’s watching his own film, which starred his younger daughter in her youth Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), Skarsgård again reveals so much more emotions he’s truly feeling in regards to his family likely painfully as he sees his expression of his life within the film. Something that when asked about it, Skarsgård’s delivery that it was just memories of the time you sense the detail that isn’t wholly sincere as he doesn’t reveal himself. In fact his moment later of hoping to make another feature film at some point do you sense a more open vulnerability in the casual way, yet Skarsgård undercuts it suggesting genuine vulnerability on whether or not he will be able to express himself again. An element that we find further as Rachel expresses her interest in working with him and her love of his film. Where Skarsgård plays an interesting not quite starstruck quality with Fanning, but some semblance of the man being out of his situation with the stature of his name. Skarsgård brings naturally even a bit of shyness in these moments, within his eyes though the idea of a man seeing some opportunity to continue his film by casting her in the part intended for his own daughter. 

After essentially the “coup” of getting Kemp to make his film Skarsgård’s manner changes wholeheartedly though now to a wholly confident director and Skarsgård simply is fun to watch when we see him undergoing his process of prepping Rachel for the role by showing the childhood home including the stool that his mother used to hang herself…well it might in fact be from Ikea. Skarsgård’s manner though is interesting combination because at times when speaking of the technical elements of the film he speaks with this calm authority of a director with years of experience, when speaking about the dramatic intentions of the scenes he properly lays on a little thick towards Rachel to emphasize every moment with an extra bit of dramatic importance to get her into the headspace of the scene, yet he’s also guarded when asking about his own mother Skarsgård loses all connection emphasizing Gustav’s passions to making the film but the moment it becomes more personal and less personal for the sake of the film he rejects the notion. Skarsgård having the right type of fun in presenting Gustav in his element much of the time, even the press asking too many stupid questions hassling Rachel, we get a wonderful bit of Gustav cutting down the interviewer to defend his star, with proper grouchy aplomb from Skarsgård.

The film follows as we get the two parallel stories of Gustav trying to make his film while also attempting to connect with his family, something Nora entirely rejects despite moments where he reaches out where Skarsgård artfully manages to say it all without saying much of anything as words fail yet the need is conveyed deeply in his eyes. His younger daughter is much more embracing of the notion particularly as we see Gustav interact with her son, where Skarsgård brings so much warmth with the grandson. Where you see the classic cold dad, loving grandad realized wholly naturally where there’s no weight about any interaction in these moments to Skarsgård’s performance, just love where we see the purest form of play honestly between the two of them. I adore these moments as a kind of balance and in a way Skarsgård showing the love Gustav has to give if he didn’t get in his own way. Contrasting that is creating the film where we see Gustav continuing to make compromises where Skarsgård internalizes effectively the growing distress and disconnect as it is becoming clear that the film is not the truth he had intended. Skarsgård in the quieter moments with his producer, potentially rejecting his aged cinematographer subtlety showing a man contemplating his age more seriously. Finding the anxiety of it and the man being lost without the family he does have. When Rachel rejects the film after all because it is all compromise, Skarsgård’s reactions are of the smallest defense of delivering to hold onto the film, but more so acceptance that this version of the film is not his desire. It’s an interesting situation however where the revelation/turn of the character is when he’s offscreen entirely because it stems from his two daughters both reading his screenplay and finding his form of expression to both his past and to them. As much as it seems like this choice might put Skarsgård off the hook to portray the scene, it honestly makes his work all the more essential because Skarsgård needs to portray the core of this idea throughout without being given the final moment. Skarsgård earns it by making it a fundamental reality within Gustav throughout, where we see the cracks and realities of his emotions, even if on the surface he attempts to hide so much of himself. Skarsgård doesn’t waste the opportunity of this performance, giving us so much of why he’s always been such a welcome screen presence with his particular charm, sense of humor, and really acerbic elements, while also genuinely diving deeper into creating a dynamic portrait of a man perhaps too defined by his artistic expression.