Alexander Skarsgard is pleased he became a dad later in life because he could be "selfish" and prioritise his career for years.

The 49-year-old actor became a father for the first time in 2022 when Swedish actress Tuva Novotny gave birth to their son and he is "grateful" he had worked himself to a position where he can pick and choose jobs based on what works for him and his family's needs now.

He told the new issue of Britain's Esquire magazine: "I'm glad I didn't have that responsibility when I started out and could just be selfish and throw myself into anything without taking other people's needs and desires into consideration.

"That obviously changes when you have a kid and you have responsibility. For example, with Murderbot my son was a year old when we started it, and it was shot in Toronto, but I was like, 'I can't go to Toronto for six months, so we need to look at the schedule, figure out a way I can come home and be with him, or when he can come out and be with me.'

"But I'm grateful that I am in a position today where I can afford to say no to stuff and also make sure that, when I do take a job, it works for the family."

The Succession star's father, Stellan Skarsgard, brothers Gustaf, Bill, and Valter, and half-brother Kolbjorn are all actors to and Alexander thinks they are all "incredibly talented", even if he hasn't seen all of their work.

He said: "First of all, I don't watch everything that they do, but it helps that I think they're all incredibly talented. I've honestly never seen one of my brothers or Dad and thought, 'This is bad. I don't believe this.' I mean, we've all done stuff where you're like, 'This is not a masterpiece, but I get what you're trying to do here and why you did it.'"

While Alexander is very supportive of his family's work, his grandmother was always his toughest critic.

He admitted: "Grandma was definitely not impressed. She'd be brutally honest, like, 'Yeah, I saw that thing. That wasn't very good. I could tell you weren't really trying hard.'

"And I'd say, 'You're right, Grandma, I was kind of winging it.' But it also meant that getting a compliment from her meant a lot, because you knew that she wouldn't sugarcoat anything."

The Winter issue of Esquire UK is out on 13 November. Visit https://www.esquire.com/uk/alexander-skarsgard-interview-2025 for more from Alexander.