Stellan Skarsgard on Sentimental Value: Truthfully, you can never be a good parent'

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"There is a scene in Sentimental Value, Joachim Trier's Oscar-tipped family drama, in which an ageing director played by Stellan Skarsgard tells his estranged daughters, You can't write Ulysses driving to soccer practice. Ostensibly, it's an off-the-cuff comment about nobody in particular. Implicitly, it's a defence of his own glaring absence from their lives growing up. Neither of the women are buying it."

"For what it's worth, the actor playing Gustav agrees with the statement. It's true. You cannot, says Skarsgard, on a layover in London before flying back to Sweden for the holidays. The 74-year-old star of Mamma Mia!, Chernobyl and Dune is not ashamed to say he wasn't the sort of dad to stick around at his kids' football training. It would be so boring, he huffs with some melodrama. I would die."

The Independent covers major US topics including reproductive rights, climate change, and Big Tech and maintains on-the-ground reporting funded by donations. The outlet investigates financial ties such as Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC and produces documentaries like 'The A Word' about American women fighting for reproductive rights. The Independent rejects paywalls and solicits support to keep journalists reporting across the political spectrum. Sentimental Value follows Gustav, an ageing director trying to reconcile with grown daughters Nora and Agnes. The film foregrounds the tug-of-war between artistic ambition and parental absence, and portrays the daughters' ambivalence toward his attempted reconciliation.

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