Next Swedish Hollywood export?

That Swedes are hot in Hollywood is no news. Ever since the days of Garbo  

  • Matias Varela—Sweden’s next Hollywood export? Varela’s breakthrough came with the film “Snabba cash” (“Easy Money”) in which he played the part of Jorge.
  • ..(followed by Ingrid Bergman, Lena Olin, Alexander Skarsgård and Noomi Rapace to just name a handful) Swedes have made their mark in the elusive business of stardom and fame.
    Might Matias Varela, from the film “Snabba cash” be next in line? (“Easy Money”- we wrote about the director, Daniel Espinosa under similar circumstances a year ago, Latest Swede in Hollywood after his directing Denzel Washington and others in a Hollywood production)
    Varela is fresh from a stint in the TV-series “The Borgias”, where he acts next to Jeremy Irons, and this certainly looks like the next step to success outside of Sweden.

  • Photo: Johan Bergmark
  • “People ask me if I am about to move to the U.S. now. No, I have just bought a place and I haven’t even settled in there. I am happy to work in Sweden. My goal is rather to work with great people,” says Varela. “I am happy to work as an actor at all. Just four years ago, I was a construction worker in Kista, so all this is just bonus. If I can go to the US, then I take my hat off for that chance.” Prompted though, Varela admits that maybe, just maybe, he might be our next Swedish Hollywood star.

  • “I’ve a good feeling both here and there. The business seems to like me, I don’t know why that is, but it is great.” He continues to reveal that his Hollywood agent sends his scripts from time to time, but he is secretive about his plans. Instead he talks about his dreams: One of them is to work with Christopher Nolan, whom he calls his “household god”, and directors like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. Not only dreams await Varela on the other side of the Atlantic, however. Over there is his best friend Gustaf Skarsgård, whom he has known since he was 13. Today, Gustaf is a welcome support in Varela’s relatively new career as an actor. “My part as Jorge (in “Snabba cash”) is the most important I’ve ever play. We have very little in common, and I had to work a lot with that character. To morph my Spanish into a Chilean Spanish, is like asking you to speak with a Scanian dialet. The part of Jorge has given me the life I now live.”