Skarsgård on the new TV series: Shows how power shuts down for the disaster

On the night of Saturday, April 26, 1986, four reactors exploded at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on the outskirts of the city of Prypjat, Ukraine (then the Soviet Union).

The consequences would be devastating, but at first, few understood what the explosion would have.

- The first thing you heard was that a nuclear power plant in Sweden measured high degrees of radioactivity, but pretty soon you understood where it came from, says Stellan Skarsgård, who was then 34 years old.

It was the personnel at the Swedish nuclear power plant Forsmark who discovered the radiation that spread across Europe, and raised alarms in Sweden. Until then, the disaster had been darkened by the Soviet authorities.

Now the story of the worst nuclear disaster of all time will be a television series on HBO Nordic, in a major international collaboration under the direction of Swedish director Johan Renck.

- It is a series that is not just about a terrible accident. It is also about why it happened. Nuclear power is unbelievably safe when it works, but what causes accidents anyway? ”Says Stellan Skarsgård.

Stellan Skarsgård has one of the central roles in the series, and plays Boris Sjtjerbina - sent from the Soviet Ministry of Energy to deal with and if possible darken the worst consequences of the meltdown.

"It is a man who has devoted his entire life to defending this political system, this ideology, and has always believed in it," explains Stellan Skarsgård.

- When confronted with reality, and he sees what it can lead to, he has to choose between defending what he believed in his entire life - or defending the truth.

In Chernobyl, Skarsgård is joined by international stars like Jared Harris and Emily Watson, but also by Swedish colleague David Dencik. Together, they must try to save the situation as quickly as possible, and avoid a radioactive spread that risks making large parts of Europe uninhabitable.

The series is a story about the cynicism of international politics, and how blind ideological beliefs can get in the way of humanity and rationality. It is also a series that ties in with our own time, says Stellan Skarsgård.

- If power or economy is allowed to rule and to deny the scientists' knowledge, the result will be disastrous, he concludes.

Chernobyl premieres on May 7 at HBO Nordic.