Börje Salmings life has become a TV series, in the form of “Börje – The Journey of a Legend” on Viaplay. With Walter Skarsgård in the lead role as Börje Salming and co Hedda Stiernstedt as his wife Margitta Wendinportrays the hockey icon’s life and career.
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Valter Skarsgård and Hedda Stiernstedt play Börje Salming and Margitta Wendin
The actor Walter Skarsgård got the role of Börje Salming several years before the recording started. And if you’re going to portray one of the best hockey players of all time, hard and intense training is required, to say the least. For News24 tells Valter Skarsgård about how he prepared for the role of Börje Salming. And it’s not for the faint of heart.
Valter Skarsgård plays Börje Salming. Photo: Viaplay
How did you train for the role?
– Hard and long. It was two years of prep. Two years of learning to skate, and then also two years of chicken and rice and five days a week at the gym. Plus hockey. But a large part of the training for me was finding this mentality, says Skarsgård and continues:
– My trainer once said before a session: “Today you will start crying. It won’t be the heaviest we’ve driven, it won’t be the hardest, but you’ll be laughing when we’re done”. And then we drove in a way that was so uncomfortable in the muscles that I had an anxiety attack, and just cried and cried.
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This is how Valter Skarsgård trained for the role of Börje Salming
Valter Skarsgård says that his coach often pushed him very hard. And it wasn’t just to build muscle, but also to challenge him mentally.
– He wanted me to feel what it was like to be in these vulnerable situations, and to always bite the bullet and swallow the fatigue. Then he just said: “Stretch yourself. Börje had never looked tired, don’t show that you’re tired.”
– It was also a mental exercise. That no matter how tired you were, no one knew. And I had a lot of use for that mentally during the recording.
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