Stellan Skarsgård has criticised Donald Trump after he threatened to annex Greenland.
The US president has recently been ramping up rhetoric around potentially taking the autonomous island territory, which is self-governed, though matters of foreign policy and defence are run by Denmark. Trump has claimed a takeover is for security purposes.
Over the weekend, the US president called for the “complete and total purchase” of Greenland on his social media platform Truth Social, and has threatened tariffs on European nations, the UK, Denmark, France, Sweden, Germany, Norway, Finland and the Netherlands after they deployed troops to the island in opposition to threats.
Speaking at the European Film Awards over the weekend, where his film Sentimental Value took home a number of prizes – including Best Actor – Skarsgård hit out at Trump.
“It’s absurd, isn’t it? It’s a little man who got megalomania, and he’s trying to take the world,” he said (via Deadline), before referencing Trump’s actions in Venezuela earlier this month, which saw president Nicolás Maduro removed from power and ramped up fears over Greenland.
“He took Venezuela, suddenly, and that’s for Chevron. He’ll take Greenland for minerals. He’s a criminal,” the actor added.
Skarsgård’s country Sweden neighbours Denmark, while Sentimental Value director Joachim Trier is Danish and Norwegian.
Politicians and citizens of Greenland and Denmark have opposed the US threats, while UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer has said that Greenland and Denmark are the only ones who “must decide the future of” the island, later calling Trump’s tariff threats “wrong” (via BBC News).
Skarsgård isn’t the only star to speak out, with Björk recently expressing support for Greenland’s independence, while also criticising Denmark.
“I wish all Greenlanders blessing in their fight for independence,” she wrote on social media. “Icelanders are extremely relieved that they managed to break from the Danish in 1944. We didn’t lose our language (my children would be speaking danish now), and I burst with sympathy for Greenlanders.”
She continued: “Colonialism has repeatedly given me horror chills up my back, and the chance that my fellow Greenlanders might go from one cruel coloniser to another is too brutal to even imagine.”
Björk referenced the Icelandic phrase “Úr öskunni í eldinn”, or “from the ashes into the fire”, before concluding: “Dear Greenlanders, declare independence! Sympathetic wishes from your neighbours.”
In other news, Skarsgård has revealed that people are working to bring Meryl Streep’s Mamma Mia character “back from the dead” for a third movie.