Stellan Skarsgård has criticized Donald Trump’s demands for Denmark to hand over the territory of Greenland.
The Swedish actor, 74, was asked about his reaction to Trump’s threats during a press conference Saturday at the European Film Awards.
“It’s absurd, isn’t it?” Skarsgård slammed. “It’s a little man who got megalomania, and he’s trying to take the world. He took Venezuela, suddenly, and that’s for Chevron. He’ll take Greenland for minerals. He’s a criminal.”
The Dune actor was referring to Trump’s decision to remove Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro from power before he began talks with oil giant Chevron to expand its license in Venezuela.
Trump, who has had a longstanding interest in purchasing Greenland, said he set his sights on the territory due to “national security” reasons. In a lengthy Truth Social post Saturday, Trump threatened a 25 percent tariff on a slew of European countries that oppose the annexation, including Denmark, France, Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands and Sweden.
Denmark and its European allies have firmly insisted that Greenland is not for sale and slammed Trump’s threats as unacceptable.
Skarsgård recently won the best supporting actor award at the Golden Globes for his performance in Joachim Trier’s Norwegian family drama Sentimental Value. The Swedish actor and Norwegian director, whose home countries both neighbor Greenland, both shared their frustration with the political stand-off at Saturday’s winners’ press conference in Berlin.
Trier responded: “Sitting in Europe today. I think that what we’ve learned from history is that the idea of appropriation of other countries and the idea of colonization is something that we suffer through guilt for in Europe, in the sense that we are trying to move forward from that idiotic idea.
“Denmark has come a long way in apologizing and trying to make good for their appropriation of Greenland in the past, and Greenland is for people from Greenland. So, this idea of reappropriating it for another culture, when Denmark has been very clear that America can, through NATO Alliance, protect Greenland if they feel like it in a greater military capacity, and now this is happening.”
He concluded, “I agree with Stellan that it’s an absurd notion, and international law must be respected, because grinding that down will have such tremendous domino effects on how other superpowers will treat other countries, so the dominant effect of that is extremely worrying, if it is to happen.”
