(Cover) - EN Showbiz - Alexander Skarsgard spent time in bars when he lived in the UK because he wanted to “absorb the culture”.

The actor is well known for playing Eric Northman in American vampire drama True Blood. Despite being Swedish he supports British soccer club Leeds United, because he lived in the northern city when he was younger. Alexander describes the time as one of the most fun of his life, mostly because of some of the crazy characters he met.

“I lived there in 1997. I was in the Marines in Sweden and when I got out I was like, ‘Let’s do something fun for six months.’ Me and a buddy wanted to go to England, but we didn’t want t to go to London; we wanted to go somewhere where we’d actually hang out with the Brits,” he explained. “We had a great time. I studied English, but we wanted to absorb the culture so we spent our time in pubs.”

Alexander’s living arrangements made a huge impression on him when he was away from home. He met a number of people he wouldn’t normally have mixed with, including one with an unusual job.

“I liked that it was rough and ready,” he told the British edition of Elle magazine. “We lived in this basement and shared the bathroom down the hall with these two other guys. One looked like the murderer from Twin Peaks, the other heard us talking and said, ‘Are you guys from Sweden? I did a lot of business in Sweden.’ We were like, ‘Oh, cool, what did you do?’ And he was like, ‘I smuggled drugs.’” (C) Cover Media