‘Mamma Mia' star Christine Baranski reveals which co-star ‘hated' filming experience

New York Post

09-05-2025

He was not a Super Trouper.
Christine Baranski has revealed that her 'Mamma Mia!' co-star Stellan Skarsgård wasn't particularly fond of his time working on the 2008 film.
Based on the music of ABBA, the initial film was set on the fictional Greek island of Kalokairi. It followed a bride, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), who secretly invited three men to the wedding who might be her father: Sam (Pierce Brosnan), Bill (Skarsgård) and Harry (Colin Firth).
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5 Christine Baranski has revealed that her 'Mamma Mia!' co-star Stellan Skarsgård wasn't particularly fond of his time working on the 2008 film.
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Meryl Streep played Sophie's mother, Donna, while Baranski played Tanya, a wealthy divorcée and Donna's longtime friend.
Recalling the experience, Baranski revealed that Skarsgård struggled getting into the dancing spirit — specifically at the end of the film when the cast dances to Abba's 1976 hit track, 'Dancing Queen.'
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'I don't think he'll mind my saying he hated having to do the dance stuff,' Baranski, 73, said on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.'
The 'Andor' star revealed that Brosnan, for his part, 'was game.'
5 Skarsgård would 'let out a string of expletives' in response to being asked to dance, according to Baranski.
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'[He would] skip down the hill multiple times,' she said of the James Bond alum, adding that Firth 'meant all of his moves ironically.'
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'When we finally went down the hill in 'Dancing Queen' and landed on the dock, the camera would move around and it usually would avoid Stellan,' Baranski added.
Still, the film went on to become a box office success that later birthed the second 'Mamma Mia!' movie, 2018's 'Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.'
5 Based on the music of ABBA, the 2008 film was set on the fictional Greek island of Kalokairi.
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5 The sequel grossed over $400 million at the global box office on a $75 million budget.
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The sequel — which grossed over $400 million at the global box office on a $75 million budget — was directed by Ol Parker, who made it clear to the cast that dancing was non-negotiable.
'You have got to do the moves now — you have simply got to do the moves,' he said to the actors ahead of their close-up shots.
As a result, Skarsgård would 'let out a string of expletives' in response, Baranski said.
'It's as if l had asked him to read Arabic poetry while jumping rope. He was like 'I can't do that,'' she added.
In August 2024, Baranski revealed that a third film was in the works.
5 The initial films also stars Pierce Brosnan, Amanda Seyfried and Julie Walters, among others.
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'I was in London with [producer] Judy Kramer at our favorite watering hole, [and] she is planning 'Mamma Mia 3.' She gave me the narrative plot line of how it's going to happen,' she told the Hollywood Reporter.
'The Gilded Age' star explained that Kramer was the type of producer who 'makes things happen' instead of saying that she '[wishes] it could happen.'