Stellan Skarsgård loved playing a "bimbo" in Mamma Mia

Dune: Part Two star Stellan Skarsgård says he loved playing a "bimbo" in the hit movie Mamma Mia (via Entertainment Weekly).

The actor starred in the 2008 movie as Donna's (Meryl Streep) former flame and one of Sophie's (Amanda Seyfried) potential fathers.

Initially unconvinced by his casting, Skarsgård claimed it was "absurd to ask me to be in a musical" but was later reassured by the presence of his co-stars.

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"I can't sing, I can't dance. And then I saw it was also Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth, and they can't sing and dance either, so I felt a little safer there."

After realising that he and the other potential fathers (Brosnan and Firth) were there as eye candy, he quickly came around to the idea.

"I understood that we were just supposed to be — like in a film that is produced by men and directed by men and men in the leads, you have the bimbo — and we were the bimbos in this female production," he mused.

"We didn't have to be anything but look cute and be silly. There's only one thing that was asked of us and that was, 'Have fun.' Because if we don't have fun, it won't be a film."

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Despite having a good time on set, Skarsgård recalled the effort he and Firth put into learning how to sing and dance. "Me and Colin coming to dance lessons, in our slacks and our little Paul Smith shirts and everything, and 60 dancers that are dressed up like dancers are."

They weren't entirely successful however, as Skarsgård adds: "We really tried for a month and a half, trying to dance to 'Voulez-Vous', and we failed.'"

Meanwhile, there's no ambitious dancing from Skarsgård in his recent movie, Dune: Part Two. Discussing his unpleasant experience in his Baron Vladimir Harkonnen fat suit, he told Digital Spy: "Every scene is challenging if you have 50kg of prosthetics on."

Dune: Part Two is out now in cinemas. Dune is available to watch on Netflix.