Alexander Skarsgard took the role in Disconnect because it was timely, but it also was a completely different character than the one he has made famous on True Blood.
“That’s something I always strive for. Egotistically it’s for myself. It’s not that I want to show people -- that is something that gets me creatively excited,” Skarsgard said. “Coming off a show like True Blood where you’ve played a character for seven months, you want to do something different.”
As seen in the Disconnect trailer, the film follows several interweaving stories that deal with the evil that the internet can bring. In Skarsgard's portion of the film, he and his wife (played by Paula Patton), have been victims of financial fraud that has wiped out their savings.
Instead of taking to the online world to find the guilty party, they gather information the old-fashioned way, by walking and driving the streets in search of answers. This comes after it is made clear early in the film that these two have grown apart.
"When you first meet them, they’re so far from each other emotionally… so it was important to find something to fight for. Because if you don’t feel that there was something there, then… just get a divorce," Skarsgard said of working with Patton.
"So, when they go on that road trip, you’re rooting for them to connect again.”