Alexander Skarsgård Explains the Real Reason He Dressed in Drag

If you’re still scratching your head, wondering why Alexander Skarsgård showed up in full glamorous drag to the L.A. premiere of his latest film on Monday, we’ve got answers.

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The 38-year-old actor told PEOPLE at the Cinema Society screening of The Diary of a Teenage Girl in N.Y.C. Wednesday that he simply didn’t want to feel left out.

“Well, as soon as I heard about it — the fact that we would do it in San Francisco and our friends were going to host the screening and they were all going to show in drag — I was like, I want to be part of that,” he shared. “I don’t want to be excluded from the fun.”

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Skarsgård said the head-turning ensemble was very hot, itchy and painful. But, he admitted, “It was an incredibly fun transformation.”

“They spent four hours helping me, a group of five,” he said. “And they were so sweet and so helpful. They were fantastic.”

The True Blood star even has his own “drag mother” now.

“Whoever does your drag the first time becomes your mother. Mercedes is my drag mother,” he explained. “It was the most amazing time.”

The Diary of a Teenage Girl is in theaters Friday.

What did you think of the actor’s drag moment? Sound off below.

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–Jessica Fecteau