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

Mamma Mia’s Christine Baranski has outed her co-star for his attitude toward key scenes in the hit films.

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).

Stellan Skarsgård, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth in the film.

Meryl Streep played Sophie’s mother, Donna, while Baranski played Tanya, a wealthy divorcee and Donna’s longtime friend.

“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, per Page Six.

“[He would] skip down the hill multiple times,” she said of the James Bond alum, adding that Firth “meant all of his moves ironically.”

Christine Baranski opened up about why Skarsgård hated filming certain aspects.

“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.

The Andor star revealed that Brosnan, for his part, “was game.”

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.

The movie also stars Amanda Seyfried.

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.

“I was in London with [producer] Judy Kramer at our favourite 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.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Post and was reproduced with permission.

Originally published as Mamma Mia star Christine Baranski reveals which co-star ‘hated’ filming experience