Alexander Skarsgard would like to play a "very polite" James Bond.

The 48-year-old actor explained how he undertook national service in Sweden as a teenager because he liked the idea of being like the suave spy, and with no successor yet appointed to take over the role from Daniel Craig, he pitched the idea he could take the part - but with "no violence at all".

He told The Times newspaper of his national service: "I did it because I was 19, I didn't know what I wanted to do and I wanted to be James Bond for 18 months."

Asked about taking the character to the big screen, he added: "I could be a very polite, diplomatic Swedish James Bond, who negotiates. There'll be no violence at all. It'll just be boardroom meetings where people try to find consensus, everyone's stressed out and desperately tries to avoid an argument or complications, that's very Swedish. I'll pitch it!"

After getting his big break in 'Zoolander' when he was 25, Alexander struggled for some time to get roles of "substance" because of his good looks.

He recalled: "There were definitely some rough years.

"I was in my twenties, trying to get a job in LA, but I would never come across anything of substance. Any time I read something that was even remotely interesting, someone more established would come and take it.

"I was auditioning for jock number three in a bad TV series and not getting it. It wasn't, 'I'm too good for this s***,' but it wasn't a great feeling either."

And after seven years, he was asked to audition for war drama 'Generation Kill' - which cast unknown actors - and he recalled the "horrible" wait to find out if he had got the part - and when he did, he couldn't stop worrying that things were "too good to be true".

He said: "Waiting to hear was horrible, horrible, horrible. Every time the phone rang, I would get heart palpitations -- it was either get your dream job and fly to Namibia for seven months or go back to unemployment. But I got it and the next day I was on a plane with seven thick scripts, incredibly insecure and scared because it was too good to be true."