Alexander Skarsgård "retired" from acting when he was just 13.

The former True Blood actor, now 48, started his career as a child star and rose to fame in 1989 TV movie Hunden som log (The Dog That Smiled), and he was "suddenly" thrust into the spotlight in his homeland of Sweden.

Appearing on Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast, he recalled: "It was a 50-minute-long TV movie, but this was back in the 1980s, so we only had like two channels in Sweden, way before cable.

"So, if something was on, the whole country would watch it.

"I was 13 and suddenly just because of that one little thing, I was recognised."

Alexander - who is the son of Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård - admitted he was "incredibly self-conscious" about his own newfound fame.

He said: "For someone who's longing for a father in a grey suit, driving a gray Saab to the gray office, it was rough.

"I didn't like being recognised. I didn't like going to school and kids at school being like, 'Hey, I saw the movie.' "

His confidence was "down the drain", and he decided to step away from acting for what ended up being a decade.

He said: "It just crushed me. I was like, 'This is terrible. I don't want to keep doing this'. I retired. Threw in the towel at 13."

Although he eventually returned to acting - in 2001, Skarsgård made his Hollywood debut in Zoolander - he had no regrets.

He explained: "It wasn't a difficult decision. I was like, 'I don't want to be an actor anyways, I just want to drive a Saab.'

"So I just kind of stopped doing it."

Before getting his big break, Skarsgård struggled with the rejection that comes with trying to make it in Hollywood.

He told Jesse Tyler Ferguson's Dinner's On Me podcast: "I remember the feeling of coming back to my little s***** apartment in LA, you know, crying in the shower after a day like that.

"I just felt filthy in my soul and, like, zero confidence.

"I was like, 'I'm the worst actor in the world, and I also have no dignity because I go in and audition for this stuff. I'm wasting their time.' It's a rough feeling."