The Swedish actress, Louis Vuitton muse, plays Catherine Parr, the powerful wife of Henry VIII, in The Queen's Gambit, with Jude Law. A new challenge met with talent.
In lotus position on a small brown leather armchair, Alicia Vikander is immersed in the screen of her smartphone, her eyes riveted on the portrait of a woman captured by American photographer Vivian Maier. “I always take a moment during the day to look at art images,” she says, looking up. Today, the Swedish actress and ex-dancer is wearing jeans and a navy blue summer sweater. We meet her before the actors' strike.
She is petite and delicately beautiful. Behind the grace, a fighter. From committed cinema to Hollywood action films, she has played a remarkable range of characters. Wife of transgender pioneer Lili Elbe in The Danish Girl, an Oscar-winning performance. Android in Ex Machina. Feminist writer (Vera Brittain) in Memories of Youth.
Political activist (Gloria Steinem) in The Glorias… At the end of May, after climbing the steps at the Cannes Film Festival on the arm of her husband, the German-Irish actor Michael Fassbender, and his acting partner, Jude Law, the star received an eight-minute standing ovation during the screening of The Queen's Game (Firebrand), a film by Karim Aïnouz. Her eyes clouded with tears, the Louis Vuitton muse was spectacular in a silk dress by Nicolas Ghesquière, decorated with more than 60,000 silver glass microtubes.
Courted by great filmmakers for her protean acting, Alicia Vikander reveals a new facet with each interpretation. “Brilliant.” This is the first word that actor Eddie Redmayne used to describe the woman who gave him the answer in The Danish Girl: “I would not have held on to this very difficult role without her deep gaze,” he told us. 'actor. When Alicia looks into your eyes, she searches your soul. It’s a call to order.
With her, you can’t cheat.” "Intense." This is how filmmaker Olivier Assayas describes it: “I wrote the Irma Vep series for Alicia,” he says. I knew she was going to convey the complexity of the scenario, deepen it, sometimes contradict it.” "Intrepid."
For American actor Jude Law – who plays her in The Queen's Gambit, a feminist tale about Catherine Parr, Henry VIII's sixth wife – “Alicia Vikander was impressive. She embodied all the traits of this young queen on fire, the only one to have succeeded in imposing herself on a king who had his previous wives executed or repudiated.
Since Royal Affair, which was revealed in 2012, Alicia Vikander, 35, continues to push the limits. In the middle of filming Hope, a Korean film, with Michael Fassbender, the actress continues her career as a producer at the same time. Mother of a 2-year-old boy, whom she had with the actor she married in 2017, she continues to travel the world, currently living in Lisbon, airy and relaxed, like the little light suitcase, next to her that day, containing books, two pairs of jeans and her passport.
Alicia Vikander. – There is something obsessive and a little crazy in all actors. I inherited my sense of discipline from dance. I'm an actress, but I could have been a dancer. At the age of 15, I left home because I had secured a place at a ballet school in Stockholm. I lived in a tiny apartment of less than 20 square meters, in a bohemian neighborhood. I didn't have much, but I was ambitious. I understood very quickly that discipline would be my ally.
Discipline constitutes 80% of the chances of success for a dancer, just as for an actress. I read that it takes at least ten thousand hours of work to excel in any discipline. People love to see us perform on red carpets, but those moments are just the illusion of what the movie industry is. The reality is the crazy passion we dedicate to our profession. The shooting of a film represents a long period – months – during which strangers, brought together for the same purpose, work fifteen hours a day, six days a week, and sleep little.
His culture, allowed him to exist outside his time and to stand up to Henry VIII. Catherine Parr learned and spoke five languages: English, French, Italian, Latin, and Spanish. She was the first woman in Britain to have a book published under her name, Prayers or Meditations, almost five hundred years ago!
It played a vital role in the politics and religion of 16th-century England. She is a shadowy political heroine, a supporter of the right of the English people to self-determination and ready to do anything for their fights: “What's the point of being queen if I don't have the courage of my convictions? “, she says in the film.
I like women who dare to take up space and push the limits. They are my guides. I have in mind a whole plethora of courageous female artists who serve as a source of inspiration for me to move forward – including actresses.
I like women who dare to take up space and push the limits
Liv Ullmann, first of all. She taught me to accept the most terrifying thing about our profession: an actress does not have control of a film. I can do the same take twenty times, but I will never know which one will be chosen during editing. The end result is a surprise. In Liv Ullmann's performance, we feel a letting go, a total trust in the director, but also an extraordinary presence in herself and in the character. Then I would quote Kate Winslet.
And Julianne Moore who I had the chance to meet. We met on the set of The Glorias, a film which retraces the journey of the journalist Gloria Steinem, who defended the cause of women, and whom we play during two different periods of her life.
Julianne is an extraordinary actress and a movie buff who knows how to make choices, which is essential in an actress' career. She was always protective of me. During the filming of Seventh Son, another film, she defended me against unacceptable remarks made to me. She taught me to fight back,and to use my own weapons.
At 27, you launched the London-based production company Vikarious. At the origin of this idea, was there the desire to highlight more actresses and directors?
Absolutely. One of the first films we produced – Euphoria: There Are No Happy Endings – is a drama by Swedish director Lisa Langseth, with a female cast. I play there alongside Eva Green and Charlotte Rampling.
I want to create projects with directors, writer,s and cinematographers that I have the chance to meet, and with whom a common reflection is woven around themes about our time. For example, I had already worked with Lisa Langseth, in two feature films on social and psychological issues.
The first, Pure, tells the story of how a young woman manages to escape from her original environment, a suburb in Sweden, for a brighter future. The second, Hotell, is a filmthath features a group of people who are dissatisfied with the job they do and who meet in hotel rooms to undergo group therapytoo change their destiny. In summary, I like the deep, Bergmanian meaning that cinema sometimes cultivates.
They were intellectuals who taught me a lot: they nourished me with all kinds of artistic experiencesthath opened me up to the world. Now that I am a mother, I realize the crazy amount of time my mother dedicated to my awakening, while her days were overloaded.
She took me to the theater, to exhibitions... My father always gave me a new book to read. He still gives me some today. Most of them are science fiction books, a literary genre that we love. I also love the American writer Ursula K.
Le Guin, for her inventiveness and her description of humanity,is as powerful as that of Tolkien. I'm reading The Left Hand of Darkness, which she published in 1969, and which talks about genetic evolution where humans are neither male nor female. They are asexual.
This book really set the tone on issues of gender. It’s also my father’s favorite book, and it’s part of his real life. For years, he has been working on programs that offer the possibility of medical and psychological support for those who want to change their sex. My father grew up in the 1940, when the terms “transgender” and “non-binary” did not yet exist. I'm so proud of him!
You left Sweden for London, then London for Lisbon, where you live. Why Portugal?
Michael (Fassbender) and I have always tried to keep fame at bay. Moving from London to Lisbon five years ago was a big leap, as I had lived in London for seven years and Michael for eighteen. I alwaysfelt veryy European, but I was sad after Brexit.
One weekend, we went to see friends who had settled in Lisbon, and we fell in love with the city. Lisbon has the charm of these capitals on a human scale. The climate is mild and we can go to the beach with our son in less than half an hour.
You can skateboard and surf. Off-set, I'm pretty wild. I love the calm,and the sound of the waves, and even more since the pandemic. I avoid spending time on my phone. I am not present on social networks. It's my armor. I defend my privacy and surround myself with people who respect it. During my wedding, for example, Nicolas Ghesquière designed and designed a sublime wedding dress for me, but we decided not to show it publicly. Only those close to me keep the memory of it; we had very strict security in place during the ceremony.
What fascinates you about the world and collections of Nicolas Ghesquière for Louis Vuitton?
I like to tell myself that there is a synergy between us. I often compare Nicolas Ghesquière's creations to armor, because their cuts, ahead of their time, give women confidence. Together we talk about cinema, design and architecture. Through his fashion shows and collections, he distils his vision of art, full of dazzling and rich in references. His imagination is deep and borderless.
I remember a magical Louis Vuitton fashion show at the Louvre Museum, where neo-Victorian pieces and embroidered blouses, inspired by the 18th century, rubbed shoulders with vinyl pants and fluorescent shorts. Nothing is ever in vain in the stories his clothes tell. He reads the times and transforms them, like the great prophets of fashion. Seeing the different versions of myself that he has allowed me to embrace over the years is extraordinary. We have wonderful memories together. He created, for example, costumes for the filming of the series Irma Vep, by Olivier Assayas.
I want to create projects with directors, writers and directors of photography that I have the chance to meet
It's a revolution. My life has changed in every way. Motherhood is so strong, impossible to imagine until you have a baby in your arms. I am happy to build my own family. Michael and I are very close, and we have established rules to never lose sight of the fact that the priority is our son's happiness.
Isn't it difficult for two successful actors to preserve special family moments?
Michael and I have been together all the time for nine years. We share the tasks in an almost perfect balance. When I have to leave, he stays home, and vice versa. We always find a way to experience quality moments, while respecting the all-consuming passion that we each have for our profession. I find it terrible that, in the name of family, most women from generations preceding mine were unable to flourish professionally. Fortunately, things are changing.
What feminism do you advocate?
I'm not a hardcore feminist. I like men. I simply want us to find a common path, with respect for each other. Michael, for example, knew my thirst to discover the world, and he never stopped me from doing anything.
What countries and culture have you discovered through cinema?
I dreamed, for example, of working in Asia, and I remember the first time I was invited to an international film festival, at 21 years old. It was in Korea. Now this country is very fashionable, but ten years ago, I found myself thrown into a fascinating reality that was completely foreign to me. Later, I went to live in Tokyo for five months to film The Stormbird (2019). And now I'm going back to Korea for a film with Michael.
This is the first time we've played together again since A Life Between Two Oceans (2016). The film, titled Hope, a drama with a fantasy dimension, is directed by Na Hong-jin, a Korean filmmaker of whom I am a fan. Michael and I play English-speaking roles, but the cast is predominantly Korean. I find there the actress Jung Ho-yeon, who I loved in the series Squid Game. Every morning, when I wake up, I measure how lucky I am to be in cinema.
