When Firebrand premiere at the Cannes Film Festival last year, the audience gave Alicia Vikander a rousing, eight-minute standing ovation. Among the applauding crowd were Marion Cotillard, Michelle Yeoh and, of course, Vikander’s husband Michael Fassbender. Vikander was worthy of it all. Her performance as Katherine Parr, King Henry VIII’s sixth and final wife, who famously outlived the tyrannical monarch, is electrifying.
The film, directed by Karim Aïnouz, focuses on Katherine’s dysfunctional and abusive marriage to the ailing Henry VIII, portrayed brilliantly by Jude Law as an incompetent and, at times, quite revolting king in the final years of his life. But it’s Vikander, 35, who really steals the show.
The role is the latest in her slow and steady burn of a career, in which she has played everything from a humanoid robot in Ex Machina, to the wife of artist Lili Elbe, one of the first transgender women to undergo a sex-change operation, in The Danish Girl, a performance that earned her the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in 2016. Vikander is an actor without limits.
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She grew up in Gothenburg, Sweden, later moving to Stockholm where she trained as a ballet dancer in her teens. But acting was always her passion and, in 2012, she landed a leading role in Anna Karenina, which won her global acclaim, before taking on 2016’s The Light Between Oceans, where she met Fassbender. (They have two children and divide their time between Lisbon, where they are based, and London.)
The couple recently worked together again on the much- anticipated Korean thriller Hope, directed by Na Hong-jin and out next year. While filming, Vikander quickly bonded with her co-star Taylor Russell over their shared experience of rising in Hollywood. Now, back in London, the two actors talk through post- production blues, accepting the chaos of their careers and creating space for moments of peace.
ALICIA: Hey! Good to see you. How are you?
TAYLOR: I’m good, I’m good. We’re both back in London.
A: Yes, we are. I’m just back from New York and it’s summer outside. I’m very pleased.
T: I’m so happy to talk to you because I haven’t seen you since we were in Korea. On the flight home, we got to sit together and eat and talk. We talked at length about your interest in AI, which you are so well-versed in.
A: I grew up with a dad who was really interested in it, back when I was just a nerd. Now it’s dinner-table conversation everywhere.
T: So, I watched Firebrand last week when I was in Morocco. I’ve never done a period drama before. How do you prepare for it and what drew you to Katherine, who was so ahead of her time?
A: I had this moment where I was embarrassed when I first read the script. I didn’t know anything about this woman. She was the first woman to ever be published in British history. How come I had never heard of her? I asked around my British friends and nobody knew that fact either. That’s quite a big moment in history for women! And so, I went back and read her books, which was so interesting because it was an incredible way of getting personal contact with someone who lived 500 years ago. To have Henry as her husband who, on a whim, just kills anyone he wants, including his wives, is such an emotional trauma. You realise how tough times have been, and the reality of women’s experiences in that. So it’s important to remember to see past the costumes and sets, which is something Jude and I worked on a lot.
T: Do you feel sad when you leave the characters you’ve played, or excited to move on?
A: I always have the blues when I finish a job. Especially if it has been one of those good ones, which as I get older is what I’m seeking. I had it on Firebrand. It was a very tough subject, but we had a great time. So, there is a sadness that it’s over, but it’s also like having done a sprint. I’m tired, and by the end of the job I’ve already started to look at something else.
T: The first time we see Jude as Henry is when he returns early from a trip, and he’s brought you a parrot. There is so much beauty in that scene, of watching him get excited about the gift he got you. But we’re also seeing how you feel about him and the anxiety of him returning sooner than expected.
A: We found a lot of scenes difficult to do, and often it was some of these quieter ones, where the underlying fear was almost greater than in the physical scenes. Jude and I had a really good time working together. We wanted to tell a story about a marriage. It is extremely abusive and tragic, and she loathes him deep down, but she can’t leave him. I think, when he walks in, she is terrified of this man, but she has been with him for years by that point. We wanted it to feel like these are two people who know each other. And that’s when it can become more terrifying to watch, because there is a strange tenderness there that has formed from co-existing. We wanted to make sure we showed this relationship as a whole.
T: I have found that, sometimes, the final product can feel completely different to what you thought you made. Sometimes my memory plays tricks on me and I don’t necessarily remember it being shot in that way, or at that angle.
A: You have to let go. You can’t be in control of your own work, which is a really strange feeling. But then you realise that’s actually what it’s like to be an actor. That can be really hard sometimes. Obviously, working with people and directors you trust really helps. T: It feels like being an actor is just a constant exercise in relinquishing control, which ultimately is really helpful in your life, because you can’t control everything.
A: I have found myself, with very big milestones in my life, thinking, ‘How would Alicia the actor portray this?’ Like with having children, or when my mum passed away a year ago. Then I’ve found myself in these situations when something happens and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, it was so different to how I would have imagined it.’ And that’s the cool thing about acting, I end up getting more and more tools throughout life.
T: Something that hit me is, in all your roles, you can tell that you’re a dancer because of the beautiful way you move your body. But in Firebrand there are limitations with costume. How challenging was that?
A: Movement is at the core of everything I’ve been trained to do. I spent nine years at ballet school. It’s one of the first things that happens when I inhabit a role – when I’m at home and reading lines out loud and hoping no one sees me. In Firebrand, the costumes shape the way you move. Me and the actors who played my ladies in waiting had to see osteopaths, because the square shapes they wore around their bust push your shoulders up, and we all had pain from our necks to our shoulder blades. We were in agony.
T: What are you feeling inspired by right now?
A: I am preparing for two jobs at the moment, and I have come to a point where I’m finding the balance between work and having a family. I narrow it down to two things now – the people I really want to work with, and the projects that I feel are going to be a creative, joyous time. I am privileged that I have the choice of whether I work on these big things.
For me, it needs to come from a place of passion. That’s what makes me happy. But I’ve always had a plan B, too – I love interior design. That’s another passion: designing tables and chairs. And that takes away pressure from our industry, which can have moments when it’s tough. Leading up to now, there was Covid, and the strike happened, and I stopped working for a while and had kids.
T: I’m happy you brought your work outside of acting up, because we talked so much about it on our flight home from Korea. It’s only going to get bigger and people will be able to see more of the work you’re doing, which is exciting.
A: It has started to take up more space in my head, and I see other potential roads out there. What about you, have you been writing and directing more?
T: I directed a short documentary, and I’d like to do more of that rather than narrative scripts, because I watch more documentaries than I do films. But it still feels a bit pressurised to me. And yes, I write privately.
A: Do you mean diaries?
T: I journal every single day. I’ve done it for 10 years.
A: My mum did that her entire life. I’ve always really admired it and been secretly jealous of that talent. What a little treasure map, even if it’s just for your own eyes, for you to have.
T: I’m scared of losing my journals. My mum just told me she has a huge box of them that she’s going to send me. The idea of losing one is a bit scary because of how much you reveal. It’s all your dreams, your life...
A: I asked my mum if I could read hers. And she said, ‘No way, you’re never going to read them’, and I was very close to my mum. But then [after she died] she left two diaries for me – it was one book with two years in it, and the other was one year. I felt like I was reading a TV series of my mum’s life when she was younger. It’s interesting to get to know your parent again, especially on the days when I wanted to give her a hug. She’s a bit younger than Iamnowinthem, andatapointinherlifethatInowhavesomuch reference for myself. It was like therapy for her and she would do it every night. Now I will always remember that image of her.
T: Do you have things you do every day that bring you peace?
A: I’m a morning person – I start my day early. Meditation is something that is so helpful for me. And going to the gym. I train regularly, and that also keeps the gremlins in my head away. That’s something I have done my whole life because of my ballet training. When I do it, I feel happier and calmer.
T: There are all these things we need to do to keep us centred. When I met you in Korea, you had literally just had your second baby, and the stuff we had to do in the film was so physical. I just thought, this is somebody who is clearly so in tune with her body, who knows how to take care of herself and has stamina. I was so impressed by how you showed up after doing something so intense.
A: All women have such different experiences, and going through it a second time was definitely harder for me. But I think training made it easier. Going through those nine months is like a marathon, so it does help if you’re strong going into it. It’s so physically demanding, and I have so much admiration for any woman who has done it. I gave birth four times on screen before I did it myself. Your job is to pretend as an actor, but every time I had to give birth, I said to every woman on set, ‘I’m sorry.’ I felt like such an imposter.
T: And they’re going to know!
A: But it’s one of those kicks you get on set, getting to fantasise and inhabit these imaginary situations and emotions, right?
T: Yes! Thank you.
A: Now we’re in London, let’s go and have a coffee soon!
'Firebrand' is in cinemas from September 6, 2024.
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