Over the past decade, Alicia Vikander has swiftly become one of moviemaking’s most sought-after actresses. And her resumé shows off her range: she’s just as comfortable in a blockbuster like “Tomb Raider” as she is in art films like “Ex Machina” or Oscar bait like 2015’s “The Danish Girl.” But Vikander’s talent as an actress couldn’t prepare her for the loneliness that came with her rapid rise to stardom.
In a recent interview with The Sunday Times, Vikander opened up about how she was quite miserable after becoming a famous A-lister. “When, in other people’s eyes, I was at my height of fame, I was the most sad,” Vikander told the paper. “I kept telling myself, ‘Take it in. It is incredible.’ But I didn’t know what to do. There were all these first-class flights, five-star rooms. But I was always by myself.” Vikander’s comments may surprise someone unfamiliar with the entertainment industry, but the actress recognized that it’s a common symptom of the lifestyle. “It was very lonely,” she said. “If I didn’t have my friends to call, it would have been difficult. I’ve seen what can happen to people in my industry.”
The actress described how her sense of isolation from others gave her more empathy for others in the industry, recognizing that the same loneliness is a unique effect of her and her colleagues’ public lifestyle. “Sometimes you go through things that are tough in life and if you have an office job you can step away for a bit,” she continued. “But there are times that myself or colleagues have been through something and, well, I can’t understand how they went on to the red carpet afterwards.” In other words, the highly public nature of Vikander’s career gave her few places to go to regroup; fewer private moments meant less ability to attend to herself.
Vikander has spoken out about the darker sides of being an actress before. In 2017, she was one of nearly 600 actresses who spoke out about a culture of sexual misconduct in the Swedish filmmaking industry, one of the many aftershocks of the #MeToo movement. “I’ve been in situations that were not fine, where I didn’t feel I was protected,” she said in a more recent interview with Harper’s Bazaar UK. “The only thing that can’t be improvised is an intimate scene — you have to make choreography and stick to it. It’s the worst thing ever to do those scenes.”
Even if she finds fame not all it’s cracked up to be, Vikander continues to act, and filmmaking is all the better for her. She recently headlined Olivier Assayas‘s miniseries remake of “Irma Vep.” She also reunites with “Tomb Raider” director Roar Uthaug on the Danish movie “Troll,” out of Netflix later this year. And next year, she stars in Karim Aïnouz‘s “Firebrand,” a period piece about King Henry VIII’s sixth and final wife, Katherine Parr.
“Irma Vep” is currently streaming on HBO.