Alicia Vikander at the Vanity Fair Oscars After Party 2017
To be quite honest, it’s nerve-racking, the way these films sort of piled up. It’s a mixed feeling when everything you’ve ever wanted in making films is coming true, and yet you feel scared because it’s happening all at once. Suddenly you’re in rooms with people you’ve looked up to for years, like Judi Dench. You wonder if you’re good, if you have what it takes. You carry an anxiety around with you—I’ve met many actors now who will say this—and the lonely feeling that this could be your one chance.
It’s quite a beautiful thing. The first time you see [a movie] with an audience, it’s kind of a heightened version. I love going to the cinema, I love going to the movies myself. And there’s something about sitting in a full audience and it feels like it’s a collective vibe of whatever’s happening. If the film lands and it’s excitement, you can feel it in the room.
“When I was younger, my world was about perfection, and if you weren’t perfect, it was like the world was falling apart. I experienced a lot of stress around that.”
“I do work very hard. I have been very colored by that education. I spent six days a week, seven hours a day training. That will always be the foundation of my work.”
I think I’ve been very self-conscious trying to express myself in a new language, and sometimes I don’t recognize the person that comes out. In Swedish the filter between my thoughts and my language is much thinner, so things just flow.