Alicia Vikander

Alicia Vikander
Vikander at the 48th Guldbagge Awards 2013 in Stockholm.
Born	Alicia Amanda Vikander (1988-10-03) 3 October 1988 Gothenburg, Västra Götalands län, Sweden
Occupations	Actor Dancer
Years active	2002–present

Alicia Amanda Vikander (Swedish pronunciation: [aˈliːsɪa aˈmanda vɪˈkandər]; born 3 October 1988) is a Swedish actress and a former ballerina.

She began her career by appearing in Swedish television shows and movies, most notably playing one of the leads in the popular TV drama Andra Avenyn (2007–2010) and for her leading role in the film Pure, for which she won the Guldbagge Award, the Swedish equivalent to the Academy Award. Since then she has appeared in Anna Karenina (2012), A Royal Affair (2012), and The Fifth Estate (2013).

In 2015, she will have seven to eight film releases, including films by directors like Derek Cianfrance and Guy Ritchie.

Early life

Vikander was born in Gothenburg, Västra Götalands län, the daughter of Maria Fahl Vikander, an actress, and Svante Vikander, a psychiatrist. They separated when she was five months old. She has five siblings on her father's side. She trained in dance at the Royal Swedish Ballet School in Stockholm for nine years before refocusing her career on acting. Before the change, she appeared in several musicals at the Gothenburg Opera, such as The Sound of Music and Les Misérables. She decided to start an acting career after a few injuries.

Career

Vikander is well known in Scandinavia for her role in the popular Swedish TV drama Andra Avenyn and her starring performances in the feature films Pure (2010) and The Crown Jewels (2011). With her role as Katarina in Pure, Vikander won the Rising Star Award in 2010 at the Stockholm Film Festival, the Shooting Star Award at the Berlin International Film Festival and the Guldbagge Award for Best Actress. Critics have also described her performance in Pure as “From tomboy to temptress, from street kid to secretary, Vikander shows a sheer range in her big-screen debut that’s utterly hypnotic.”

Vikander performed in the English language film adaptation of Anna Karenina (2012), wherein movie critics said that she “modulates stunningly from flighty impulse to a chastened, trembling realisation of what love can mean,” and added Danish to her repertoire while working on the Nikolaj Arcel feature A Royal Affair (2012). For her performance in the Danish film, Steven Rea of The Philadelphia Inquirer calls her performance “nicely nuanced,” while David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter says that “Vikander is intense and incandescent”. Jessica Kiang of The Playlist praises Vikander, stating that she “does a fine job in portraying the young, idealistic queen and, positively worshipped by the camera and flattered by the frocks and hairstyles, she makes an appropriately tragic heroine”.

Vikander was named as one of the 10 Actors to Watch: Breakthrough Performances of 2012 at the 20th Hamptons International Film Festival and was nominated for BAFTA Rising Star Award in 2013. She was also the recipient of the Editor's Choice Award at the 2013 Elle Style Awards and the Best Actress Award at the 2013 Marrakech International Film Festival for Hotell, and whom Jessica Kiang of The Playlist claims to be “undoubtedly Vikander’s film”.

She also starred as Anke Domscheit-Berg in The Fifth Estate (2013) and as iconic pacifist Vera Brittain in Testament of Youth (2015). Her performance in the Vera Brittain biopic received positive reviews from critics. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian says that “Vikander herself carries off the role with delicacy and poise,” while Tim Robey of The Telegraph hails her performance as a “thrillingly astute portrait of a young Oxford undergraduate whose ideals are beaten into shape,” and “glorious.” Leslie Felperin of The Hollywood Reporter describes that “in the end, though, Vikander owns the movie, making this a very auspicious breakout in her first leading role in an English-language production. Technically, it’s hard to fault: she nails the accent, cries convincingly on cue, and has an astonishing physical presence. But what’s even more impressive is the way she puts across Vera’s intelligence, her cussedness (she’s even a bit of a pain in the neck sometimes), and it’s the quieter moments that impress most, especially coupled with the way Kent and Co. tactically underplay certain key emotional scenes in order to deliver a bigger pay off later.”

Lisa Giles-Keddie of HeyUGuys claims that “Vikander has all the grace, beauty and defiant sense of a younger, Swedish Keira Knightley. The actress has the formidable task of portraying every facet of Vera’s character in a turbulent time, and she does so, so eloquently and seamlessly.” Also, Naman Ramachandran of Cineuropa says that Vikander is a “revelation,” and that “Vera is a somewhat pig-headed character seen in almost every frame of the film and is a character difficult to pull off, even for a more seasoned actor, but Vikander achieves this with aplomb, striking the right balance between strength and fragility. Expect to see plenty more of her in the years to come.” She was nominated for a BIFA Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a British Independent Film at the British Independent Film Awards 2014 and a Best Actress nod at the National Film Awards, both for Testament of Youth.

Vikander starred in the science fiction film Ex Machina with Domhnall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac as Ava. Critics praised her performance, with Stephen Dalton of The Hollywood Reporter saying that “Vikander is the heart of the film, her poised performance combining mechanical implacability with troubling emotional undertones.” Guy Lodge of Variety describes her as having a “shimmering physical presence increasingly recalls that of her compatriot Ingrid Bergman, aces a particularly tough assignment in Ava, a cipher whose every gesture and vocal inflection renders her at once more human and less explicably alien.” Chris Tilly of IGN claims that Vikander “is something of a revelation as Ava, lending the character an otherworldly quality that you can’t take your eyes off.” Stefan Pape of HeyUGuys hails her performance as “hugely commendable” while Mark Adams of Screen International says that she “creates a character that is soulful, troubled, enigmatic, seductive, intelligence and haunted by her origin and what her future will be.” Katherine McLaughlin of The List praises Vikander, stating that she “excels in a demure and shifting role,” while Liam Dunn of WeGotThisCovered says that she “gives Ava an ethereal, stop-start physicality and a not-quite-human cadence that clouds our perceptions of her true personality or intentions.”

Alicia will play the role of Alice Deane in the forthcoming American movie Seventh Son. She will also star in the heist thriller Son of a Gun with Ewan McGregor and Brenton Thwaites, the Guy Ritchie-directed movie The Man from U.N.C.L.E. alongside Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer, the leading role in Tulip Fever directed by Justin Chadwick with Dane DeHaan and Christoph Waltz, and the upcoming adaption of the novel The Light Between Oceans directed by Derek Cianfrance with Michael Fassbender and Rachel Weisz.

Vikander also participated in the Chanel Little Black Jacket Exhibition in 2013.

Personal life

Vikander lived for five months in Notting Hill with the Swedish duo Icona Pop and another friend. She currently owns a flat in north London. She is close friends with fellow Swedish actors Alexander Skarsgård, Bill Skarsgård, and Joel Kinnaman.

Filmography

Film and Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2002	Min balsamerade mor	Ebba Du Rietz	TV movie
2005	En decemberdröm	Toni/Tony	TV series; 3 episodes
2007	Levande föda	Linda	TV miniseries
2007	Darkness of Truth	Sandra Svensson	Short film
2007	The Rain	Dancer	Short film
2007–2008	Andra Avenyn	Jossan Tegebrandt Björn	TV series; 39 episodes
2008	Höök	Katarina	TV series; 2 episodes
2008	My Name Is Love	Fredrika	Short film
2009	Susans längtan	Girl in Apartment	Short film
2010	Pure	Katarina	Sweden's Guldbagge Award for Best Actress
2011	The Crown Jewels	Fragancia Fernandez	Also known as "Kronjuvelerna"
2012	A Royal Affair	Caroline Mathilde
2012	Anna Karenina	Kitty
2013	Hotell	Erika
2013	The Fifth Estate	Anke Domscheit-Berg
2014	Son of a Gun	Tasha
2015	Ex Machina	Ava	Post-production
2015	The Man from U.N.C.L.E.	Gaby Teller	Post-production
2015	Seventh Son	Alice Deane	Post-production
2015	Testament of Youth	Vera Brittain	Post-production
2015	Tulip Fever	Sophia	Post-Production
2015	Adam Jones		Post-Production
TBA	The Light Between Oceans	Isabel Sherbourne	Post-Production
TBA	The Danish Girl	Gerda Wegener	Pre-production

External links

• Alicia Vikander at IMDb