If you haven’t seen Alicia Vikander this year you probably haven’t been to the movies. She’s been in eight projects throughout 2015 with lots more to come next year (including a plum role in the next Bourne film).
The pixieish 26-year-old plays Gaby Teller, the romantic foil between the characters played by Armie Hammer and Henry Cavill in the big screen reboot of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
The role in Guy Ritchie’s action comedy is yet another milestone in what still a very new career. With films like Ex Machina, A Royal Affair, Seventh Son and The Fifth Estate, the Swede has appeared in just about every genre there is and shows no signs of slowing down yet. She sat down to talk about U.N.C.L.E. with Moviehole.net on the Rome set.
Tell us about your character.
I’m playing Gaby Teller. She’s the daughter of a German scientist who has disappeared apparently and she’s brought up behind the wall in Germany. She’s not very girlish, she’s very headstrong, she’s quite pretty and quite a bad ass. It’s fun, she’s brought up in Germany by Napoleon [Henry Cavill’s character] and Illya [Armie Hammer’s character].
How do you prepare for such a physical role with fighting, driving and dancing?
For the dancing scene I just thought about the nights I spent dancing, I enjoyed myself very much in that scene. To be able to play a kick ass role and be able to take down a very, very tall man, I really enjoyed it very much.
With the car scenes, I didn’t tell the production until I got the part that I didn’t have a driver’s licence. So they put me in lessons quite early on. It was fun because in the big car chase in the beginning of the film a man was on top of my car in a cage where the wires pulled through the car and actually drove it for me. So in one way it was not much green screen going on. I actually got to experience the whole action sequences being behind the wheel, fooling myself that I did all those things with the car.
How is Guy Ritchie as a director?
He’s a man who’s very much at ease and still he brings such intensity. He’s so innovative on set. He collaborates with his actors very tightly. I love when a director’s written their own script but they’re not precious about it.
I think that’s what specifies his films, all the characters are very distinct and that’s why the dry humour between those different characters has evolved. So he let us figure that out as we went along.
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