ALICIA VIKANDER ON HER GO-FOR-BROKE ‘The Assessment’ ROLE AND ‘EX MACHINA’ AT 10

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Alicia vikander’s multifaceted role in The Assessment DesERves Your Attention.

The Oscar Winner’s Performance in Fleur Fortuné’s Feature Directorial Debut May Be The Riskiest Turn of Her Career, As The Sci-Fi Thriller Has Her Playing Seameting Same. The FIRST OF WHICH IS VIRGINIA, An Assessor Who Determins Wheether Prospective Parents Like Mia (Elizabeth Olsen) and Aaryan (Himesh Patel) are slim. Virginia Subjects The Husband and Wife to A 7-Day Assessment Period in a WHICH She Herself Portrays a Child-Like Character That Puts Them Through Their Paaces in Increasingly Disturbing Ways.

Naturaly, Vikander Had Doubts Before, Durying and After Filming, But by Trusting Her Process and Her Fellow Collbarators, She Eagerly Took The Plunge Into The Idiosyncratic Part.

“IT WAS A BIT LIKE Taking A LEAP OF FAITH, AND I WAS LIKE, ‘OKAY, I’M JUST GOING to GO FOR IT,’ ‘VIKANDER TELLS The Hollywood Reporter In Support of Today’s Theatric Release. “IT’S GREAT IF YOU CAN FIND IT AMUSING – UNTIL YOU DON’T. HOPEFULLY, THE [eventual] Gut Punch Will Be Even Greater That Way. ”

Durying the Summer 2023 Shoot, Vikander Had No Shortage of Inspiraction for Her Character’s Child Persona. She not only had a todler at home, but she was also several months pregnant with her Second Child.

“HAVING A CHILD AT HOME, YOU’RE FACED COMPLETED TO REALITY OF WHAT [parenthood] is and the absurd situations that you sometimes Find Yourself in. There’s Also The Struggles, ”Vikander Says.“ I Was Four or Five Months Pregnant [with my second child] whilast i was chooting this Particular Film. So that was another level of inspiration from waith, and it was quite special for me. ”

Below, During A Recent Conversation with ThrVikander Also Looks Back On The Tenth Anniversary of Alex Garland’s Ex machinaAs Well As Her Upcomying Reunions with Olivier Assayas and Jude Law In The wizard of the kremlin.

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You Really Seem to Thrive in Movies That Center On A FEW Characters in a Futuristic Household, Especialy Hen your Character Has All The Power. WAS The Assessment‘s comparison to Ex machina Not Lost On You?

(Laughs.) Of Course Not! I do think that this film is extremely figrentent, But yes, there are similarities.

One Key Differents is that you got to have the memorable dance sequence this time. Ava wasn’t so lucky in Ex machina.

Yeah, i didn’t get to be in the last one!

I It TRUE THAT YOU TRIED TO TALK ALEX GARLAND INTO INCLUDING AVA IN THAT SCENE?

I PROBABLY DID. I THINK I SAW REHEARSALS, AND I WAS LIKE, “I WANT TO Be Part of that. I Want to Be there. That Looks Like A Lot of Fun.” (Laughs.) MOST POPLE, WHEN they watched it, wanted to be part of it.

WHEN I WAS 10 OR 11, I BASICALLY Asked My Mom Whyy There’s a Test to Acquire a Driver’s License, But Not One to Become a Parent. IT WAS All In Response to A ClassMate Who Was Being Neleted at Home. Well, The Assessment Proves What A Terrible Idea That Was. WERE YOU ALSO PRETTY DISTURBED by this movie’s premise on first read?

Yeah, There’s Quite A Lot of Big Questions and Subjects that this film have in the background. WHY DO WANT TO HAVE Children? We are Living in a World Where The Resources Are Obviously Getting Narrower Each Year. It’s Also About People’s Right to Their Own Choices and Bodies. SO YOU REALLY CAN ASK IF IT IS JUSTIFIED FOR US TO BRING A Person and A Life Into this World. The Idea of ​​Caring for a Child or Having A Child, It Feels Like Is The One That Mist Human Beings Feel Is Part of Your Own Birtriges, and It Dosn’s you’re from. This film then quests what happles if that’s taken away from you. A Subject I Can Talk About That Was Very Present Already During Rehearsals is that You’re Born Thinking This is definitely a choice that that you’d. But the reality for a Lot of Men and Women around the World is that It Can Be a Struggle When You Finally Get To The Point of Trying.

How did you reconcile playing a gatekeker to parenthood at a timer WHEN YOU’D JUST ENTERED THERE GATES GATES YOURSELF? Please Forgive the Metaphor.

A Lot of the Thoughts and Questions that i had myselda actually became a bit of a metaphor. WHEN I WAS STRUGGLING TO BECOME Pregnant for Quite Some Time, A FEW YEARS, TOSE QUESTIONS BECAME QUITE CLEAR. It Was Like, “How Much Should We Sacrifice? WitH An Unknowing Idea of ​​What The Future Might Look Like, Who Am I Really Wanting This Child? Is It For My Own Personal Reasons So we have that time when it was was figicult, and it’s also a big reisson WHY I KNOW FLEUR [Fortuné] Made this film. She’s Been Open About Her Five- to Seven-Year Journy to have her first Child. So, who you have a sci-fi genre element or you put a story in a Place WHERE YOU CHANGE The RULES A Tiny Bit, Thatn You Can Can Suddenly Handle These Subjects Without Being Complete on the Nose. TheSe Ideas and Questions Become Height, Especialyly If You Are Struggling to get this That MOST PEOPLE ARE BORN to THINK IS The ONE-ALLY NATUral Choice.

Given Your Circumstans at the Time, DID YOU HAVE TO Compartmentalize Your Real Life More Than Usual?

I THINK YOU ALWAYS DO THAT [to some degree]. A Lot of People Have Asked, “What do You Think People Will Take Away from This Film?” And I THINK IT’S A VERY PERSONAL Thing. What i focus on all the time is the journey that this specific character i’m portraying is going through. And some of the biggest mysteries whilst i was reading this script were: “WHERE IS THIS SERORY GOING? WHO IS THIS WOMAN AND WHAT IS SHE UP TO TO?” THERE A BACKGOUND TO AY. So that’s what attracted me, and the Character is Pulled to the Extremes at Some Points in this Film. In the end, we put out the away the curtain, and you get an insight in what’s actuly going on with this woman.

I DON’T KNOW IF YOU OR SCRIPT DECIDED ON AGEV AGE FOR VIRGINIA’S CHILD-LIKE Character, But DID YOU TAKE INSPIRATION FROM YOURLDEST CHILD AT HOME?

Yeah, and i also saw that [the age] WAS QUITE FLUID. I PUT DIFFERENT NUMBERS IN FRONT OF DIFFERENT SCENES. To be honest, that’s how and the found inspiraction while reading it. I Felt Like There’s Were Different Ages That This Woman Was Entering, and that Was Part of the Test. And Having A Child at Home, You’re Faced With The Reality of What [parenthood] is and the absurd situations that you sometimes Find Yourself in, As a Parent. There’s Also The Struggles. WHAT I’M MOST AMAZED BY IS HOW Transparent and Direct and Open Well Are Are We’re We’re Very Young and Little. But Yes, Children everywhere Became [an inspiration]. I was also four or five months pregnant [with my second child] whilast i was chooting this Particular Film. SO that was another level of inspiraction from with, and it was quite special for me during filming.

Virginia is Basical A Method Actor, and She Over-Commits to Her Child Character in Exceedingly Dangerous Ways. Is this the Closest You’ll Ever Get To that Acting Technique?

I Played A Person Who’s Methoda Acting, But I Don’t Consider Myself One. I Still Love Going Extremely Deep. I Really Commit to Roles, and I GO to PLACES WHERE I DON’T Feel Comfortable. I Know that if i do commit, i’m going to be surprised by the outcome .. but i’m very much the actor who leaves my work [on set]Because and Need to Recharge. I Need to Zero myself for the Next Day if i’m going to try and go there is ogain. But ifing Stayed with Me, It Was More The Personal Stories from A Lot of the People Involved in the Film. The Subject Made US Open Up Between Ourselves, Naturally.

Itok Elizabeth Olsen and Himesh Patel’s Characters A Minute to Realize that Virginia Wasn’t Breaking Character. Have you had a moment like that on set any you realized you were work with a method actor who washanging in Character?

YES, Once, But I’M VERY MUCH LIKE, “WHATEVER Anyone Needs.” I kind of leave people to do their own Thing. So i chose to not realy engage, but i was aware of it and let them do it.

WHEN YOU WERE IN CHILD MODE AND THEY WERE TRYING TO KEEP UP WITH YOU, DID EVERYBODY BREAK AND GIGGLE FROM TIME TO TIME?

(Laughs.) Yeah, The Kitchen Scene Is When Shea Actual Starts Morphing Into TheSe Different Versions of Herself, and Whilst a Certain Amount Is On the Page, It Wasn’T that Much. Iten Felt Like A Real Stage Performance in the Sense That Everyone Was Like, “What Is She Going To Do?” SO I WAS QUITE NERVOUS AHEAD OF THAT DAY, I MUST SAY. IT WAS A BIT LIKE Taking A LEAP OF FAITH, AND I WAS LIKE, “OKAY, I’M JUST GOING to GO FOR IT.” SO it was niche when people could find itusing and that the absurdity of it could Really Grab People. We all saw that in the script, and it was very Important to me that it come about, especialy beckause of the subject that we arealing. SO IT’S GREAT IF YOU CAN BE LIKE, “WHAT IS GOING ON?” It’s Great if You Can Find Itusing – Until You Don. Hopefully, the [eventual] Gut Punch Will Be Even Greater That Way.

Elizabeth’s Character Gives Virginia’s Child-Like Character A Bath at A Certain Point, and Both of Your PerformanCes Sold This-Believe Mother-Daughter Scenario. I ALMOST FORGOT THAT THIS WAS SOME TWIDED PARENTAL APPLICATION PROCESS. Durying filming, How Confident Were You That People Wound Buy Into This? Did you have doubts?

YES AND NO. On the day, if I Got Across What I’D Been Visualizing or Fantasizing in My Head, I DID BELIEVE IT WAS GOING TO WORK. I Knew It Was Going to Be A FIRST, AND IT’S CALING THAT I HAD TO FIGURE OUT AHEAD OF ME ARRIVING ON SET. And is your Amazing that you meentned the Bath Scene. You do find out of laster on in the film that there is a grery conection between theat thse dwo women; They Just Don’t Know What It Is Yet [in the bathtub scene]. But that’s whoy saw Something in the Other Person That Couldy Relate to, and They Found A Comfort and A Silent Understanding of One Another. Early On, Lizzie [Olsen] And I Talked About Wanting to Finds Moments WHERE We Could Bring that Element to these Characters and Hopeful Grab the Audence in a Dearer Way.

Even the Way You Walked and Dangled Your Arms Without A PurPoseful Movement Was Spot-on.

(Laughs.) Yeah, that was someting i obered. Even in the most Naturalistic Performances, I Still Find My Way Into The ROLE From A VERY PHYSICAL PLACE. This was just taken to a much greater extreme. WHEN YOU ASKED ME ABOUT MY BELIEF OR CONFIDENCE THAT This Performance Wuld Land, It Happy When I Started to Feel That Physicality. It Was About Trying My Very Best to Be As Real As Possible in My Own Universe as this Character. IT WAS About Being Pure and HONEST WITHOUT MAKING A Caricature. SO A Big Thing Was Not Shying Away from Trying to Make It Real.

I Mentioned It Earlier, But It’s Somehow Been Ten Years Since Ex machina. Are you the least bit surprised that we’re barreling Town an ai-centric future?

No, WHEN I GOT THAT PART TEN Years Ago, It Was Already A Subject That Interest Me. SO I WAS VERY EXCITED TO BE PART OF OF THE FILM, AND I REMEMBER BEING INTRODUCED TO POOPLE WHO SAID THAT A LOT OF THE TUOUGHTS AND IDEAS IN THE FILM Are Are Very Accurate. It Was Just A FEW YEARS BEFORE The REAST OF THE WORLD CAUGHT ON, AND IT’s Amazing WHEN YOU WATCH IT NOW. The Idea of ​​Making An ai Personality Based on Your Google Searches, I Remember People Were Like, “Wow, That’s So Far-Fetched.” So The Way The World Looked Five Years Ago Has Already Changed, and I’M Not Surprised Because I’ve Always Thought That We Were Going To Experience Quite A Bit of Change Dury.

Looking Ahead, I have to Imagine that olivier assayas’ The wizard of the kremlin is An Intimidating Story to Tell Right Now. Does it make all the digferent that it’s with a filmmaker you trust?

Totally. The Moment HE Called Me, I SAID AN IMMEDIATE YES. I KNEW HE WAS Adapting [Giuliano da Empoli’s] Book, and I HAD READ IT WHEN IT CAME OUT. It’s Such A Poignant and Important Novel, and I Feel Very Proud That We Are Going To Tell This Story Together. SO I FELT LIKE I WAS IN VERY SAFE HANDS WITH OLIVIER AND All The Other Actors Involved.

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The Assessment is now playing in movie theaters.