Quotes

[on her inspiration to play Ilsa Faust in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)] I looked at Ingrid Bergman a lot. There's a gracefulness there that I wanted to bring in. Mission is fast and action-packed and intense and modern, so to be able to balance that with the input of something classic - it's a beautiful mixture.

[on doing her own stunts in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)] Jumping off a rooftop is one thing, but having your legs wrapped around Tom Cruise makes it a bit easier.

I need challenging roles. I look forward to reading a script where I call my agent and go, 'What the f**k are you thinking? Of course I can't do this!' I'd like to be uncomfortable and challenge that.

I've been very lucky to have strong women characters to play.

[on if she feels Swedish] I do. And I feel English as well which is why I like the combination when I can do an English film and speak a bit of Swedish. It's a mish-mash. My mum's English and my father's Swedish. But I feel sort of French when I'm in France even though I have no connection to it! I think I remind myself of Ilsa [her character in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)] in that because I adapt and I think that's the world we live in as well - doors are more open now, thank God.

[on when she heard about the job in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)] I was on a camel! In the desert. In Ouarzazat [Morocco]. Filming The Red Tent (2014) for Lifetime. I had just popped over to London to meet Tom Cruise to see if the chemistry worked and 12 hours later I'm back on the camel, wrapping up production and I got a phone call. They say: 'You've got the next lead!' So I'll be back in Ouarzazat but on a motorbike! And there I was a month later.

At an early age, singing was something I found fun, but I never saw myself as a singer. My mother was in the avant-garde of cultural life in Sweden. She actually helped to translate ABBA's 'Waterloo' from Swedish to English. Remember the woman sitting cross-legged on a chair on the album's cover? That was my mom with the band - and they were wearing her clothes. How cool is that? And she didn't save any of it.

[on what inspired her to become an actress] I wasn't brought up in the acting world - my father is a lawyer. But as a teenager, I had the opportunity to audition for this television series: a daytime soap opera. And I got the lead part. I had just finished ninth grade in school, so I skipped what we called gymnasium and started working instead. And realized that this is a life I can see myself living.

[on her acting idol Isabelle Huppert] There's an interest for me in not knowing what she's going to do next. She just feels very real.

[on social media] I kind of have an addictive personality. I think if I'm doing any kind of social media that will take up my entire day. And I like people not knowing what I'm doing. I'd much rather call a friend or see a friend.

I need to have an interesting arc to my character if it's going to be interesting for me to play her. I need those dynamic shifts because just like in real life, we're never just one person. It would be so boring playing someone who doesn't have the capacity to change.

[on portraying Ilsa Faust in the Mission: Impossible film series] There are so many films that get female roles wrong and it's a big discussion, but I was fortunate with how Christopher McQuarrie portrayed Ilsa. It's an absolutely phenomenal character and I never felt like a victim, as opposed to someone who might legitimately victimise themselves. It's important for an actor to own the vulnerabilities of their character.

[on the shooting of The Girl on the Train (2016)] What was lovely was the energy on set. I really, really love Emily [Emily Blunt]. I've a bit of a girl crush on her.

[Flaunt Magazine, November 2017] There's not much of me for people to follow around. I like maintaining that and I don't seek out fame. I'm not on any social media. I don't like it, although I do understand the importance of technology today. But you know what? I like stationery. I write letters. And I don't like people knowing what I'm doing all the time.

In the end Tomas [Tomas Alfredson] managed to scrape together what became The Snowman (2017). I enjoyed it. I know it got torn down. I had a great time working with Michael Fassbender.

Every job I do is yet a new episode that I put into my backpack of life. I never really started off thinking I was going to be an actress. It kind of happened and I enjoyed it. Looking back, I see it as a ladder. Gradually, as I started working I would discover great actors around me. Beatrice Järås, a big Swedish theater actress became a mentor and the Swedish director Richard Hobert was incredible. Then, when I did Hercules (2014) I asked John Hurt so many questions. We talked about stage acting and life. He became a massive influence in my acting.

[on choosing roles] I think it's very much down to automatic gut feeling, that's always number one. It's down to the presentation: who is the film written by? Who wants to be producer and who is it directed by? And that will put my mind into the first stepping stone....and also how fascinating it is too. Then it's down to the script and character. I really do want to try and do things that I haven't done before, always.

[on Doctor Sleep (2019)] I was never a geek of The Shining (1980). I found The Shining to be a wonderful film and Kubrick is an incredible filmmaker, but I was never a fan of scary films so I was never thrown into this world. I was always a fan of Stephen King books and I think, for me, when I was informed that they were making this into a film, that was my interest - that I was going to be able to portray a character that he has written. That, in combination with one Skype call with Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy who are still really good friends - they are such geeks! - and that combination.....I mean, that was set.

I'm just attracted to characters. I mean, it's very rare I guess when you interview people and say, ''You've played nice people for the last four years''. For me, we all have dark sides and good sides. I think what is fun is finding the things that I like and love in characters that are supposed to be evil. For example, in Doctor Sleep (2019), Rose does everything for the love of her group. She tries to feed a group, she nurtures the people she loves. And obviously, the consequences of that love in our normal eyes of human beings is horrendous but not for her, she does it out of love and support for her people. What I wanted to portray and what was interesting was her maternal and caring aspect. When I did all of the research and I watched all of the serial killers' interviews and psychopaths etc, it's the normality and the well-spokenness, it's the luring.......and you look at them and you think, "I would either date you or be a friend of yours, and I understand," and then you think, "What happened?!" Those are the elements.

[on working with Hugh Jackman on Reminiscence (2021) ] I just adored working with him again. I wanted to work more with him, yes, because he's very good, but also because he made me feel so relaxed that I felt I could try to throw myself into areas that I hadn't done before and not be scared of failing. He made me feel very safe. It was quite selfish - I wanted to work with him because he made me feel like I could be better. The people I've worked with who are very, very famous, like Hugh and Tom Cruise, they are so humble and kind. They don't need to prove anything. Meryl Streep is another: I've never seen anyone like her. I mean, when we did Florence Foster Jenkins (2016), she would walk out on that bloody stage to entertain the extras. She'd go out and talk to them in-between takes and entertain them. A lot of people wouldn't care; she really did.

[on Dune: Part One (2021)] I hadn't read the book and I hadn't seen the old film version [Dune (1984)]. I knew absolutely nothing about them. I think it was one of those where I got the call: "Denis wants to Skype with you for his next project," and I was like, "I'm free now!" That evening, I watched the film. I remember when he called and said, "You've got it," I didn't want to see it again. It's easy to fall into the habit of mirroring other behaviors and it doesn't work for me, you just can't do that. I read blogs on people discussing characters. I do a lot of research on fan pages, what they love to talk about characters - I link that together to what Denis and I do with what my thoughts are on the character from the page and what I got from the book. I do a big mixture of it all because I love finding the secrets within characters. I love giving you something new and different.

Every time I do a role, I really, really want to find the opposite emotion to what the story tells. So if it's a heroine, I want to know what her addictions and secrets are because we're not just good and we're not just evil. I mean, you and I sit here and we're kind of nice and probably you have things you battle and I have things I battle. And this is what makes a human human, and relatable.

[on Nya tider (1999)] It was two and a half episodes a day. It was intense but I was thrown into a world which I didn't know anything about. I was a blank canvas. I didn't have any expectations and didn't question the regime. That made me realize the fact that I love deadlines and hard work. I love being thrown in the deep end. It all fell naturally in front of me and I kind of followed that path.

[on The White Queen (2013)] It was my first ever international role. I moved away from home, from Sweden, and I lived in Bruges for six months. I played the Queen of England with an incredible crew. I got nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a TV Series which is just insane. I remember being nominated next to Helen Mirren, Helena Bonham Carter, Elisabeth Moss, who won for Top of the Lake (2013). I was in a room with the people who I looked up to. I always felt like the Swedish girl who didn't really belong in the big world of the extraordinary. But The White Queen led to meetings, lots of castings. Richard Hobert gave me the lead in his film, A One-Way Trip to Antibes (2011). It was my first cinema film and it was a gateway in that it gave me the possibility to find an agent in London and the first casting he sent me to was The White Queen. It was luck but I also worked so hard to get that role.

The first couple of moments of a good day inspire me. If it's a good cup of coffee, if my son is in a good mood, if it's a lovely morning - it doesn't have to be sunny, it can be rainy, I'm not that dependent on weather. One moment it can be a disaster and chaos but then something happens and I get inspired. It's life isn't it? It just moves and if you keep your eyes open then it's all there in front of you.

[on Reminiscence (2021)] Mae is a figment of imagination, and seeing her through the eyes of men....we see different sides of this one person, but through other people's eyes, and I believe that it is all through the eyes of men. So I play the Madonna, I play the whore, the drug addict, either as the support or the lover. I get to play all these roles on the whole idea of, who is she? Who is she at her core?

I always just rode the waves. I've never been ambitious, I've always thought that that was a bad thing. But should I not be burning for this? Out meeting people and networking for the next job? My life just took another turn. But I've always thought: Am I where I should be?

[2021 interview] I try and change up my genres. I really, really want to. My dream is to go as indie as possible now. I want to go somewhere I haven't been before and I haven't done indie movies yet. A lot of people fight until they get a studio movie and I've been lucky enough to have that.