Noomi Rapace on playing Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish films: “I’m so done with her”
Swedish actress Noomi Rapace, star of the original The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, graces the cover of this month’s edition of Blackbook and talks about Hollywood, the nomadic life of an international “it girl,” and her transformation into the punked-out Dragon Girl.
On playing the “original” Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish trilogy:
“I felt like she lived in me,” Rapace says of her motorcycle-riding, vengeance-seeking alter ego. “My Lisbeth was my Lisbeth. I gave her my life and my soul for one-and-a-half years, and then I was finished.” She sighs, her face double-framed by her living room door and my computer screen. “I’m so done with her.”
After wrapping the final film in the Dragon Tattoo trilogy:
“My whole body was just kind of throwing Lisbeth out of me,” she says. Rapace spent the next week feeling traumatized and disembodied, her face still full of holes, mohawk collapsed. “I was like, I don’t know who I am anymore!” she adds, pushing a few strands of hair away from her face to reveal a pair of earrings. They are long, chainlike, and affixed to her lobes with golden talons. “It’s almost like you’re coming out of a…” She struggles for a moment, trying to articulate what it’s like to exorcize a fictional character. The earrings twinkle. “It’s like you’ve loaned yourself to someone else.”
On the “new” Lisbeth Salander, played by 25-year-old Rooney Mara:
“I’m pretty sure that they will do something completely different with her,” she says.
Guy Ritchie on Noomi, after directing her in the upcoming ‘Sherlock Holmes’ sequel:
“I like Noomi because she’s ballsy,” says Guy Ritchie. “She’s smart and committed to doing the best she can. She’s always full of ideas.”
I loved Noomi in the Swedish trilogy. She did great. I can’t imagine someone else playing Lisbeth, although I’m ecstatic to see the new film!
