UNITED KINGDOM: Star of the Swedish hit thriller 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' says she wanted to get 'as close' to her character as possible

Record ID: 739287

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: Star of the Swedish hit thriller 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' says she wanted to get 'as close' to her character as possible
  • Date: 10th March 2010
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (MARCH 10, 2010) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) NOOMI RAPACE, SAYING "I had to put away my vanity and just threw myself into that situation but of course it was hard, I dreamt nightmares for a week after that, but it was strange because the scene when I come back and rape him and torture him, that scene was almost even worse to go into and to do because I felt like I really enjoyed to punish him and torture him and make him feel so bad and I didn't know that I had that inside me so it was a pretty strange experience."
  • Embargoed: 25th March 2010 12:00
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  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Reuters ID: LVA6MAQSLC35Z4KE56CGD6OLRYY9
  • Story Text: 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' - the first in a trilogy - premiered in Scandinavia in early 2009 and has since enjoyed massive success in cinemas all over Europe. It has been seen by a total of around 7.4 million viewers, of which 2.8 million in the Nordic region, 1.2 million in France and 1.5 million in Spain.
    According to the movie's distributor, in terms of total cinema takings, this made 'The Girl with the Dragon tattoo' the third most successful non-English language film in the world in 2009. During 2010 the film will be released in cinemas in several South American countries as well as the UK, the US, Australia and Japan.
    'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' is the first part in the Millennium trilogy written by Swedish journalist and author Stieg Larsson.
    It tells the story of Lisbeth Salander, played by self-taught Swedish actress Noomi Rapace, and Mikael Blomkvist, played by Michael Nyqvist. Facing prison time for slander, discredited journalist Mikael Blomkvist is hired by a reclusive industrialist for one last job; to solve a long unresolved family disappearance. Aided by the mysterious and troubled computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander, the two uncover a darker world of brutality, deception and ritualistic murder. Alone and not knowing who to trust, they must fight for their own survival and reveal the truth.
    For her role, Swedish actress transformed herself physically to evoke Lisbeth Salander as realistically as possible - the only thing she did not do, was get herself a huge dragon tattoo on her back:
    "My son asked me, Mummy why do you want to look like a teenage boy, I wanted to transform myself I wanted to become Lisbeth more than trying to play her, so I put myself on a diet because I wanted to be a bit more masculine, I wanted to get rid of my female softness in a way, and I was exercising... thaiboxing, kickboxing pretty hard five days a week for seven months or something. So I wanted to be more like a boy in my body, and I cut my hair and coloured my hair black and I pierced myself and I learnt to ride a motorcycle and so on, so there was a lot of preparation and I used it, so it was like Lisbeth was growing in me...when I prepared for her ... I always try to prepare myself as much as I can before so when you actually start to shoot the film you can let go of thoughts and you can let go of control."
    The film includes some very violent and shocking scenes that prompted Salander to ask herself some very deep and serious questions. In one scene, her character lets a criminal burn to death in a car instead of helping him, causing Salander to ask herself what she would do if she ever found herself in a similar situation:
    "I'm against violence and war and so on but if somebody harmed my kid or hurt my kid what would I do and what would I think that I had the right to do. When I was living with Lisbeth in me I felt like okay I would have let him die in the car because you know he was a rapist and a killer and I think Lisbeth has her own moral system and her own justice system in a way, she doesn't live of the same rules as everybody else. I fully understand her so I accept the way she handles things and I understand ....if society has let you down why should you be living to society's rules."
    The film also features a number of rape scenes, that Salander felt she needed to portray in order to explain Lisbeth's character. Doing them however, stayed with her for some time and again prompted her to examine her own personality:
    "I had to put away my vanity and just threw myself into that situation but of course it was hard, I dreamt nightmares for a week after that, but it was strange because the scene when I come back and rape him and torture him, that scene was almost even worse to go into and to do because I felt like I really enjoyed to punish him and torture him and make him feel so bad and I didn't know that I had that inside me so it was a pretty strange experience."
    The movie's European success already prompted talk in Tinseltown of a Hollywood version with a Hollywood cast. Salander already finished playing all three films of the trilogy in Sweden. Asked how she felt about someone else playing Lisbeth and who she would want to see in that role, Salander responded:
    "I don't want to do her again because I did everything I possibly could and I did my best and I've done my Lisbeth so it's up to somebody else, but I think it is pretty interesting to see what they do but it's difficult to say a name who's going to play Lisbeth again because she's pretty close to me in a way but I hope they let her be as complicated and extreme as she is in the book. That they won't do her softer, nicer, sweeter."
    'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' is released in cinemas across the UK on Friday, March 12. In the USA, the film is released by distributor Musicbox on March 19.
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