After a string of period films, heart-tugging dramas, and art house indies, the Oscar-winning actress opens up about her first action-hero role as Lara Croft in this month’s Tomb Raider, and what she hopes for her future in Hollywood.
Alicia Vikander likes making plans. When she was 12 years old, she looked at the year 2018 on a calendar and thought about what her life would be like then. “I realized I’d be 30, and in my head, 30 was the year you became an adult, so I remember thinking, Hopefully I’m going to have something good by then, but I’m also going to be old.”
Vikander laughs—a lovely husky sound that rings out across the garden of L.A.’s Chateau Marmont, where she sits without a bit of makeup on, relaxed and glowing in cropped Paige jeans and a long-sleeve navy t-shirt. She’s just back from skiing in the French Alps over New Year’s (“It was amazing!”). Her dark wavy hair is air-dried, her tobacco-brown eyes warm, a Louis Vuitton Petite Malle bag tossed casually to one side. It’s the day after the Golden Globes, where Vikander presented the award for Best Motion Picture Comedy to Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird, and the hotel is bustling with postmortem cheer. A sleepy-eyed Dakota Johnson comes up, murmurs,“Morning…” and envelops Vikander in a bearhug. Once she’s gone, Vikander smiles wryly and continues, “The nice thing is, life has only gone better than I’d imagined.” Continue reading »