The Oscar winner stars in the HBO series by French auteur Olivier Assayas, based on his 1996 film of the same name, about remaking an iconic work from the silent film era.

How does one remake a remake? The answer still confuses Alicia Vikander.

The actress is currently producing and starring in the new HBO series Irma Vep by director Olivier Assayas, who is recreating his 1996 French film of the same name which featured Maggie Cheung (In the Mood for Love, Hero) in the titular role. Both iterations follow an actress who is cast in a remake of the 1915 silent film serial Les Vampires to play villainess Irma Vep (an anagram for “vampire”), and finds the character rubbing off on her as she delves into the role—and slips into her famous black bodysuit.

Hollywood has churned out many movies about making movies. In fact, it loves them. (See: Mank, Singin’ in the Rain, Hail, Caesar!) But HBO’s Irma Vep takes that self-referential element to a mind-boggling degree. Vikander, an Oscar winner and Tomb Raider star, plays a successful actress, Mira, whose career somewhat mirrors her own. Meanwhile, Vincent Macaigne plays director René Vidal, an analogue for Assayas: René is filming an Irma Vep series with Mira, but has already made Irma Vep, the hit indie film, in the ’90s (referencing Assayas’s 1996 Irma Vep film) with the actress Jade Lee (who represents Cheung). And both of René’s Irma Vep projects are adapted from Louis Feuillade’s Les Vampires. Now read that again.

“I even got lost—still get lost—and it gets worse with every episode,” Vikander laughs on the phone, speaking from Paris, where she’s finalizing the last two Irma Vep episodes and meeting with Assayas and members of the crew. “I think that’s the beauty of it,” she adds.

In a time when the entertainment industry feels like one big reboot machine, Irma Vep is refreshing, with its cheeky self-awareness, and at times, self-mockery. It’s almost as if Assayas is saying, “I know how bizarre this all looks.” It doesn’t shy away from the issues with making reboots, either. René voices his insecurities about recreating an iconic work of cinema. Characters discuss whether the story of Irma Vep is fit for a series, whether it’s bingeable, whether it’s too niche for a mainstream audience. “It’s the kind of conversations that I think, especially for people in the film industry, if you’re doing that, that’s what you talk about,” Vikander says. She credits Assayas’s “brilliant mind” for writing a realistic-sounding script. “He writes like people talk.”
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In 1996, Olivier Assayas debuted his film “Irma Vep” at the Cannes Film Festival. 26 years later, the French filmmaker is back at the festival with the same project — but this time, revisited as a HBO series that stars Alicia Vikander.

Vikander plays the starring role of a disillusioned actress in the upcoming television show. But in real life, she is the rare star to reject the world of celebrity. In fact, Vikander reveals she doesn’t even have an assistant, in contrast to her “Irma Vep” character.

“I, myself, have never had an assistant who lived with me 24/7 or cook [or make] coffee for me, but I’ve always been quite intrigued by what that is because I’ve seen some people in my industry, or colleagues, who have that, and it’s just… that wouldn’t work for me, personally,” Vikander said at the Variety Studio presented by Campari at Cannes Film Festival in conversation with Assayas. “So, that was kind of interesting to tap into that and see what that dependent relationship looks like.”
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Alicia Vikander attends the Vanity Fair x Louis Vuitton dinner during the 75th annual Cannes Film Festival at Fred LEcailler on May 20, 2022 in Cannes. You can go to the gallery to take a look to the photos and enjoy!

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Alicia Vikander on 10 Years Since Her ‘A Royal Affair’ Breakout, Moving Back to TV With ‘Irma Vep’

It’s been a decade since Alicia Vikander burst onto the international scene thanks to her turn as an (almost) reformist Danish queen in the 2012 Berlinale winner and Oscar nominee A Royal Affair.

During those years, the Swedish actress has won an Oscar (for 2015’s The Danish Girl), joined one major franchise (2016’s Jason Bourne), put on Angelina Jolie’s dusty vest for another (2018’s Tomb Raider reboot), married Magneto/Steve Jobs/Macbeth (Michael Fassbender, in 2017) and, in early 2021, had a son.

This year, she returns to Cannes — with her 1-year-old in tow — with Irma Vep, Olivier Assayas’ miniseries remake for A24 of his own 1996 cult film, which is itself about a director trying to remake a film (Louis Feuillade’s silent classic Les Vampires). As she admits, it’s a “very meta” project that marks her return to the small screen after having made a name for herself in Swedish soap operas.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter from the U.K. set of period drama Firebrand (she plays Catherine Parr, the sixth and final wife of Henry VIII, alongside Jude Law), Vikander, who now resides with her family in Lisbon, discusses her first Cannes visit (and her first couture gown), explains why she’s not like the disillusioned movie star she plays in Irma Vep (no assistant, for starters) and looks back fondly on the past 10 years.

You’ve been to Cannes a few times. Do you have any favorite memories?

I think my biggest moment was probably the first time. I may have been to the Berlin Film Festival before that, but there’s something about Cannes. I still find it’s the festival where I experience the illusion of it — there’s something about the rosé and the Croisette. I think the first time I got to go, I had just finished A Royal Affair, and we were doing press there. I was invited to the Valentino Suite and I got dressed in a couture gown, and I had never touched a couture gown in my life. It freaked me out. But it was pretty cool.
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