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10 Alicia Vikander Facts You May Not Have Known

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 01:44 PST, Feb 1, 2016

Alicia Vikander has stolen the hearts of millions as she has risen to fame over the past few years.

But her crowning glory thus far is her role as Gerda Wegener in The Danish Girl, for which she has been nominated for Best Supporting Actress at this year’s Academy Awards.

But besides her Swedish nationality, there are some truly fascinating facts about the gorgeous Alicia Vikander.

1. What Culture reports that while Alicia Vikander has become known for her acting talent, she originally trained to be a dancer. Vikander attended the Royal Swedish Ballet School. She decided to pursue acting when she became injured from dancing and she said she felt a connection to acting that wasn’t present when dancing.

“When I did [television], I realised that I had a strong passion that was beyond what I felt for dancing.”

She still enjoys a bit of dancing fun these days, though!

2. Alicia Vikander lived on her own by the age of 15.

3. Alicia Vikander played Caroline in A Royal Affair in 2012, but the movie nearly didn’t happen. The producers were having a very difficult time finding the right actress for the part of Caroline, and they nearly gave up and scrapped the movie. Then they discovered Vikander.

4. Alicia Vikander had to learn Danish for her role in A Royal Affair, and she moved to Copenhagen for two months and immersed herself in the language. But it was tough to speak Danish on the set every day, and she even drank wine to help her relax enough so she could speak it easily.

“I was terrified waking up every day. It was tough. If I have two glasses of wine I do dare to speak Danish, but then you are a bit more relaxed. In fact the dialogue coach told me I should go out and drink every night as it would come more naturally.”

5. Whenever she gets a script for a movie, Alicia Vikander has her parents read it so that she can get their opinion on whether she should do the movie. Her father absolutely loved The Danish Girl and told her she should do it.

“My dad read The Danish Girl and fell in love with it. He told me: ‘You need to do this film.'”

6. Alicia Vikander’s dance training was instrumental in her portrayal of Ava in Ex Machina.

Writer/director Alex Garland explained, “One thing that Alicia brought over and above her straight acting ability – and she is a phenomenal actress – is her training as a ballerina. That role involves quite a complicated physical performance where you are playing a machine, but you don’t want to telegraph that you are a machine. You don’t want it to be any stronger than a sense of otherness. That’s something that a dancer who has trained in a particular way is suited to provide. It is such subtle things in terms of posture or the way you walk across a room. There is something about her training as a dancer that informs what she does and helps to elevate it.”

7. Alicia Vikander really wants to work with Quentin Tarantino, Terrence Malick, and Lars Von Trier.

8. Alicia Vikander was considered for the part of Snow White in Snow White & the Huntsman. The part ultimately went to Kristen Stewart, but Vikander was happy about the audition.

“I was on the phone crying at a Starbucks. People thought I was having a breakup with my boyfriend! I said, ‘No – it’s good news! I’m going to have a career!'”

9. Boomsbeat reports that the first two times Alicia Vikander auditioned for drama school, she was turned down.

10. Alicia Vikander was enrolled in law school at one point but withdrew to pursue her acting career.

[Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images]

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