Alicia Vikander on Her Go-For-Broke Movie

Alicia Vikander’s multifaceted role in The Assessment deserves your attention. 

The Oscar winner’s performance in Fleur Fortuné’s feature directorial debut may be the riskiest turn of her career, as the sci-fi thriller has her playing several different personas within the same character. The first of which is Virginia, an assessor who determines whether prospective parents like Mia (Elizabeth Olsen) and Aaryan (Himesh Patel) are worthy of raising a child in their future world where resources are slim. Virginia subjects the husband and wife to a 7-day assessment period in which she herself portrays a child-like character that puts them through their paces in increasingly disturbing ways.

Naturally, Vikander had doubts before, during and after filming, but by trusting her process and her fellow collaborators, she eagerly took the plunge into the idiosyncratic part.

“It was a bit like taking a leap of faith, and I was like, ‘Okay, I’m just going to go for it,’” Vikander tells The Hollywood Reporter in support of today’s theatrical release. “It’s great if you can find it amusing — until you don’t. Hopefully, the [eventual] gut punch will be even greater that way.”

During the summer 2023 shoot, Vikander had no shortage of inspiration for her character’s child persona. She not only had a toddler at home, but she was also several months pregnant with her second child.

“Having a child at home, you’re faced with the reality of what [parenthood] is and the absurd situations that you sometimes find yourself in. There’s also the struggles,” Vikander says. “I was four or five months pregnant [with my second child] whilst I was shooting this particular film. So that was another level of inspiration from within, and it was quite special for me.”

Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Vikander also looks back on the tenth anniversary of Alex Garland’s Ex Machina, as well as her upcoming reunions with Olivier Assayas and Jude Law in The Wizard of the Kremlin.

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You really seem to thrive in movies that center on a few characters in a futuristic household, especially when your character has all the power. Was The Assessment’s comparison to Ex Machina not lost on you? 

(Laughs.) Of course not! I do think that this film is extremely different, but yes, there are similarities. 

One key difference is that you got to have the memorable dance sequence this time. Ava wasn’t so lucky in Ex Machina.

Yeah, I didn’t get to be in the last one! 

Is it true that you tried to talk Alex Garland into including Ava in that scene?

I probably did. I think I saw rehearsals, and I was like, “I want to be part of that. I want to be there. That looks like a lot of fun.” (Laughs.) Most people, when they watched it, wanted to be part of it.

When I was 10 or 11, I basically asked my mom why there’s a test to acquire a driver’s license, but not one to become a parent. It was all in response to a classmate who was being neglected at home. Well, The Assessment proves what a terrible idea that was. Were you also pretty disturbed by this movie’s premise on first read?

Yeah, there’s quite a lot of big questions and subjects that this film has in the background. Why do we want to have children? We are living in a world where the resources are obviously getting narrower each year. It’s also about people’s right to their own choices and bodies. So you really can ask if it is justified for us to bring a person and a life into this world. The idea of caring for a child or having a child, it feels like it’s the one thing that most human beings feel is part of your own birthrights, and it doesn’t matter what class you are or what background or culture you’re from. This film then questions what happens if that’s taken away from you. A subject I can talk about that was very present already during rehearsals is that you’re born thinking that this is definitely a choice that you’d have. But the reality for a lot of men and women around the world is that it can be a struggle when you finally get to the point of trying.

How did you reconcile playing a gatekeeper to parenthood at a time when you’d just entered those gates yourself? Please forgive the metaphor.

A lot of these thoughts and questions that I had myself actually became a bit of a metaphor. When I was struggling to become pregnant for quite some time, a few years, those questions became quite clear. It was like, “How much should we sacrifice? With an unknowing idea of what the future might look like, why am I really wanting this child? Is it for my own personal reasons?” So we had that time when it was difficult, and it’s also a big reason why I know Fleur [Fortuné] made this film. She’s been open about her five- to seven-year journey to have her first child. So, when you have a sci-fi genre element or you put a story in a place where you change the rules a tiny bit, then you can suddenly handle these subjects without being completely on the nose. These ideas and questions become heightened, especially if you are struggling to get this thing that most people are born to think is the one-and-only natural choice.

Given your circumstances at the time, did you have to compartmentalize your real life more than usual? 

I think you always do that [to some degree]. A lot of people have asked, “What do you think people will take away from this film?” And I think it’s a very personal thing. What I focus on all the time is the journey that this specific character I’m portraying is going through. And some of the biggest mysteries whilst I was reading this script were: “Where is this story going? Who is this woman and what is she up to? Is there a background to any of this?” So that’s what attracted me, and the character is pulled to the extremes at some points in this film. In the end, we pull away the curtain, and you get an insight into what’s actually going on within this woman.

I don’t know if you or the script decided on a definitive age for Virginia’s child-like character, but did you take inspiration from your oldest child at home?

Yeah, and I also saw that [the age] was quite fluid. I put different numbers in front of different scenes. To be honest, that’s how I found inspiration whilst reading it. I felt like there were different ages that this woman was entering, and that was part of the test. And having a child at home, you’re faced with the reality of what [parenthood] is and the absurd situations that you sometimes find yourself in, as a parent. There’s also the struggles. What I’m most amazed by is how transparent and direct and open we all are when we’re very young and little. But yes, children everywhere became [an inspiration]. I was also four or five months pregnant [with my second child] whilst I was shooting this particular film. So that was another level of inspiration from within, and it was quite special for me during filming.

Virginia is basically a method actor, and she over-commits to her child character in exceedingly dangerous ways. Is this the closest you’ll ever get to that acting technique?

I played a person who’s method acting, but I don’t consider myself one. I still love going extremely deep. I really commit to roles, and I go to places where I don’t feel comfortable. I know that if I do commit, I’m going to be surprised by the outcome.. But I’m very much the actor who leaves my work [on set], because I need to recharge. I need to zero myself for the next day if I’m going to try and go there again. But if anything stayed with me, it was more the personal stories from a lot of the people involved in the film. The subject made us open up between ourselves, naturally.

It took Elizabeth Olsen and Himesh Patel’s characters a minute to realize that Virginia wasn’t breaking character. Have you had a moment like that on set where you realized you were working with a method actor who was staying in character?

Yes, once, but I’m very much like, “Whatever anyone needs.” I kind of leave people to do their own thing. So I chose to not really engage, but I was aware of it and let them do it.

When you were in child mode and they were trying to keep up with you, did everybody break and giggle from time to time?

(Laughs.) Yeah, the kitchen scene is when she actually starts morphing into these different versions of herself, and whilst a certain amount is on the page, it wasn’t that much. It then felt like a real stage performance in the sense that everyone was like, “What is she going to do?” So I was quite nervous ahead of that day, I must say. It was a bit like taking a leap of faith, and I was like, “Okay, I’m just going to go for it.” So it was nice when people could find it amusing and that the absurdity of it could really grab people. We all saw that in the script, and it was very important to me that it come across, especially because of the subject that we are handling. So it’s great if you can be like, “What is going on?” It’s great if you can find it amusing — until you don’t. Hopefully, the [eventual] gut punch will be even greater that way.

Elizabeth’s character gives Virginia’s child-like character a bath at a certain point, and both of your performances sold this make-believe mother-daughter scenario. I almost forgot that this was some twisted parental application process. During filming, how confident were you that people would buy into this? Did you have doubts?

Yes and no. On the day, if I got across what I’d been visualizing or fantasizing in my head, I did believe it was going to work. I knew it was going to be a first, and it’s something that I had to figure out ahead of me arriving on set. And it’s amazing that you mentioned the bath scene. You do find out later on in the film that there is a great connection between these two women; they just don’t know what it is yet [in the bathtub scene]. But that’s when they saw something in the other person that they could relate to, and they found a comfort and a silent understanding of one another. Early on, Lizzie [Olsen] and I talked about wanting to find moments where we could bring that element to these characters and hopefully grab the audience in a deeper way.

Even the way you walked and dangled your arms without a purposeful movement was spot-on.

(Laughs.) Yeah, that was something I observed. Even in the most naturalistic performances, I still find my way into the role from a very physical place. This was just taken to a much greater extreme. When you asked me about my belief or confidence that this performance would land, it happened when I started to feel that physicality. It was about trying my very best to be as real as possible in my own universe as this character. It was about being pure and honest without making a caricature. So a big thing was not shying away from trying to make it real.

I mentioned it earlier, but it’s somehow been ten years since Ex Machina. Are you the least bit surprised that we’re barreling toward an AI-centric future? 

No, when I got that part ten years ago, it was already a subject that interested me. So I was very excited to be part of the film, and I remember being introduced to people who said that a lot of the thoughts and ideas in the film are very accurate. It was just a few years before the rest of the world caught on, and it’s amazing when you watch it now. The idea of making an AI personality based on your Google searches, I remember people were like, “Wow, that’s so far-fetched.” So the way the world looked five years ago has already changed, and I’m not surprised because I’ve always thought that we were going to experience quite a bit of change during this life.

Looking ahead, I have to imagine that Olivier Assayas’ The Wizard of the Kremlin is an intimidating story to tell right now. Does it make all the difference that it’s with a filmmaker you trust?

Totally. The moment he called me, I said an immediate yes. I knew he was adapting [Giuliano da Empoli’s] book, and I had read it when it came out. It’s such a poignant and important novel, and I feel very proud that we are going to tell this story together. So I felt like I was in very safe hands with Olivier and all the other actors involved.

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The Assessment is now playing in movie theaters.