She first stunned as the fiery Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009), based on the spunky and iconic heroine of the Stieg Larsson bestsellers. Since then, Noomi Rapace has built a solid career brick-by-brick, starring in  roles both challenging and groundbreaking.

The 38-year-old actress plays an elf-villain in the Netflix original Bright, co-starring Will Smith, that’s now streaming on the platform. Accompanied by co-stars Smith and Joel Edgerton, Noomi was in Mumbai in December to promote the film. At a conference room at St Regis hotel in Mumbai, t2 caught up with the refreshingly frank actress for a chat on films and feminism.

How’s it been like in India so far?

It’s been nice, you know. We arrived a few hours ago… and I’ve been in a hotel! (Puts on a straight face and then breaks into a big laugh) I haven’t seen anything and I’m flying out tonight (makes a sad face)… I came here once before, but I was in New Delhi airport for six hours! (Laughs) But I watched an Indian movie recently… Dangal (smiles). It’s really good! Very emotional… and I thought the actors were amazing. I was almost crying at the end of that last wrestling match (smiles).

Was this the first Indian film you watched?

No, I watched a couple waaaaayyyy back, but I don’t remember them. Coming here, I feel so ignorant because you guys have such a super strong film industry, but it doesn’t really hit my world, though I live in London. I have now decided to actively look out for Bollywood films after discovering Dangal. I am from Sweden and your body language is so different from what we have. For an actor, everything is about body language and watching Dangal just opened up a whole new world to me.

As a woman, did the theme resonate with you?

Oh yes! I loved how the father (played by Aamir Khan) wants to have a son so that he can train him to be a wrestler and then he decides to embrace the fact that he has daughters and lives his dream through them. Lovely, lovely film!

I started doing martial arts when I was 11 and that was my way of dealing with becoming a woman… being in my body and also kind of expressing my rage. As a teenager, I was really rebellious (laughs) and I used to get that out of my system through sport. It’s stupid to think that women don’t have the same aggression…we just deal with it differently! I was very boyish as a teen… I had short hair and I was always hanging with the boys… so the two amazing actresses (Zaira Wasim and Suhani Bhatnagar) who play the sisters (in Dangal)… I could really relate to them… and also relate to being the underdog in life (smiles). 

It all started for you playing Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. That was, by no means, an easy role to play…

It was very, very intense (smiles). Over six months, I did a lot of prep… I changed my body, took a lot of motorcycle (riding) lessons… did all the piercings…. I slowly grew into the character. And then we shot all three movies (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest) back to back and when it finished, I actually came out of the set feeling like an alien! (Laughs) I had this weird haircut — it was somewhat like a Mohawk and yet it wasn’t! — and for about three weeks, I didn’t know who I was. It was a life-changing experience. 

Has that happened with any other film?

Ya! All the time! (Laughs) I just did this film called What Happened to Monday? in which I play seven characters... and while filming, I was alone in a room most of the time! By the time I came out of it, I was a wreck. When I went back to London, I felt disconnected with the world. I felt my short-term memory was totally gone for two weeks… I had a tough time recognising people and places. My system had been carrying those seven sisters and I lent my heart and soul to them — I go very deep into my characters — and I felt so strange leaving them all behind and becoming Noomi again.

Do the films you do change you fundamentally as a person?

Every role takes something of me, but also gives me something. I did a movie in May (2017) with Ethan Hawke (called Stockholm). It’s about the Stockholm Syndrome. I wrapped the movie on a Saturday afternoon and flew directly to LA (Los Angeles). I had to go straight into a meeting and I was in deep panic because I felt I needed to shake the movie off and go back to being Noomi. But it took me just a minute to realise and tell myself, ‘No, I can’t ever go back. The Noomi I used to be will never be there again… I need to find out who I’ve become and how this character has changed me’. Every role changes something in me permanently.

Has playing the anti-hero in Bright changed you in any way?

I am not the anti-hero… I am the hero! (Laughs and winks) Strangely, I fell in love with Leilah… there’s a lot to her that doesn’t really come out, but you see it in the way she moves and in her eyes. She’s deeply religious and if she really believes in something, it will be so strong that she’ll devote her whole life to the cause. She wants to bring back an old order… she serves the Dark Lord and that’s her ‘god’. It’s almost like a war-zone within her and that’s what David (Ayer, the film’s director) kept telling me, ‘Remember the pain within her and play her’.

Also, she’s a creature and so I had to work on a different kind of body language for the fight scenes… I had to find a flow and so I rehearsed a lot. I did everything myself. To fight in a tight suit and high heels is hard… but to be an elf is tougher! (Laughs)

Leilah doesn’t have many dialogues. That must have been tough since you had to convey so much through body language…

Yes! I did a lot of fight training, gun training. In the film, I fight with two knives and for months, I even slept with those knives! I learnt Elvish, but the rest of the prep was very physical. I was out running on the beaches of Venice in the mornings and going through my Elvish prayer! (Laughs) To everyone else, I looked like a crazy person running and muttering in a crazy language!

You played a victim of abuse in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and there’s been a big Hollywood shake-up with the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal. For someone who has worked extensively in Hollywood and European cinema, can you offer some perspective on what it’s like out there?

Male toxicity is something, unfortunately, that you see in most industries. If someone sits on too much power, there will be very few people who will not start to use it negatively. Corruption can also be emotional and I see that happening around me all the time. The fashion industry is full of it and the music industry too, so obviously it is a part of all other movie industries as well, and not just Hollywood. But I’m glad it’s starting to change in this whole new wave. And that makes it harder for people to use and abuse their positions.

But it’s a very old structure… if you look back… the stories about (Alfred) Hitchcock are simply horrendous (shakes her head). It’s now that we’ve decided we’ve had enough and women are speaking up. Also, the power centres are changing and there are so many women who are making films and working in positions of power… and now we’ve decided that enough is enough… or as they say, time’s up! (Smiles)

There’s also been a wave of protest around the gender pay gap in Hollywood. How has that affected you?

I started working in theatre before shifting to films and I have been the centre of most of the films I’ve done. Bright is a one-off for me where I am on a side track… and it’s nice in a way because I come in chasing the boys! (Laughs) I have always avoided doing the pretty, cute, sexy girl… and so I haven’t been given a raw deal in terms of remuneration because my roles themselves are very central and lead-based.

For every issue — sexual abuse to pay gap — the need of the hour is to speak up. That’s the biggest strength… our voice. In Swedish culture, we are very wary of conflicts and we tend to look the other way. But that is not something that should be encouraged. Confront, confront… straightaway… on the day… don’t let them get away!