The Oscar winner, on the loneliness of ‘Bourne,’ her guilty pleasures and possibly being an android herself.
Swedish actress Alicia Vikander (pronounced "ah-lee-see-ah vih-kander") is easily one of the most talented young women working in movies today. Although familiar to European and British audiences since 2010, she's a fairly new face to American moviegoers. In the brilliant 2015 sci-fi film Ex Machina, Vikander played an android named Ava who will do anything to escape out into the world. The movie won an Oscar for Best Visual Effects, and, that same year, Vikander won her first Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her acclaimed performance in The Danish Girl. She also seemed period perfect in the '60s-set spy series The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
We caught up with Vikander as she was in Las Vegas for the premiere of Jason Bourne, the fifth movie in the popular Matt Damon spy franchise. In Jason Bourne, Vikander plays Heather Lee, a CIA cyber-security expert who is tasked with bringing in Bourne but who has her own private agenda. The 27-year-old Oscar winner spoke candidly about her Bourne character's poker face, her guilty pleasures, and what she thinks her Ex Machina character is doing out in the world right now.
Fandango: Heather Lee pursues Jason Bourne across the globe in Jason Bourne, but you're never quite sure if she wants to help or hurt him. Did that require the character to have a permanent poker face?
Alicia Vikander: What [director] Paul [Greengrass] told me early on that really stuck with me is that what all of the Bourne characters have in common is that they are very lonely. You can't picture them going home from work. Also, having climbed the ladder as [Heather] has at a very young age, she must have given up a lot on the way. She had to put up a kind of a shield, and her best friend is probably her computer. So that shield that you are talking about is not just to hide her intentions, it was part of her personality. But it's also a way of protecting her from other people reading her.
I remember reading [the script] the first time and trying to get under her skin and really figure out if she was on one or the other side, but it almost seems like she has a personal agenda that is above everything and you have to try to figure out what that is.
Fandango: Is it true you used to binge-watch The Bourne Identity with your roommates?
Vikander: I moved to London for the first time maybe five or six years ago. I had this very dirty bachelorette pad in West London with three girlfriends. On Sundays when we had brunch at home and didn't have anything else to do for the day, very often we would say, "Should we just watch Bourne again?" Two of the friends were out in L.A. and I tried to get them to come to the premiere, but at the last minute they couldn't come. I hope they enjoy the film now!
"It is scary if the last thing we give up is privacy."
Fandango: Heather Lee is a cyber expert. Are you tech savvy in real life, or did you struggle with the jargon used in the movie?
Vikander: I carry an iPhone with me, like must people do. We all kind of rule our lives through technology, but I've met people who have similar jobs to Heather Lee, including one guy at Google. Everyone in that office has several PhDs, so, no, I don't have that ability in tech as I had to try to pretend. [Laughs] I mean, I like computers and I think it's our future, but it is scary if the last thing we give up is privacy. Then we lose democracy and freedom of speech. But I'm very intrigued by technology and what this new generation of young people like Heather can do.
Watch her try to connect with Bourne in this clip:
Fandango: Heather Lee isn't the first character who thinks she can bring in Bourne to be reconditioned. Do you think Bourne will become her white whale, or will she let it go?
Vikander: I love to continue to dream about what happens, and of course I have! That is kind of in the air if that story will ever be told. It's not written yet! [Laughs]
Fandango: Kate Winslet said that she keeps her Oscar on the toilet so people can take pictures with it and Cher uses hers as a doorstop. Where do you keep your Oscar?
Vikander: I haven't seen Oscar! We had a night together and then the day after, I went straight back to the Bourne set in London. I've only been going between sets since then. I hope my friend in L.A. takes really good care of him, because I'm longing to bring him back home!
"I haven't had a TV since I was 15."
Fandango: What is a guilty pleasure of yours that people will be surprised to know?
Vikander: I haven't had a TV since I was 15, so when I'm alone in hotels I end up watching house-renovation programs or food shows like Master Chef. I very rarely cry when something happens, but then you put something like Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on and I bawl.
Fandango: You've been cast as the next Lara Croft. As far as video games are concerned, would we most likely see you playing Pac-Man, Tomb Raider or Pokémon Go?
Vikander: I am probably the last person to find out what Pokémon Go was—I had to have someone explain it to me two days ago. I was very much into point-and-click games when I grew up. I did play Tomb Raider when it came out, even though I was so young that I was scared and had to take breaks all the time. Of course, Angelina Jolie made such an icon of Lara Croft as a character. Now with the reboot, I am thrilled at being a part of such a classic character and getting the chance to do something very different, hopefully.
Fandango: At the end of Ex Machina, Ava the homicidal android escapes into the world. What do you imagine she is doing now that she's free?
Vikander: How do you know that I'm not just Ava right now? It's scary! [Laughs]
Jason Bourne opens in theaters everywhere on July 29.
