WHAT A TANGLED WEB ...
Goth girl Lisbeth Salander is back fighting injustice
Claire Foy is trading life inside Buckingham Palace for a girl with a dragon tattoo.
The 34-year-old British actress, who scored a Screen Actors Guild Award, an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her breakout role as Queen Elizabeth II on Netflix’s The Crown, is reviving hacker Lisbeth Salander in The Girl in the Spider’s Web. After a trilogy of Swedish films that starred Noomi Rapace, it’s been seven years since the last attempt to bring the Stieg Larsson-created heroine to the big screen in North America. The first incarnation starred Rooney Mara as the goth vigilante and Daniel Craig as her journalist-friend Mikael Blomkvist.
In the books, Salander is a rape survivor who takes revenge on men who abuse women.
It’s a timely subject matter, in part because of the #MeToo movement, but Foy says the character shouldn’t be seen as the poster girl for what’s happening right now. “The point of Lisbeth Salander is what she experienced and what she survived has been going on forever, that’s why Stieg Larsson wrote the books in the first place,” she says. “I think that movement is so significant and so important ... I don’t want to say, ‘This is the perfect time.’”
Q What was your initial reaction when you heard that there was a possibility that the series was going to be rebooted with The Girl in the Spider’s Web?
A When I first heard about it, obviously I knew it was something I didn’t want to touch with a 10-foot pole (laughs). I thought, ‘Why on earth would I want to take that on? Why would anyone try to follow two incredible performances?’ You’d have to be mad. Then I met Fede (Alvarez, the director) and the way he spoke about the film and the way he wanted to tackle the story about the sisters and the way he wanted to put Lisbeth in a position where she had to face her own subconscious, I thought was really interesting. Having loved that character and having loved every incarnation of her, I was really interested to see her at the centre of the drama and push her to the limits of what her character could be.
Q You just mentioned loving her. What was your first interaction with Lisbeth like?
A I read all the books in my 20s and then I watched the Swedish movies shortly afterward, and I was obsessed by them. People say a lot of things about Lisbeth being badass and an avenging angel and a vigilante, but I just love how human she is. I love how she’s unlike any other female protagonist I’ve ever, ever, ever read or watched. I think she’s been so damaged in her life and so taken advantage of and so hurt, and yet there she is — an incredible survivor. So what’s not to love?
Q Why do you think people connected with Lisbeth?
A I think there’s something inside those of us who are reading these novels that we feel we have in ourselves. The people who connect with her feel in some way misunderstood or wounded, and we want to go beyond what people think we’re capable of, or what society says we should be doing. I think that there’s something so human about her, which means people — in spite of her seeming to be a standoffish, distant, hard-to-love character — inherently recognize her as really human.
Q Coming off The Crown and your portrayal of Queen Elizabeth, has your game plan been to try and keep people guessing what you’ll do next?
A (Laughs) I don’t think anybody cares, ultimately. I just do what I want to do. But I have no game plan. I think it’s a huge fallacy to try and predict the outcome in this industry. It’s entirely based on a whim, so what we choose has to be based on taste and love. You can’t try and have an algorithm for this. I never thought I was going to be an actress, so all I can do is follow my heart and where it tells me to go. Things that look incredible and parts that people might say I’d be an idiot to pass on — I can’t do those unless they make sense. A lot of things I do don’t make a lot of sense, but I only have the courage of my own convictions (laughs).
Q You’re 10 years into your career. What made you want to be an actor in the first place?
A Going to drama school wasn’t so I could become an actor ... I went to drama school to express myself in a way that I knew I needed to express myself, to do something I needed to get out of my system. It just turns out that I’ve been getting it out of my system for 10 years (laughs). That’s it. It was a life choice as opposed to a career choice.
Q What would the young Claire think of where the older Claire ended up?
A My gosh. I genuinely don’t know. She’d probably have to have a lie down. She’d be completely shocked.
Q We know that Lisbeth is in another book — The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye. Are you looking forward to coming back?
A I think that Lisbeth is an infinitely interesting character. I think that the other actors who have played her will attest to that as well; you can never get to the bottom of that character and there would never be enough times you could play her. There is so much that I’d love to explore with her. But I don’t think anyone is focusing on that right now. We’re just focused on this movie.