Krieps sees pattern of relationships in ‘Thread’
NEW YORK — Plucked from obscurity to play Daniel Day-Lewis’ mighty muse in the period romance “Phantom Thread,” Vicky Krieps is taking her newfound turn in the celebrity spotlight with ease.
“The only thing that has definitely changed,” the Luxembourgian actress said, “is people are asking me if my life has changed.
“I can understand them asking me but I don’t know what it means. I have nothing to compare it to.”
Her road to “Phantom” began when she was asked to do a scene on tape and send it to London.
“I misread the email,” she recalled. “My agent called to say the director liked what I did and wanted my phone number.”
Krieps was dumbstruck, so the agent asked, “Vicky, do you know who we are talking about?”
“No. When I read the email I thought it was for a student film.”
“Phantom” is from writerdirector Paul Thomas Anderson, whose “There Will Be Blood” won DayLewis his second best actor Oscar.
It was another three weeks before she learned Day-Lewis was her leading man.
Like so many of DayLewis’ co-stars, “I met Daniel only afterwards. But I can see there is a lot of Daniel in Reynolds Woodcock,” the fashion designer he plays.
“It’s obvious. It may be a character but it still comes from you.”
Similarly, because DayLewis wanted his “reality” as they filmed, “For me to prepare Alma, we couldn’t rehearse because Daniel is only meeting me on the first day for the first time.”
Her Alma is a waitress who becomes the lover, muse and eventual opponent in a struggle for power with Reynolds. Anderson sees his romance, set in ’50s London, as a grand gothic romance like “Rebecca.”
“Coming from the war and having left her own country, she’s lost her mother and is keen to find a suitor,” Krieps, 34, said of Alma.
“She is looking for something but doesn’t know what. That’s where Reynolds comes in: They just see each other.
“I think they have this moment of deep recognition, which happens on both sides when people fall in love. For her, this is the first time, the first time someone really sees you. She wasn’t expecting this; she was maybe hoping and wishing for something to happen.
“Intuitively she knows he will take her on a journey. Funnily enough, he takes her into his world and equally she shows him her world, which is on the inside.”
(“Phantom Thread” opens Thursday.)