NOOMI RAPACE

She had a bout of the xenomorphics in Prometheus. Now she’s

he’s the original girl with the dragon tattoo. She’s hung out with Sherlock Holmes. She’s even performed DIY surgery to remove an alien from her abdomen. But little on Noomi Rapace’s eclectic CV can have prepared her for playing seven different characters in new Netflix movie What Happened To Monday. Set in a future where families are strictly limited to one child, it focuses on seven identical septuplets who’ve slipped through the net. Named for the days of the week, they now live in hiding, taking it in turns to go into the outside world using the made-up identity they share.

“When I read the script it was just mind-blowing and terrifying,” Rapace tells SFX over coffee in a London hotel. “I couldn’t even picture how to do it. The way I act is all about the connection between me and the other actors, so every take will be different, because they will do something different and I will do something different – it’s like a dance. So this scared me to the deepest place in my soul – but then I’m very drawn to things that are scary!” How do you go about moving between seven characters?

I had to create rituals for when I was switching between them. I listened to different music for each one, wore different smells... I had to shower to wash off the perfume to step into the new one. Then when I was clean I walked over to the next room with the make-up and hair people. We were in some weird concentration together, where they started creating the sisters, painting my face, and when they put on the wigs and I had the music on, I was getting my head into the next one. How challenging was playing seven roles logistically?

Technically it’s never been done before, so we had to invent a shooting formula, a way to work. I had to be aware of my own acting in a way that I’ve never been before, because I had to show the doubles what to do, how I was going to move. Every scene, whether it was all of me, or five of me, I had to almost have a bird’s eye perspective, and be ahead of myself. I had to be 100% present, even though sometimes it was just me in a green room with tennis balls, with an earpiece, answering my own dialogue. The seven sisters have very different skills and personalities. Are any of them particularly like you?

I’ve realised that they’re all different versions of me. It was very important to me to not fall into clichés. When you have seven characters they need to stand out or it’s just going to be confusing for the audience. So Saturday is one side of me – she’s playful, she’s funny, she’s witty, and deeply romantic. But Friday is very intelligent, yet can’t really interact with the others. It was a thin line to balance on, but I realised they’re all just extremes of me. Did you do much to immerse yourself in the 2073 world where the movie’s set?

For humans, psychologically it’s the same as now – it’s just things around us that will change. I saw this Mexican film about the different zones in Mexico City, where it’s segregated, the rich live behind big walls and you need an ID card to pass between the different sections. Or the one child policy we’ve seen in China. Our movie’s just turning up the volume on things that we already sort of have. In December we’re going to see you as a villain in Bright, from Suicide Squad director David Ayer. What can you tell us about your character?

I love her! She’s an elf and she’s evil as fuck, but she’s not cold. I had a long conversation with Marilyn Manson, who’s a good friend of mine, and he loves villains. We talked about the fact that villains should get an opportunity to prove their point. If you can trace it back to why she’s doing it and what her passion is, then it becomes more interesting. You look different every time you do a movie. How big a part of your process is finding the right appearance?

I start by doing research; sometimes I interview people. It’s almost like I’m collecting information and then when I have all the pieces I digest it. Then the next step is about finding the look. I don’t force it, it kind of comes to me. I’ve just wrapped Stockholm, where I play a hostage trapped in a bank for six weeks, falling in love with my captor. It’s really twisted and strange but I understood her totally. I wrapped on the Saturday at 5pm, and I was on a flight at 8pm, complete chaos inside. It was like, “Who am I now? Who is Noomi?” Then I realised that it’s actually not about going back to me. It’s finding the new me. Every character I’ve done, something is permanently changed in me. I’m evolving with them. The transformation is part of my life.

What Happened To Monday is available on Netflix from 18 August.

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