ELF HELP
Noomi Rapace on playing villainous Elf Leilah
We know that Leilah wants to track down an all-powerful world-destroying wand in the movie. What motivates her?
She wants to create a better world. She wants to make this world more beautiful. Way back when the Dark Lord was in charge, the world had beauty, it had dignity, morals, it had a divine glow. Now… she’s not wrong, look around you... it’s a fucking mess, the world is overpopulated, people are starving, people are killing each other, people are desperate, it’s fucking mayhem. So I can understand her – it’s just her method and what she wants to do and how she wants to do it. It’s in her blood, you know.
Do you need to get into a villain’s head to play one?
I always try to find the emotional core or the seed to the character – what are her dreams, what is she fighting for? Nobody’s cold. She kills people without blinking, but deep inside she wants to create a better place for her sisterhood and brotherhood, for Elves. But in that beautiful little paradise ugly doesn’t exist, so ugly needs to go and die.
How did you find the mix of a realistic LA setting, and Orcs, Elves and magic?
It’s trippy – I’ve never seen anything like it. The sets were just incredible and David has such a style and vision, and his eye is just fantastic. When we were finding Leilah and her look, first we tried something way more gothic and, I would say, a little bit more predictable. Then he would say it’s not there yet, we’ll do more tests. And then we found this look and I was like everything just fell into place. He’s an amazing filmmaker, and I loved working with him.
So do you think it all hangs together?
This world David’s created makes sense. It’s a violent saga, but it makes sense, and it feels like it could really [exist], because the way he does it is so effortless. The Orcs are gang members, and they look like kind of green pigs – they look horrible! But there’s a certain beauty to the Orcs too, and they look so real and so raw and so authentic. So it is like End Of Watch or Training Day, it’s just that it happens to be Elves and Orcs – and a few humans!