A GRADE

AFTER KEEPING A LOW PROFILE FOR A COUPLE OF YEARS, ALICIA VIKANDER IS BACK IN A BIG WAY. THE SWEDISH OSCAR WINNER TELLS TOTAL FILM ABOUT TAPPING INTO HER WORKING-CLASS ROOTS FOR DEPORTATION DRAMA BLUE BAYOU, AND HER HOPES FOR THE UPCOMING TOMB RAIDER SEQUEL.

- ANN LEE

When Alicia Vikander first started out, people would often assume that she was British. The Swedish actress had appeared in several period dramas and her flawless English accent was so convincing that she had everyone fooled. “I played a few royals,” she laughs over Zoom. “They thought I was from a very high-class background.”

Since then, she’s enjoyed a diverse and eclectic career, but her own working-class roots have remained largely untapped in her films. “I’ve wanted to tell those stories but people don’t offer me those roles.” Until now that is. In Blue Bayou, Vikander plays Kathy, the pregnant wife of Antonio (Justin Chon, who also writes and directs), a Korean-born adoptee facing deportation from the US due to a legal loophole even though he was brought there when he was three. Their relationship becomes increasingly strained as the ex-con tattoo artist, a loving stepfather to Jessie (Sydney Kowalske), is forced to revert back to his old ways to make ends meet.

“Kathy is a very headstrong woman, who cares about her family a lot,” the 32-year-old says from Paris, where she’s shooting her new HBO series, Irma Vep, an adaptation of Olivier Assayas’ cult film. “She had to go through quite a tough trauma when she had a child with a man who then decided not to be present. Then she met Antonio, who is from a different background. She is a very caring person, who is working hard to make a good living.”