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Please welcome Alicia Vikander!
-Welcome to the show. -Thank you.
We saw some scenes from a film that will be in theaters soon,
both here in Sweden and in Norway.
This is one of several international films you're starring in.
-But this one is in Danish. -That's right, it's in Danish.
I had to learn a new language.
What was that like? Was it a challenge?
God, yes. I recall getting the audition scene from a Swedish casting director.
I said, "There must have been a mistake. You know I don't speak Danish."
She said, "Do what you want. Do it in Swedish or in Danish."
A friend's mother who's half-Danish recorded the whole scene on my iPhone.
Then I tried my best to learn it phonetically.
Then I got my last callback in Copenhagen.
-I got to meet Mads and the director. -Mads Mikkelsen, your co-star?
We did a screen test, which is when you're in full costume
and we shot some scenes on a set.
Afterwards I went back to my hotel.
I was so tired I didn't even take calls from my mother or my agent.
I wanted this part so badly I had almost developed tunnel vision.
But I thought, no way I'll get it.
But then the director called me and asked
if he could come by the hotel for a beer, and I said, sure.
So there we were, and I was so tired, having expended all this energy
trying to understand Danish this whole day.
And he started talking, and it was full of people, it was loud,
and he said something and I thought, I can't say "what?" again
so I'll just have to do the classic nod and smile.
-As we all do when people speak Danish. -Like I've done with you.
No, but he said something and saw it didn't quite land.
So he said it again, and I laughed a little.
And he went, "OK, I'll take it in English. I just gave you the part."
I was so happy he hadn't just run out thinking, "this will never work."
I was so happy, and I got up to my room and put the TV on,
and I totally panicked because I didn't get a word.
And I thought, I've got 2.5 months to learn Danish like I promised.
It worked out. The filmA Royal Affair premiered at the Berlin Film Festival.
-It won two awards. -Yes. We were so happy.
-You played the queen? -Yes.
Don't worry, even Danes are having a harder time understanding Danes.
The language is changing, becoming more unintelligible.
It can affect at what age they learn to speak.
It's scientifically proven. Almost.
For us Norwegians, to sit here and trash-talk the Danes, it's...
Good thing they're so nice, given how they talk.
-We think they're nice. We don't know. -I'm pretty sure.
-You started out as a ballet dancer. -Yes.
-You studied ballet for nine years. -Yes, that's right.
I attended The Royal Swedish Ballet School from the age of ten.
Why did you give it up?
It was an incredibly hard decision, after so many years.
I was totally focused on it, dancing six days a week for hours.
That was my goal for many years.
But in the last few years, it began to dawn on me
that my passion lay elsewhere.
But it's still... I mean, I never went to acting school.
I applied numerous times but never made the cut.
But all those years are still a foundation for my current profession.
It's something I revisit and still lean on.
You're making several international films.
-And you travel a lot. -Yes.
It seems to me, when we've tried to get hold of you,
you're either in Hollywood or in Copenhagen,
or in London... You're constantly traveling.
Yes, I've been on the road 13-14 months.
You've become good at packing a suitcase, I bet.
Just two weeks ago I was in Siberia, Russia, shooting in -38 degrees.
Siberia? Not very many Hollywood stars tend to go there.
Well... We recently wrapped shooting forAnna Karenina,
directed by Joe Wright and due out this fall.
-Keira Knightley stars as Anna Karenina? -Yes. I spoke to her yesterday.
She was very happy about not going to Russia.
-She didn't go. But you did? -Yes, me and this other...
I felt fortunate.
I went with Domnhall Gleeson, who plays Levin, my husband.
We were supposed to stay at a nice hotel,
but instead we stayed in a house that was only used in the summertime.
They'd never tried to heat it up in the winter. It was freezing cold.
The last night I slept on the floor in the bigger house,
next to the fireplace, because I was dying from the cold.
There was this one guy from the crew...
He had to go to the outhouse, which was the toilet facility they had.
He said, "I'll be quick, one pair of pants and a sweater will do."
And he went, did his business, and when he opened the door
he realizes there are twelve wolves out there.
So he starts to yell, but no one in the house can hear him.
But after ten minutes, they go, "He's taking a long time."
So they see the wolves, grab guns, and when they find him he had frostbite.
So they had to call an ambulance.
This is not what I imagined Hollywood life to be like.
Right! Totally normal.
You're off to shoot a new film now?
Yes, we're in pre-production for "Seventh Son" now.
And that's some sort of action...?
It's a big fantasy, gothic, action-like film.
-Who else is in it? -Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore.
-And Ben Barnes. -Don't those names feel surreal to you?
Like, seriously?! Really?! Do you ever think like that?
Sure, it's a bit of a shock.
The first shock is probably the biggest shock.
Once you have lunch together or go to Siberia with people, it's like...
Totally normal?
The wolves still aren't very normal.