Alicia Vikander at ZFF: “I was pregnant – and tested prospective parents for suitability”

The Oscar-winning Swedish actress Alicia Vikander presents her new film “The Assessment” and tells blue News in an interview about the challenges her role as a ruthless assessor brought with it for potential parents.

In the dystopian sci-fi thriller “The Assessment”, the French director with the wonderful name Fleur Fortune paints a worrying future scenario. However, given the rapidly growing world population, their ideas do not seem completely absurd and are thought-provoking.

In her excitingly staged, stirring debut, Alicia Vikander plays the expert Virginia, who subjects couples who want to have children to an aptitude test for potential parents. The test candidates who are the focus of “The Assessment” are brilliantly embodied by Elizabeth Olsen and Himesh Patel.

They make a seemingly perfect couple, both highly intelligent, good-looking and firmly convinced that they will become the ideal parents. But they didn’t expect Virginia’s highly unconventional and nerve-racking methods. Vikander is at her absolute best when portraying the strict assessor and shows one of the best acting performances of her career. Her portrayal is more varied than ever before, because while she is introduced at the beginning as a highly responsible, precise official of the “New World”, during the tests with the potential parents she pretends to be a toddler and behaves accordingly carefree and careless .

By really annoying the couple and driving them crazy, this creates numerous strange and funny moments. Only in the final phase does the film reveal a little more about the background of the mysterious Virginia, with Vikander also shining in deeply emotional and touching scenes.

Already won an Oscar

Before the premiere at the Zurich Film Festival, the visibly good-humored Swedish actress told blue News in an interview that it was precisely this multifaceted nature of her role that posed the greatest challenge for her. In addition, Vikander was in the middle of pregnancy during filming, which was even more challenging given the film’s subject matter.

The ZFF is visiting her for the second time. In 2017 she presented her specially produced film “Euphoria” in Zurich.

At the premiere of “The Assessment,” Alicia Vikander will be honored with the Golden Eye Award for her remarkable career.

Over the course of her career, she has regularly appeared in historical dramas, including “A Royal Affair”, “Anna Karenina” and, most recently, “Firebrand”. Her historical films “The Light Between Oceans” and “The Danish Girl” were not quite as rich in costumes, but at least as successful. For the latter she was awarded the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

Always women of strong character

As a versatile and courageous actress, she has also established herself in the field of action cinema. After appearances in “The Man from UNCLE” and “Jason Bourne”, the renowned role of Lara Croft from “Tomb Raider” followed. With a convincing, dedicated and energetic performance, she presented herself as a strong protagonist.

In the sci-fi thriller “Ex Machina” she showed a completely different side and appeared charming and seductive as a robot woman, but at the same time mysterious and unpredictable.

Most of the characters she embodies are women of strong character and often represent values ​​that she herself stands for with her down-to-earth, considerate manner.

“The Assessment” is expected to open in German-speaking Swiss cinemas on April 3, 2025.

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