Noomi Rapace

Early life

Rapace was born in Hudiksvall, Sweden. Her mother, Kristina "Nina" Norén (born 1954), is a Swedish actress, and her father, Rogelio Durán (10 November 1953 – 4 November 2006), was a Spanish flamenco singer from Badajoz. She has said her father may have been of partly Roma descent, and though she is "not sure if it is true," she has "always been interested in the culture." Rapace's sister, Særún Norén, is a photographer.

Rapace has said she saw her father only occasionally before his death. "He was not around. The first time I saw him or I met him, I was fifteen and I saw him on stage," Rapace said about her father. At age five, she moved from her native Sweden to Flúðir in Iceland with her mother and stepfather, Hrafnkell Karlsson. Two years later, she made her film debut in a minor role in the Icelandic film In the Shadow of the Raven, along with Karlsson. She says, "I came from a poor farm, I'm not educated, no one opened doors for me, I don't come from money."

Rapace speaks fluent Icelandic, Danish, Norwegian, and English, in addition to her native Swedish.

Career

Early work

At the age of seven, Rapace was given her first film role, a non-speaking part in the Icelandic film In the Shadow of the Raven by Hrafn Gunnlaugsson. This experience prompted her to be an actress. She left home at age 15 and enrolled in a Stockholm theatre school.

In 1996, Rapace (then Noomi Norén) made her television debut playing the part of Lucinda Gonzales in the long-running soap opera series Tre kronor. From 1998 to 1999, Rapace studied at the acting school Skara Skolscen. She has been engaged at Theater Plaza in 2000–01, Orion Theatre in 2001, Teater Galeasen in 2002, Stockholm City Theatre in 2003, as well as at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, all in Stockholm.

In 2007, she won acclaim for her award-winning portrayal of a troubled teen mother in the Danish film Daisy Diamond, directed by Simon Staho. She won the two top film awards in Denmark (the Bodil and Robert prize) for Best Actress for her role in the film, which was also selected for the main competition at the San Sebastián International Film Festival.

In 2009, she played the role of Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish-produced film adaptation of Stieg Larsson's best-selling novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, for which she won the Best Actress trophy at Guldbagge Award (Sweden's top film award) and Satellite Award, and was nominated for a BAFTA Award and European Film Award in the same category. She later appeared in the same role in the sequels The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest. All three films were subsequently recut as a six-part miniseries aired on Swedish television called Millennium, for which Rapace received a nomination for the International Emmy Award. The three film adaptations have earned over $200 million at the box office worldwide.

International success

Following the success of the Millennium series, Rapace started an international career. Her first English-speaking role was the character of Madame Simza Heron in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, released in 2011.

Her international fame has earned her leading roles in mainstream cinema. She was cast in Ridley Scott's blockbuster hit Prometheus, where she played the leading role, a scientist named Elizabeth Shaw. She had met Scott for the first time following the release of the Millennium trilogy movies, at which point he expressed a willingness to work with her and encouraged her to improve her accent. Prometheus was released in June 2012. She did not appear in the final cut of the film's sequel Alien: Covenant (2017), but did act in a short related prologue.

In November 2012, she appeared in The Rolling Stones video-clip for the single "Doom and Gloom", shot in the studios of the Cité du Cinéma by Luc Besson in Saint-Denis. Also in the same year, she starred alongside Rachel McAdams in Brian De Palma's erotic thriller Passion, which is the English-language remake of 2010's French psychological thriller Love Crime. They both appeared in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, but did not share scenes. Rapace also appeared in Niels Arden Oplev's crime thriller Dead Man Down, alongside Isabelle Huppert and Colin Farrell.

In 2014, she appeared as Nadia in Michaël R. Roskam's thriller The Drop, alongside Tom Hardy, Matthias Schoenaerts, and James Gandolfini. In September 2014, she was the subject of the short film A Portrait of Noomi Rapace, directed by artist and designer Aitor Throup and scored by Flying Lotus. In the same year, Rapace appeared in the video for the single "Eez-eh" by Kasabian. In 2015, she starred as Raisa Demidova in Daniel Espinosa's Child 44 opposite Hardy again (her co-star in The Drop), also starring Gary Oldman, Vincent Cassel, Jason Clarke, and Joel Kinnaman.

She starred in the 2017 spy thriller Unlocked, with Michael Douglas, John Malkovich, Orlando Bloom, and Toni Collette, and the science fiction horror Rupture by Steven Shainberg. In 2017, she led the sci-fi/actioner What Happened to Monday opposite Glenn Close and Willem Dafoe. The same year, Rapace played an elf in the urban action fantasy Bright.

Personal life

Rapace married Swedish actor Ola Rapace (born Pär Ola Norell) in 2001. Upon marrying, the couple decided to jointly adopt a brand-new surname instead of one partner taking the other's surname; they did this because their surnames, Norén and Norell respectively, sounded so similar. They decided on Rapace, meaning "bird of prey" both in French and Italian, because it sounded "cool". They have a son, born in 2003. In September 2010, they filed for divorce, which took effect the year after.

As of 2022, Rapace lives in London, England, which she describes as her "favourite city".

Acting credits