Quotes from Alicia Vikander

My agent in Sweden used to send off interview tapes but I decided to take it upon myself and come to London to visit casting directors which is when things first started taking off for me. I love Sweden but the industry out here is quite small so when I was given the chance to go internationally I took it.

For events, I do use make-up, but normally I don't. I might use a bit of eyebrow pencil and a lipstick but nothing else.

Working makes me happy, makes me calm.

I've never been able to lift my own weight, and the day when you have that capacity, it's pretty empowering!

I give a lot to charity when it comes to clothes.

I vividly remember watching women in films when I was nine or 10, picturing them being what I'd be like as an adult. I had these real female crushes on certain actresses. And I'd watch them, thinking, 'One day, I'll be that. One day I'll be a woman.'

I am very fortunate to work with people I have seen on the screen so many times and admired, and they are in the public eye, and I have seen how they handle it. There are definitely ways to just keep on enjoying the profession and the work. Other people tell me that things are going to change.

I was able to actually combine dance and acting, which was a dream come true.

That is the thing I want to tell girls, to stop criticising yourselves and to stop comparing yourself to other people.

I love films that make me react emotionally and physically when you walk out of the cinema. Two of my favorite films however have got to be 'The Tree Of Life' and 'The Piano Teacher ' which also stars one of my favourite actresses Isabelle Huppert.

I love big popcorn movies.

I think I'm a big romantic, so being part of those stories, that's such a big part of anyone's life in general, that's such a humane thing.

In any relationship, when you go through any big change, you struggle to find your new constellation, your new ground. It takes a while to determine what the new relationship between you is.

My dad read 'The Danish Girl' and fell in love with it. He told me, 'You need to do this film.'

Helena Bonham Carter was one of my biggest crushes. And Rachel Weisz. I think I told her that when we were filming, which was probably a bit embarrassing.

Three trans women came up to me separately to tell me they had felt such a connection with Ava in 'Ex Machina' and her dream of finally coming to full female fruition. They had all cried; one said she was very emotional during the scene where Ava finally puts her skin on for the first time.

I love skincare. If anything, my skin goes extremely dry. I could put hand cream on my face, and it still goes in. On flights, I always put on masks, and I have night cream as my day cream.

We all body shame and compare bodies, and that needs to go out of the window.

I started off when I was seven years old doing musicals. I was in 'Les Miserables' and 'The Sound of Music,' and my mum's an actress. My parents divorced when I was young, and when she couldn't find a babysitter, I was in the wings, sleeping.

I'm a real Swede! In fact, I'm a quarter Finnish.

In 'A Royal Affair' I had to learn to act like a queen and learned Danish. It's so much different to act in another language. It's the nuances in the words.

I'd quit ballet school, which I thought was going to be my path, but my gut instinct told me to do something different.

After I quit dancing, for a while it felt strange not to be in pain. It was as if an old friend - not a good friend, but a presence, always tagging along - had left me.

People can relate to reading a book for the first time and the world starts to create, even without you prepping for it.