Alicia Vikander really is going to have a breakout year. This happens every other year or so, when an actor has been working consistently and then everything comes out within a six-month span and people are like, “Whoa, this person has RANGE.” That happened to Jessica Chastain several years ago. Alicia is this year’s Jessica Chastain. Only it feels like Alicia really, really wants it. She’s been preparing herself for it. She welcomes it. Alicia sat down with the Daily Beast for a lengthy and interesting new interview to promote Testament of Youth (with Kit Harington) – go here to read the full piece. Some highlights:

Working on The Danish Girl, seeing Caitlyn Jenner’s VF cover: “Yes, the Vanity Fair cover! It was a beautiful cover. It’s interesting what topics are being told, because people say that the film is ‘so now,’ but The Danish Girl took 12 years to develop. In society, it takes time for people to realize what is happening.”

Playing a robot in Ex-Machina: “The silver mesh that you see, except for the parts where I’m see-through, that’s just a whole Spider-Man suit. And the actual head that’s put on my skull they build on top, so I had a bald cap that was the silver mesh, and then they built my forehead on top of my skull every morning, which took almost four hours.”

The future of artificial intelligence: “You’re afraid of the unknown, afraid of losing control, and afraid that machines are taking control of humanity. Since I was doing the character of Ava and felt along with her, in a way, Alex reminded me how if you believe that you can make a consciousness, then we need to take care of it in the same way we do every consciousness. There’s so much evil in humanity, and what if this could be something greater than that?”

Finding the right roles: “It is still very hard in this industry to find very strong female characters.”

Her costar Kit Harington: “I’ve seen about four episodes of Game of Thrones! I know he has long hair on the show. We were both in a film called Seventh Son, and became friends off set. It’s in his contract, I think, that he can’t cut his hair! But when I saw him with a wig on [in Testament], I was surprised by how good it looked.”

Being in-demand as an actress: “It feels a bit surreal that I’ve been working with such high-profile directors that I’ve looked up to, and actors that I saw on the big screen growing up in Sweden. It’s all very exciting.”

[From The Daily Beast]

Oh, that answers some questions I had about Kit in Testament of Youth. I was wondering why he looked so different and baby-faced and it was because he not only shaved Jon Snow’s beard, but he was wearing a wig. Got it. As for the rest of it… she talks at length about her character in Youth but am I wrong for not really being interested in this film at all? It’s got a strong female lead so I feel like I should be more into it than I am. Meh, I’d rather see Far From the Madding Crowd.

Here are some photos from a Tuesday screening/premiere in NYC. She wore Louis Vuitton (she’s the brand ambassador for LV).

View image | gettyimages.com

View image | gettyimages.com

Photos courtesy of Getty, WENN, Fame/Flynet.