“TOI was seven years old, I was shooting a film about Vikings in Iceland. Very brutal. Very bloody. Fires, horses, swords, blood. And… I loved it! I never wanted to leave the set, I didn’t want to take off my dirty clothes.” It was there that Noomi Rapacedaughter of art (actress mother, flamenco singer father), he understood – in a somewhat truculent way – that acting would be his path. And the facts proved her right: her apprenticeship in her native Sweden, global fame in 2009 with Men who hate women from Stieg Larsson’s trilogy, blockbuster like Prometheus by Ridley Scott alternating with arthouse films such as Lamb by Valdimar Jóhannsson…
Noomi Rapace: the strength of the actress and the human being
«If there is a common thread between my roles, it is the complexity of the human being. And strength” she explains to us, with an available attitude more like a wise friend than a star (“”Staying grateful” is my mantra. Don’t focus on negativity, exalt the good and the positive”). This time the challenge is particularly difficult: impersonate Mother Teresa of Calcutta in Teresa – “The mother of the last”directed by the Macedonian Teona Strugar Mitevskaalready author of the 2019 cult God is a woman and her name is Petrunya. The religious woman from Skopje does not lend herself to uncritical hagiography with her lights (Nobel Peace Prize 1979, proclaimed blessed by John Paul II in 2003 and sainted by Francis in 2016) and her shadows (she was the subject of irreverent essays such as The missionary position by Christopher Hitchens).
The challenge of playing Mother Teresa
Who is the Teresa we will see on screen in April?
«We focus on a crucial week in her life: when, in August 1948, she was waiting for permission to renounce her role as superior of the Loreto nuns’ convent in Calcutta to found her order, the Missionaries of Charity. A solitary battle against the male establishment of the Vatican. He was 37 years old and it is a chapter we know little about: the material mainly concerns the later period. The reconstruction is a sort of fantasy based on information gathered by interviewing the last nuns who knew her (she died in 1997, ed). In practice, it is three people merged into one.”
Noomi Rapace in Teresa – The mother, from Teona Strugar Mitevska’s latest, in cinemas in April.
In what sense?
«It’s a mix of the research we carried out on Teresa, plus Noomi, plus Teona: the director and I “gave birth” to her together, she’s our little girl. (smiles) We continued to investigate her starting from us: she is a human being, she is a woman. And so: what struggles do we face? And what fears, and what questions? And what do you want? The result? A figure torn by internal struggles and full of contradictions, a characteristic that I love. How I love his incredible willpower. Even in the moments when she was assailed by doubts, she continued to fight: she was hard on others and very hard on herself. He accomplished a lot of amazing things and made decisions that could be debated, but must be seen in the light of his time: the 1940s in India. And, in any case, she did not lack self-awareness: “If I ever become a saint,” she said, “I will certainly be a saint of darkness.”
Here in the role of Lisbeth Salander in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”.
The complexity of the character
The most difficult aspect of playing her?
Every time you put your face to someone you know, at a certain point you have to let go of what you know and what has been told, written, the opinions of others… You have to find that person inside yourself and make it yours, merge, without worrying about what people will get, what they will think. With fictional characters it’s simpler: there’s no comparison.”
And the easiest part?
«I could see similarities: we both left home early, we were independent in the world, driven by something we believed in. I practically created my own life, always going where my heart took me. Here, tenacity is probably the greatest point of contact.”
What do you share the least?
«Well, his anti-abortion position. After all, she was an expression of the Catholic Church while I grew up in Sweden, it is not a Catholic nation. I don’t have that clear-cut black-and-white vision: I’m open to learning, I don’t have a firm, dogmatic belief like “Oh, this is the truth!”. Look at America now.”
Religion and spirituality, two different things
What does he mean?
«In 2020 I was filming “The Secret – The hidden truths” in New Orleans and they had just approved Amendment 1, against abortion: half the crew was crying that day, they had lost their rights. And it is still happening in the world, as incomprehensible as it seems to us. In many countries women do not have other important rights: they cannot drive, they cannot vote. It’s crazy to me that there’s no parity. Absolutely crazy.”
His attitude towards religion?
«I am spiritual, but not religious. I believe in love and any religion, if we consider it at its origin, is precisely about love. I read the Koran, I read the Bible and, at the end of the day, the common denominator is the feeling of belonging to something bigger. We are all connected on this earth, we must forgive and move forward together. Take care of each other. It’s a liberating and rewarding emotion to not feel alone. I would define my spirituality, in some ways, syncretistic.”
But Buddhist texts didn’t interest you?
«My mother approached Buddhism and I started meditating. We must keep our mind alert and critical: someone else’s truth cannot become mine.”
Noomi Rapace is Mother Teresa in Teona Strugar Mitevska’s film.
The connection with nature
How do you work on your internal balance?
«I train, literally. I have a strict daily routine, another analogy between Teresa and me: I behave almost like nuns… (smiles) I wake up, I meditate, I massage my body. I go to the gym, exercise, sweat, then stretch. Finally, a cold shower. Or an ice bath. I’m uncompromising and follow the same rhythm even if I’m on set and start shooting at four in the morning! This regime really helps me connect with myself, listen to my voice. I stay on social media to a minimum, I try to protect myself from today’s “noise”.
And in your free time?
«Free time is scarce… (laughs). I moved to Portugal – despite maintaining a pied-à-terre in London – and this summer I was going to the beach. I greet the cold ocean as I enter: “Hey, how are you? I’m back.” And I feel this type of connection with nature, with something wild and uncontaminated: it helps me keep my feet on the ground. I love water, it is something alive and constantly moving. You can’t control it: it’s dangerous and powerful at the same time. It’s…life! Movement is life, we must continue to move and the characteristic of the sea of never being still – paradoxically – gives me a sense of calm.”
Cinema as therapy
Like Mother Teresa, do you believe you have a mission in life?
«Oh, various missions! I’m constantly searching. Whatever role I play contains a question I want to ask myself. Here, curiosity is my mission. And staying open, even towards things that I don’t understand and that on impulse cause me to react with rejection. So I ask myself: “Why do I have such a negative reaction? Or: why am I afraid?”. And then I want to delve deeper to find out what is blocking me inside. I don’t intend to stop at a superficial: “I don’t like it”.
Hmmmm, reveals a psychoanalytic background.
«Psychotherapy, to be precise. And I recently started Somatic Experiencing, a method that takes the body into consideration because it is in the body – and not exclusively in the unconscious – that traumas leave their mark, triggering a complex physical, neurological and psychological reaction. I’m building my toolbox to deal with existence, which is so complicated. (smiles) Luckily there is cinema.”
Are you saying this as a protagonist or as a spectator?
«As a spectator. I live for cinema, I watch films almost every day: it’s an incredible blessing, it helps us process even the most painful things. It’s a sort of immense octopus with tentacles everywhere, it creates connection between people. You can travel around Italy knowing that you will reach Japan… Magic.