Knowing Nadia Rapace

After winning acclaim in her native Sweden for her performance in Daisy Diamond, she played Lisbeth Salander in 2009’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and its two sequels. Since then she’s appeared in Sherlock Holmes: Game Of Shadows, starred in a music video for The Rolling Stones (Doom and Gloom) and trekked into outer space for Sir Ridley Scott in Prometheus.

In The Drop she plays Nadia, a woman with a painful past who makes a connection with Bob (Tom Hardy).

You are doing two movies back-to-back with Tom Hardy: The Drop and Child 44. Presumably you get on well?

Noomi Rapace (NR): We were actually trying to find something to do together for two years or something. We met on another movie neither of us ended up doing because we were trapped in other projects. So we met four times to talk about that script, got to know each other and realised we had great chemistry and energy together. I love Tom. He has something really unusual. He’s extremely intelligent – his brain works with high-speed intensity. But we have a lot of fun at the same time. It’s a great combination of being very playful and easy and then being able to go to war too.

How did you prepare to play Nadia?

NR: I always get quite affected and melt into the person I’m playing. I like to hang out in their space, so in this case I decided not to leave Brooklyn. That’s Nadia’s safe place. I built this whole backstory that you never see in the movie: that she wanted to be in musicals on Broadway but ended up a stripper instead. Nadia lives a lonely, very protected life now and doesn’t want to draw attention to herself as a sexual human being. In terms of research, I visited strip clubs in Manhattan. A friend of mine makes perfume, so she made me a scent to wear as the character. It’s sweet, sticky and cheap.

TOUGH. Noomi Rapace plays a scarred woman in The Drop. Pictures: Getty Images

What’s it like shooting in Brooklyn?

NR: The first draft I read was set in Boston. But when I met Michael, he said: ‘I want to shoot it in Brooklyn.’ I was happy because I have a weak spot for all those old New York-y movies: Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico, all of those. And we’re not in a studio: almost everything is out in different locations and real places.

One of the central characters is a puppy. Would you say you’re a dog person?

NR: Definitely. I grew up on a farm in the countryside, far from everybody and my best friend for many years was a dog. He was called Raven and was always with me. I don’t have a pet at the moment as I work so much and am travelling constantly. But it’s great doing a film with one. It’s almost like working with kids – you never know what the puppy is going to do. You have to stay open and just be ready for anything. Every take is different. I like that. It keeps you on your toes and you can’t control it. And I also think the dog in this film is like a trembling heart. It’s Nadia’s heart, it’s Bob’s heart … The dog is a link between us.

What, from your point of view, is The Drop about?

NR: It’s a very beautiful story about daring to take a risk with your emotions. To let someone in, even though you have a smashed heart. Someone who has been beaten up really badly still finds a way to believe and to hope again. Through a dog! – Citizen reporter