Alicia Vikander

I love crosswords! Actually, when I was growing up, me and my girlfriends would collect them and see who finished them first!

I had tried out for theatre school and didn't get it four times.

I've always wanted kids.

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

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

Being able to be dry in a second language is almost the last thing you learn.

People always think I'm not scared. I've noticed that whenever I feel stressed, everyone thinks I'm fine, and later, it's like, 'I was not fine.'

Being in ballet school and being in leotards in front of a mirror I don't know how many hours a day was quite tough.

I push myself hard. I don't like pain, exactly, but as a ballerina, I lived in constant pain. At ballet school in Stockholm, I remember we had a locker where if someone had been to the doctor and gotten painkillers, we divided them among us. In a sense, we were all addicted.

I endured quite a few injuries when I was younger and had my first surgery on my foot when I was 15. But I love dancing. 'Anna Karenina' was great for me as it meant I could combine the two and I actually went back and did some classes.

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.