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The Swedish actress plays the title role in
"Irma Vep" a HBO mini-series remake of Olivier Assayas's 1996
cult film of the same name.
The eight-episode show centres on American movie star Mira, who,
hoping to give her blockbuster film career a new direction and
recover from a recent breakup, travels to Paris to star in an
arthouse remake of the French silent movie "Les Vampires". As
the film set slowly descends into chaos, so does Mira's state of
mind.
The role was originally played by Hong Kong actor Maggie Cheung,
who starred as herself in the 1996 movie.
"I don't play myself, I play Mira. But in our series she is
anxious because her part has already been played by an Asian
actress. So I got to meta, meta, meta play that in layers and
actually express my own anxiety over remaking something that
already a very extraordinary actor has done," Vikander told
Reuters in Cannes where she launched the series with Assayas and
its cast.
Like the film, the series examines the challenges of film-making
and production, and the many, often absurd, aspects of fame.
Scenes show Mira being mobbed by fans as she is chauffeured
around for promotional events, fittings and meetings.
"You get to kind of pull back the curtain and get introduced to
what this world can look like behind the scenes and the
silliness, the craziness, the stress," said Vikander of the
screenplay written by Assayas.
"It's been nice to have someone point out the things that are
pretty strange, things that you see all the time but when he
puts it down to paper, I'm like, yeah, I know, that's pretty out
there and quite funny."
"Irma Vep", which was presented out of competition at Cannes,
debuts on HBO on June 6.
(Reporting by Hanna Rantala; Editing by David Gregorio)
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