David Bellemere/ELLESay hello to ELLE's latest cover girl, Tulip Fever star Alicia Vikander.
Gracing the pages of the coveted September issue, the 28-year-old Academy Award winner models a series of looks by Bottega Veneta, Calvin Klein, Céline, J. Crew, Louis Vuitton and Nina Ricci. Though Vikander is famously tightlipped about her romance with Michael Fassbender, the actress—and the people who know her best—are outspoken about other facets of her life.
Here, E! News highlights some tidbits from the magazine's cover story:
She Got in Killer Shape for Tomb Raider: The actress spent 95 days shooting the movie reboot. "I love big popcorn movies. I've never done action scenes on this level—not even close. It feels like I'm back to dancing—the training, the intensity. You need to be aware of your movement up in the wires and how your body works," says Vikander, a trained ballerina. Due to the grueling physical demands of the role, the 5-foot-5 actress spent a major amount of time "bulking up quite a lot at first and then trying to just, like, tone down," the movie star says. "I've never been able to lift my own weight, and the day when you have that capacity, it's pretty empowering!"
Stepping into the Role of Lara Croft Came With Some Serious Shoes to Fill: Vikander joked that the stakes were high when she agreed to take on the bad ass role, saying, "I thought I was going to have to explain it to my mom, and she was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah—Angelina did that!' It proves that [Jolie] set a whole tone for that kind of role, so I knew we had to do something very different."
Finding Her Next Move On-Screen Is Harder Than It Seems: The actress dished that every next step she takes in her film career has been carefully, methodically planned out—which is no easy feat. "[Complex roles such as that in Hotel] are actually hard to find, which is sad. It's still—women are written safe."
For more from Vikander, pick up ELLE's September issue.