Noomi Rapace (née Norén; born December 28, 1979 in Hudiksvall, Sweden) is a Swedish actress.
Rapace is best known for her role as Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish film adaptations of Stieg Larson's Millennium Series, all three of which were originally released in 2009.
Because of her acclaimed performances in those films, Rapace was quickly courted for international productions and she made her English-language debut in 2011's Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, opposite Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law.
In 2012, Rapace starred in the lead role of Dr. Elizabeth Shaw in the Alien prequel Prometheus, which she later reprised in its 2017 sequel Alien: Covenant.
Outside of Sherlock Holmes and the Alien films, Rapace also appeared in Brian De Palma's Passion, The Drop, and Bright.
Selected filmography:
- The Millennium Trilogy (2009) as Lisbeth Salander:
- The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2009)
- The The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009)
- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (2009)
- Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) as Madame Simza Heron
- Prometheus (2012) as Dr. Elizabeth Shaw
- Alien: Covenant (2017)
- Passion (2012) as Isabelle
- The Drop (2014) as Nadia
- Child 44 (2015) as Raisa Demidova
- Bright (2017) as Leilah
- Taboo (2017) as Anna Delaney aka "Salish"
- What Happened to Monday (2017) as The Settman Siblings / "Karen Settman"
- Jack Ryan (2019) as Harriet "Harry" Baumann
- Lamb (2021) as María
- The Trip (2021) as Lisa
- Black Crab as Caroline Edh
She provides tropes of:
- Action Girl: She kicks a whole lot of ass in the Dragon Tattoo movies.
- Dark Action Girl: As Leilah in Bright.
- Determinator: One of the main traits of both Lisbeth Salander and Dr. Elizabeth Shaw. Deconstructed with Caroline Edh.
- Dyeing for Your Art:
- Her Lisbeth Salander role, which involved a lot of piercings (most of which she'd actually had as a teenager, so she just got them redone), and a lot of pale makeup to cover up her naturally dark complexion.
- She dyed her hair white and wore bright blue contact lenses for her role as Leilah in Bright.
- The Maiden Name Debate: Born Noomi Norén, married actor Ola Norell in 2001 and both changed their surname to Rapace, which means "bird of prey" in French and Italian. They divorced in 2011, by which point both of them had become too well known to change their stage names back.
- Ms. Fanservice: Most of her roles have at least a topless scene. She has no problem being naked on camera.
- Omniglot: Is fluent in Swedish, Icelandic, Norwegian, Danish and English.
- Star-Making Role: As Lisbeth; she was primarily a stage actress up to that point, but has since begun to act in big-budget Hollywood films.
