Julianne Moore once showed Alicia Vikander how to handle inappropriate behavior onset after chastising a Hollywood power player for making a crude joke about the Swedish actress.
The two stars worked together on 2014 sci-fi film Seventh Son, which was shot as Alicia began her rapid ascent to fame, and the 29-year-old quickly learned demanding respect from her male colleagues was the best way to deal with awkward situations she previously would have shied away from.
Recalling how she initially reacted to becoming the butt of the joke, The Danish Girl beauty told Vogue magazine, “I was really embarrassed, and I would have just laughed it off. But Julianne turned to him and said, ‘If you ever do that again, I’m walking out of here and I’m not coming back.’ She was just, like, ‘Don’t you f**king say that again.’ It showed me that she had the power. And that meant so much to me.”
Her personal experience of sexual misconduct prompted Alicia to become a vocal supporter of the Time’s Up campaign, which calls for an end to bad behavior and discrimination in the workplace, as well as pay parity.
She was among the stars who wore black on the red carpet at the 2018 Golden Globe Awards last month (Jan18) to show her solidarity with the cause, and Alicia was proud to be a part of such a monumental movement, especially as it was being led by powerful women.
“It was such a community that came together,” she said. “I got on the phone with Natalie (Portman), whom I’d never met, and Reese (Witherspoon). Suddenly I felt like I made a lot of new friends.”
“One thing that really got to me in their initial email (about the Time’s Up initiative) was the fact that – because women are not as well represented in all industries – we often have to fight for jobs,” Alicia explained. “The competition is so tough that instead of getting to know each other and working together, we learned at an early age to compete for that single spot. So then to get on the carpet… and feel like I had actually made friends with the other actresses and people I admire, it was really cool.”
Other leading voices in the Time’s Up movement include fellow actresses Oprah Winfrey, Nicole Kidman, Eva Longoria, and Kerry Washington.
