When Noomi Rapace played hacker Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish/Danish film version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, she wanted to surpass the stereotype.

“During the research, I spent time with this hacker in Sweden — a friend of a friend of a friend. And I promised never to talk about him at all. I don’t even know his name,” says the Swedish actress. “For him, breaking into computers had a perfect clarity — it was almost as though he could see in colours, read the logic in the whole system. I was also talking to banks and finance people – they’re always behind. Hackers are like anarchists: if they’re crazy enough, they’ll always win.” Now Rapace is swapping Scandinavian conspiracies for Victorian adventures in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, her Hollywood debut. “It’s my first movie with green screens and thousands of extras,” says the 32-year-old. “You need to imagine more, but it’s the same work.”

Next up is Prometheus, Ridley Scott’s 3D prequel to the iconic Alien franchise. The director has described the film as “really nasty” and Rapace says the filming process was stripped down. “Contractually I can’t say much about the aliens. But it was really physical. I think we used a green screen only twice. It felt like I was out on a real planet fighting real things. I was not pretending that much.” Rapace plays Elizabeth Shaw, a British-born scientist stuck in outer space. “I was 13 when I saw Alien, and I became obsessed,” she says. “I adore Ripley — she’s so modern.” So, would she be happy to replace Sigourney Weaver in the hearts of sci-fi fans? “Yeah! Absolutely.”