Directed by Kenneth Branagh, the film features Alexander as Sif, the Asgardian warrior goddess who accompanies the arrogant but well-meaning Thor (Chris Hemsworth) on his interplanetary exploits. When he is banished from Asgard following an ill-advised incursion into mortal-enemy territory, Sif and the rest of Thor's crew travel to Earth to help initiate his return to heroic glory.
It's a role you can expect Alexander to be busy with for a while to come as Marvel develops sequels, continuations, franchise overlaps and the rest of its movie universe, but the actress has other heroes in mind as well. Are we in the presence of the next major female action star? Alexander talked over that future -- as well as her theater past and blockbuster present -- with Movieline.
I hear you're on the road. Where are you off to now?
I'm just up in Toronto. I can't tell you what I'm working on, though.
Ooohh! Top secret!
Yeah! Well, kind of, at least for now. That's what I've been told. It's not a huge deal it's more of a fun project that I decided I wanted to do.
Movie or TV show?
Television, but I'm not a regular. I can tell you that much.
Your bio notes your hometown of Grapevine, Texas. Where is that?
That's where I grew up. I was actually born in Greenville, S.C., but we moved to Texas when I was really little -- maybe 4 years old. And then I grew up in Grapevine. It's right outside of Dallas.
Is that where you first got into acting?
When I was grade school -- maybe seventh or eighth grade -- I took theater for fun. Then, when I got into high school, I actually got kicked out of theater because I can't sing, and a lot of time the productions they put on were musicals. The teacher thought my time was best spent somewhere else. So I went into sports.
So how and when did you continue to pursue acting?
Well, I definitely had a passion for it. I always thought it would be fun, and I was a big goof-off and things like that. And one time, a friend of mine was sick in Texas -- she had her wisdom teeth taken out, and they put her on some kind of medication that made her ill. She had paid a scouting agency -- and we were about the same size, same height, same weight -- and she said, "Will you go in my place? They won't give me my money back." I said, "All right, though I don't really know what you want me to do." So I went.
At the same time, coincidentally, my manager -- who's still my manager today, Randy James -- was in the audience of this showcase because someone he knew was pregnant. They were going to have a baby, and so he went in their place. It was very serendipitous.
What's the path from there to Hollywood?
Randy found me and sent me a few scripts, and this is when I was 17. I was still in high school, so I waited about a year and a half. The summer after graduation I decided to move to L.A. and give it a shot because I wasn't that passionate about much else, to be honest with you. I think if I wasn't an actress I would have been a chef. I might have gone to culinary school. But I just ended up moving to L.A. and trying. It took me a couple years to break in a little bit, but then I just started working.
When did Kyle XY come along?
I think I got that four years after I'd been in L.A., maybe three and a half. I was 22 when I booked that show, but I turned 23 very soon after. It must have been four years.
When you got that show, did it feel like the break it became for you?
You know, it did and it didn't. I thought, "This is going to be an interesting character to play," and I knew I would get publicity from it and that sort of thing. But I also knew that it was on ABC Family, which is a network a lot of people weren't aware of yet. So it was one of those things where I said, "This'll be a great learning experience." I had no idea that I would get as much attention as I did. I had no idea that I was going to be on the billboards with Matt Dallas and all that. So that was a shocker -- coming back to L.A. after shooting the first season I was in, which was season two -- driving around and seeing myself with no belly button on a billboard.
But you also had a leading role in a film at that point, too, right? Rest Stop?
Rest Stop actually came before Kyle XY, and I had no idea what I was doing. Before then I had done some guest starring here and there and some commercials, but I had never really done anything of that caliber that was so demanding. But it was a great experience because I learned the I could take on physical roles really well. I still didn't know what I was doing. It was pretty intense, but it was a lot of fun. Such good people worked on that movie; it was a great experience for me.
How do you mean "physical"? Like rough-and-tumble, or just using your body differently for the character, or...
I had no idea it was going to be as physical as it was, and as time went on, day by day, I thought, "This is really demanding -- but I enjoy it." There's something about it that made me feel more connected to the character and required less effort in the "acting" department because there was so much physicality -- there was so much going on. And then, you know, I got Kyle XY, and that was another physical role. There were a few projects in between that were also physical. So I just think, "Wow." Naturally, when people meet me, I suppose they think, "This girl can really take on this kind of stuff." I'm not sure how it happened, but it seemed to be the alley I walked down.
And then a few years later, Thor arrives. How did you become involved with it?
I was probably one of the last few girls who went in to audition for the role of Sif. I had read about the project months and months in advance, and I said, "I've got to get in for this. I really want to get in for this." And then I did, and I literally just read with the casting director because Kenneth Branagh was in Sweden at the time and couldn't be there for the audition. They sent my tape over to him, and within a week he had phoned my manager and said, "I'd like to get her on a Skype conversation so I can get to know her personality and just get to know her a little bit more." Basically he wanted to direct me on Skype based on what he'd seen on the tape.
So after speaking with him, I went back in for another audition and pretty much did the scene a ton of different ways so he could see my range. And within another week I was cast as Sif. It was very quick -- a bit bizarre. Again, it just felt like that was how it was supposed to be, it was meant to be.
Directing via Skype? How does that work?
It went like this: I'd have a Skype conversation, and a few days later I'd go back in for another reading. So I kind of had to write down his notes for the things he wanted to see -- that sort of thing. But it was nerve-wracking. I was nervous. And the first thing he said to me was, "I know you must be nervous. I know how nerve-wracking this is. Just go in, relax and have a good time. I want this to be a good experience for you." He was an actor before he was a director, and I think that made all the difference for me. The nerves went out the door and I felt really comfortable.
That's interesting. I imagine this process as being nerve-wracking for Branagh as well; it's the biggest thing he's taken on by far.
If he was nervous, I couldn't tell. I've really got to hand it to him: He took this monster of a movie and did such an amazing job with it. He made us all feel so comfortable. Before we started shooting, he had myself, Tom [Hiddleston], Chris [Hemsworth], Josh [Dallas], Ray [Stevenson] and Tad [Asano] train together, so that when we got on film we were very comfortable with each other and we do these fight sequences and know how each other moves and that sort of thing. So we all kind of bonded during rehearsal, and it just became fun when we went to camera. Nobody was super-nervous. We could have more than one take in a scene if we needed it. Kenneth was there to lead us in the right direction. I was nervous going into it, but after a few weeks of rehearsal, I thought, "This is going to be great, this is going to be fun." And it was.
How much does a sense of family develop under those conditions -- even on such a huge project with so many moving parts?
There's a huge sense of family -- a sense of loyalty, a sense of belonging. I believe that is mainly die to Kenneth having us all work together so closely before we went in for actual filming. He created such a safe environment where we could work together, and when we went to Sydney [for Thor's world premiere] and then had the Hollywood premiere, it was just one big family reunion. I think I went up to Ray Stevenson and punched him in the arm. That's how we say "Hi." It was a lot of fun.
Presumably the family will reunite for a sequel as well. And to the extent it's job security, some franchise roles just follow actors through everything they do. Have you thought about the ups and downs of being associated with Thor for a while to come?
I loved playing Sif. She's definitely one of my favorite characters I've ever taken on, and I would be delighted to be in more Marvel films playing her. It was such good experience that I could only wish to do that again, and I think there's a strong possibility that that could happen. Fingers crossed! I have no problem with that. I don't see a downside at all. I think we're blessed as actors to be working like we are and with the people we work with. I would take a sequel as a tremendous, tremendous blessing that I would welcome with open arms.
Good answer! Is there anything else coming up for you that's not top secret? Anything on your radar or that you'd like to do?
I can tell you what I'm interested in right now. I've obviously been hearing about a Tomb Raider reboot, which I think would be pretty awesome -- Lara Croft. Again, anything that's very physical. I'm reading a few scripts here and there, and we'll see. It's all sort of up in the air. I also have to be careful not to be stereotyped into just these very physical superhero roles, and that's why recently I did a post-Civil War drama called Savannah, in which I play a Scarlett O'Hara type of character. I also did an indie film with Peter Facinelli called Loosies, which he wrote and starred in. That was shot in the vein of Midnight Cowboy; that was sort of the style of it. But it's great. I'm just trying to branch out and do as many projects as I can. In this little project I'm doing right now I play a CIA agent. So I'm really just looking to get my hands into all kinds of things right now.
Are you going to pursue the Lara Croft project?
I would love to pursue Lara Croft. And the thing is, you know, I'm not going to try and be Angelina Jolie. She's her own woman, and she did a fantastic job as Lara Croft. If that opportunity arises for me, then I would put my own spin on Lara Croft. There's no way I would try and copy what she did. I think that's a huge mistake with actors and actresses who are taking on a role that was previously done by someone else.
How would you set your Lara Croft apart?
Well, let's use Angelina Jolie as an example. She has her own sex appeal. She's built very differently than I am. She's her own woman. And I think that if you try to mimic that -- if I was trying to pull off the exact way she said certain things and how she carried herself -- then that's not being me. That's just copying another actor. Whereas you can look to other actors for inspiration, you should still maintain your own identity through a character. And that's something I would love to tackle.
An edited portion of this interview was published previously on Movieline.
[Top photo: Getty Images]