Alicia Vikander Calls Testament of Youth A ‘Big Challenge’

by Helen Earnshaw | 15 January 2015

Alicia Vikander has described taking on the role of Vera Brittain in new movie Testament of Youth as a 'big challenge' for her.

Alicia Vikander

Vikander is back on the big screen this week in the first of a string of movies that we are going to be seeing her in this year. Testament of Youth is set during the First World War and is based on the memoir of Brittain.

Vikander will take on the role of Brittain in the film, and reveals that she read the book as well as the letters between Brittain and the men in her life when the war broke out as she prepared to take on this role.

Speaking to the Press Association, the actress said: "It was definitely a big challenge," she admitted. "It started with me reading the book and then I got the chance to meet (director) James Kent and Rosie Alison, the producer.

" I had to work a lot on my accent. I did a lot of preparation work and I was able to not only read the books, but the letters between Vera and the boys. That was a treasure because they were a direct way for me to hear her own words from that time during the war."

Testament of Youth sees Vikander team up with director James Kent for the first time, while Kit Harington, Colin Morgan, Dominic West, Emily Watson, Anna Chancellor, and Miranda Richardson are on the cast list.

2015 is set to be a very busy year for Vikander as she has a whole host of movies hitting the big screen - Ex-Machina and Son of a Gun are two other movies that are set to be released in January alone - and her star is set to rocket.

We are also going to be starring in Seventh Son, Tulip Fever and summer movie The Man from U.N.C.L.E., which is based on the sixties television show and will see her work with filmmaker Guy Ritchie for the first time.

She is due to start work on new movie The Danish Girl, which will see her work with Eddie Redmayne and Amber Heard. The movie is an adaptation of the novel by David Ebershoff and will see Tom Hooper back in the director's chair for the first time since Les Miserables.