The tell-tale sign of a pretentious Swedish actor, according to Rebecca Ferguson
Over the past few years, Rebecca Ferguson has become one of the most sought-after actors in all of Hollywood, playing major roles in some incredibly successful franchises.
From a skilful assassin in Mission: Impossible and a powerful queen in Dune to a dual role in the recent Peaky Blinders movie, she’s been turning in a broad range of performances. While some people might criticise her for chasing the next blockbuster rather than pushing her creatively, her name is the one up in lights, although there’s a bit more to it than what appears there.
The Doctor Sleep star’s real name is Rebecca Louisa Ferguson Sundström, where the ‘Ferguson’ part comes from her mother, who was born in England, while ‘Sundström’ comes from her Swedish father. The younger Ferguson grew up in Stockholm, speaking a mixture of English and Swedish while attending an English-speaking school, which explains why she doesn’t sound particularly Scandinavian, despite looking like somebody drew a Swedish person from memory.
From early luminaries such as Greta Garbo or Ingrid Bergman to more recent standouts like Stellan Skarsgård and his dozens of children, the country of Sweden has definitely produced more than its fair share of notable talent, with Ferguson joining in those ranks. However, perhaps it’s due to her multi-cultural upbring, but she doesn’t want to be grouped with a certain strand of her compatriots.
Speaking to Glass, the Golden Globe nominee spoke about the break she took from acting in the 2000s, after finding success as a teenager in a Swedish soap opera, stepping away from the limelight to pursue other ambitions, such as having a child. Then, when she returned to the fray, she worked very hard not to become a walking cliché.
“I never wanted to go to drama school, mainly because I didn’t want to be like every other Swede in film,” she said, “Not to criticise Lars Norén or…Ingrid Bergman, but all I could think was, ‘I don’t want to be a drama student with a fucking purple beret on my head, I don’t want to be like them’. I think, now, looking back, I was just terrified I wasn’t going to get in.”
The typically French headwear has always been associated with Swedish movie stars, such as Garbo, who wore one on a number of occasions, particularly in the 1932 romantic drama As You Desire Me, while silent film star Nils Asther, who was known as ‘the male Garbo’, also had a soft spot for the brimless cap.
In a broader sense, the beret has come to symbolise a snobbish pretentiousness, especially in film circles, where the most obnoxious, opinionated film bro you know either wore a beret as a teenager or still wears one now.
Maybe this is informed by her desire to avoid playing into negative stereotypes about Swedish cinema, which would also explain her love of big Hollywood franchises, but whenever she speaks about her favourite films, Ferguson rarely mentions her home nation, as her top picks are usually in English and come with mainstream appeal. There’s also the argument that she just loves money, but that’s by-the-by.
