Vicky Krieps

Vicky Krieps (born 4 October 1983) is a Luxembourgish-German actress. She has appeared in a number of American, Luxembourgish, French, and German productions. Her breakout role was in the London-based period film Phantom Thread (2017), by the American director Paul Thomas Anderson.

Vicky Krieps
Krieps at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival
Born	(1983-10-04) 4 October 1983 (age 41) Hesperange, Luxembourg
Nationality	Luxembourgish German
Alma mater	Zurich University of the Arts
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2008–present
Partner	Jonas Laux (2010–present)
Children	2

Her early films include Hanna (2011), Two Lives (2012) and A Most Wanted Man (2014), and she next starred in The Girl in the Spider's Web (2018), The Last Vermeer (2019), Old (2021), and The Survivor (2021). She earned acclaim for her performances in Bergman Island (2021), Hold Me Tight (2021), and Corsage (2022). Her portrayal of Empress Elisabeth of Austria in Corsage earned her the European Film Award for Best Actress.

Early life and education

Vicky Krieps was born on 4 October 1983^[1] in Hesperange, Luxembourg^[2][3] the daughter of a Luxembourgish father, who managed a film distribution company, and German mother.^[4][5] Her father, Bob Krieps, is the director general of the Ministry of Culture of Luxembourg,^[6] the former director of Sacem Luxembourg,^[7] and the former president of the Luxembourg Film Fund.^[8][9][10] Several of her films have been funded by the Luxembourg Film Fund,^[11] which is supervised by the Ministry of Culture, which then decides which films will be funded by state subsidies.^[12][13][14] Her paternal grandfather, Robert Krieps, was a politician, war-time member of the Luxembourg Resistance,^[5] and Luxembourg's Minister of Justice, National Education and Culture in the 1970s and 1980s.^[15]

Krieps had her first acting experiences at the Lycée de Garçons secondary school in Luxembourg City, receiving training at the Conservatoire de Luxembourg.^{[citation needed]} Rather than enrolling in one of the drama schools, she participated in a social project at the primary school of a South African township near Knysna. This confirmed her resolve to study acting, with the goal of performing on theatre stages.^[16]

Krieps attended Zurich University of the Arts, while gathering acting experience at Schauspielhaus Zürich.^{[citation needed]}

Career

Krieps at Berlinale 2018

Krieps had numerous roles in Luxembourgish films and television series, before starring in foreign productions, such as Hanna (2011), Rommel (2012), Before the Winter Chill (2013) and Elly Beinhorn: Solo Flight [de], a biopic about the German aviation pioneer Elly Beinhorn. She also had supporting roles in Anonymous (2011), and A Most Wanted Man (2014).

She had her career breakthrough starring opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in the period film Phantom Thread (2017). The film revolves around the romantic relationship between an older man, a fashion designer, and a younger woman.^[17][18] Receiving critical acclaim for her role, Dan Jolin of Empire stated that Krieps "can hold her own opposite a titan like Day-Lewis", while David Edelstein of Vulture wrote that she is "bewitchingly lucent, her face just masklike enough to make our sudden awareness of all her dark thoughts a shock."^[19][20] The film received six Academy Award nominations including for Best Picture.

Krieps played the magazine publisher in The Girl in the Spider's Web (2018),^[18] and Minna Holberg in the drama film The Last Vermeer (2019). She portrayed the morally compromised Alsatian interpreter in the 2020 television series Das Boot, and subsequently in the second series.^[21] In 2021, Krieps starred in M. Night Shyamalan's horror film Old,^[22] and in the drama film Bergman Island (2021).^[23] That same year, she starred in the HBO film The Survivor and the Netflix film Beckett. She starred in Mathieu Amalric's drama film Hold Me Tight (2021) which premiered at the 74th Cannes Film Festival. Susannah Gruder of IndieWire praised her performance writing, "Krieps, who delivers a disarmingly vulnerable, yet understated performance that keeps the film grounded. Her wispy elegance is tempered by a clumsy charm as she lovingly strokes her daughter’s hair, or floats through the world in her newly-solo life".^[24]

Luna Wedler, Margarethe von Trotta and Krieps at Berlinale 2023

The following year, she played Empress Elisabeth of Austria in the historical drama Corsage which she also served as an executive producer. The film premiered at the 75th Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section. She won the Un Certain Regard Best Performance Prize. Jessica Kiang of Variety praised the casting describing it as "the best showcase for [Krieps]' defiantly peculiar charisma since Phantom Thread.^[25] For her performance she received the European Film Award for Best Actress. She continued to act in the acclaimed drama films More Than Ever (2022) and Ingeborg Bachmann – Journey into the Desert (2023). She played Anne of Austria in the action adventure film The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan (2023).

In 2023, she starred in the western drama The Dead Don't Hurt directed by Viggo Mortensen. The film premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. Krieps is described as being the true central figure of the revisionist Western. Frank Schek of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "Krieps delivers yet another astonishing turn in a career that already seems destined for greatness. Her Vivienne — warm yet steely, courageous yet vulnerable, fierce yet loving — is a complex, fascinating character who’s compelling every moment she’s onscreen."^[26]

Personal life

Krieps moved to Berlin, Germany, in her early 20s.^[27] She has Luxembourgish^{[28][29][30][31]} and German nationality.^[32] As of 2021^[update] she resides in Berlin with her two children and her partner, the German actor Jonas Laux [de].^[27][5][33]

In April 2021, Krieps was part of the controversial campaign #allesdichtmachen ("close everything down"), which featured 50 German-speaking actors making fun of Germany's protective measures against COVID-19.^[34] In her video, Krieps says, among other things, that acting helped her to deal with her fear of people.^[34] The campaign, released when Germany had more than 80,000 deaths related to COVID-19, was highly criticised as being "tasteless" and "cringe-worthy",^[35] but it also received support from members of the far-right and COVID-deniers.^[36][35]

When asked about the #MeToo movement in 2018, Krieps said: "Maybe it's very European, but I always see both sides. I feel very sorry for the people who have been harassed, but I also feel very sorry for the people who have lived a life where they have been harassing people."^[37] When Krieps was questioned on Instagram about the alleged abuser in the cast of her film Corsage who was kept in the film after director Marie Kreutzer was informed about him,^[38] she said: "So, a feminist film made by two women should be discarded because of the misconduct of a male colleague?... Who exactly is being harmed by this?"^[39] Krieps was also an executive producer on Corsage.^[40] The case became public in Austria in June 2022, when Austrian director Katharina Mückstein shared an Instagram story that generated a lot of media attention and sparked a new wave of the #MeToo Movement in Austria.^[38]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2008	La Nuit passée	Christina	Short film
2009	X on a Map	Ana	Short film
	House of Boys	Flower shop girl
2011	Legal.Illegal	Kicki	Short film
	If Not Us, Who?	Dörte
	Hanna	Johanna Zadek
	Elle ne pleure pas, elle chante	Nurse
	Anonymous	Bessie Vavasour
2012	Formentera	Mara
	D'Belle Epoque	Belle	Documentary
	The Treasure Knights and the Secret of Melusina	Marie Kutter
	Two Lives	Kathrin Lehnhaber
	Measuring the World	Johanna Gauss
2013	Tied	Angel
	Möbius	Olga
	Before the Winter Chill	Caroline
	Brotherhood of Tears	Russian woman
2014	A Most Wanted Man	Niki
	Meer zwischen uns	Karen	Short film
	The Chambermaid Lynn	Lynn
2015	M wie Martha	Helene	Short film
	Pitter Patter Goes My Heart	Lisa	Short film
	Outside the Box	Yvonne von Geseke
	Colonia Dignidad	Ursel
2016	Was hat uns bloß so ruiniert	Stella
2017	The Young Karl Marx	Jenny von Westphalen
	Gutland	Lucy Loschetter
	Phantom Thread	Alma Elson
2018	3 Days in Quiberon	Hotel maid
	The Girl in the Spider's Web	Erika Berger
2019	The Last Vermeer	Minna Holberg
2020	Faithful	Hélène Iveton
2021	Next Door	Target	Cameo
	Bergman Island	Chris
	Old	Prisca Cappa
	Beckett	Lena
	The Survivor	Miriam Wofsoniker
	Hold Me Tight	Clarisse
2022	Corsage	Empress Elisabeth of Austria	Also executive producer
	More Than Ever	Hélène
2023	Ingeborg Bachmann – Journey into the Desert	Ingeborg Bachmann
	The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan	Anne of Austria
	The Three Musketeers: Milady
	The Dead Don't Hurt	Vivienne Le Coudy	[41]
2024	Went Up the Hill	Jill
2025	Hot Milk	Ingrid
TBA	Father, Mother, Sister, Brother	TBA	Post-production[42]

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2011	Tatort	Mariam Sert	Episode: Eine bessere Welt
2012	Rommel	Comtesse de La Rochefoucauld	Television film
2014	Elly Beinhorn: Solo Flight [de]	Elly Beinhorn	Television film
	The Witness House [de]	Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier	Television film
2015	Tag der Wahrheit	Ursel	Television film
	Mon cher petit village	Elisabeth	Television film
2017	Der Kriminalist	Dr. Kim Koch	Episode: Hochrisiko
2018–20	Das Boot	Simone Strasser	10 episodes

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result	Ref.
2008	Budapest Short Film Festival	Best Youngster Award	La nuit passée	Won	[43]
2012	Luxembourg Film Awards	Young Newcomer Award	—	Won	[44]
2016	Preis der deutschen Filmkritik	Best Actress	The Chambermaid Lynn	Nominated	[45]
2017	Chicago Film Critics Association	Best Actress	Phantom Thread	Nominated	[46]
2019	Deutscher Fernsehpreis	Best Actress	Das Boot	Won	[47]
2022	César Awards	Best Actress	Hold Me Tight	Nominated	[48]
2022	Cannes Film Festival	Un Certain Regard Best Performance Prize (shared with Adam Bessa for Harka)	Corsage	Won	[49]
2022	European Film Awards	European Actress		Won	[50]
2022	London Film Critics' Circle	Actress of the Year		Nominated	[51]
2023	Satellite Awards	Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama		Nominated	[52]
2023	Austrian Film Awards	Best Actress in a Leading Role		Won	[53]
2023	Toronto International Film Festival	TIFF Tribute Performer Award	—	Honored	[54]