Here is a preview of things to come for Reserved Magazine Issue 9. We have a full editorial starring the stunning Noomi Rapace the star of Apple TV+’s Constellation, in the desert as captured by Amanda Demme. For the digital feature we have implemented BTS footage as not to give it all away. A little teaser, super excited for this epic journey into summer 2024.
Noomi Rapace photographed by Amanda Demme wears Yume Yume dress and shoes. Archive Jean Paul Gaultier jacket available at Paume Los Angeles.
There are places within this Emerald City where special people flock—those who have it, so they get it— places where things happen, behind closed doors, or gates, or hedges, places where photos, if taken, are never published. Places like the Chateau, where, naturally, Noomi Rapace and I recently lunched.
Noomi strides into the Chateau’s courtyard, all grace and determination, not a minute later than our planned 12:15 meeting. In town with the rest of the brilliant cast promoting Constellation, the series now streaming on Apple TV+, Rapace effortlessly dons a neutral graffiti’d adorned trench and a monochrome hoodie ensemble capped with dark rounded frames obscuring kind eyes. Her top-knotted obsidian locks, striking bone structure and make-up free complexion give up the appearance of an off-duty-model day.
Whether her backdrop du jour suggests Moroccan desert lands, the desolate forests of Finland, or the cosmos themselves, Rapace manages to look natural in the unnatural. She dares you to believe in the unbelievable.
Rapace’s secret sauce for success? Nearly three decades of tireless commitment to her constantly honed craft. A Rudolf Steiner education and pilgrimage from her native Sweden to a rural Icelandic farmland marked Rapace’s childhood. The child of a father-actor and mother-singer, she debuted in film at the age of seven. At 15, she left home with a boyfriend in pursuit of a brighter, metropolitan life. Her transcendence is fueled by sheer will, self-reliance and tremendous talent.
“I am the kind of person who, when I decide I’m going to do something, I do not back down from that thing,” she says. “I started making commitments to myself at 15 and have not stopped chasing those. That became my career, and here I am.”
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- Noomi Rapace in “Constellation,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
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- Noomi Rapace in “Constellation,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
Constellation premiered on February 21 on Apple + TV, the streaming service synonymous with high-quality production and storylines. In this psychological astronaut thriller, Rapace plays Jo Ericsson, an astronaut who returns to Earth following a space station explosion and discovers her personal life is not as she remembered it.
Prior to our meeting, I am halfway through Constellation, losing sleep over its unnerving plot line and the cast’s jarringly potent performances. Now that I’ve met the person behind the character, I realize that Rapace’s portrayal of Jo is carved out of the actor’s real-life personhood, her grit, grace, magnetism and humanity.
Rapace’s training for the role was rigorous. “It was like being a professional athlete,” she explains. “Every meal was nutritious. You know, salmon and rice, repeat. There was no going out, no drinks with friends.”
The emphasis on proper nutrients was necessary to support the demanding physical agility required to play an astronaut in space. “It was just shy of actual space station training. That was obviously unnecessary, as we aren’t in space, and the budget for that equipment is astronomical, but many of the processes were similar. The entire team I worked with was incredible, and everyone wanted it to come across as realistically as possible.”
Rapace served on the jury at Cannes during her intensive preparation for the role, a celebratory stint that concluded days before Constellation’s filming commenced.
The Apple TV+ production, created by Peter Harness and directed by Michelle MacLaren, employed special effects as practically as possible, including the detailed creation of the to-scale space station in which Jo finds herself adrift. The set itself was a feat of cinematic trickery. The dimensions of the shuttle mimicked those employed by NASA, allowing Rapace a minuscule territory in which to play out her claustrophobic scenes, all the while maintaining the illusion of weightlessness and the raw emotion of a solitary woman adrift in outer space.
To explain the precision of the filming process, Rapace previewed for me videos of her first and last zero-gravity instruction sessions. The core strength alone required to make the movement appear weightless— while mastering a nanoscopic expanse AND delivering a powerful performance— would be a lifelong triumph for any other thespian. For Rapace, just another challenge to diligently overcome and an opportunity to flourish.
Rapace is not your usual self-promoting Hollywood stereotype. She is curious. She asks questions about you. She is genuinely interested in what you say. During our lunch, we discussed the artistic process, and the way in which our current technologies are a blessing that can quickly become a curse. “These days, there is so much fixing and tricksing (sic) possible,” she says. “Authenticity is becoming our most valuable resource.”
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- Rosie/Davina Coleman and Noomi Rapace in “Constellation,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
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- William Catlett in “Constellation,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
As if her extensive filmography weren’t enough, Rapace is also tempering a burgeoning career as an artist. “I was going through a bad breakup when I created these recently,” she explains, showing me clipart of her large-scale canvases that were exhibited at the Allouche Gallery in Los Angeles this past November. “These came out of a healing process,”
Visual art wasn’t a planned pivot for Rapace, nor was it meant to be a professional one. Her canvases feature arresting, textured arrangements of the human skeleton and form, encased and shadowed by lengthy passages of text. “I created this one with [lauded R&B musician] Miguel, while at his home. These lines are his,” she gestures, reading the script scrawled between vertebrae: “Beauty, especially today when expediency is always the first option, is in the process of things. Creativity: movies, art, music, fashion— they are my oxygen.”
As is commonplace at the Chateau, Rapace weaves mention of headliners into our earnest conversation. First names only; no surnames necessary (see the Miguel tidbit above). She has an enviable way with people that’s entirely unfeigned. Her unwavering humility, generosity of spirit and self, and an ingenuity that bubbles over, encourage a mirrored glow from all those who surround her.
While we part ways, Rapace runs into fellow actor and friend, Damson Idris, whose starring role in Snowfall made him a household name. The two embrace, and promise to reunite soon—each on their own rocket ship out of the realm of the commonplace to a seat amongst the stars, a seat Rapace is boundlessly worthy of occupying.
Noomi Rapace wears Issey Miyake dress, sweater, and balaclava. Yume Yume shoes. Erickson Beamon bracelet.
