In 2009, Noomi Rapace starred in a film adaptation of the massively popular Swedish book The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as Lisbeth Salander. David Fincher released his own adaptation of the novel in 2011, but much to the dismay of fans of the original movie, Fincher tapped Rooney Mara as his Lisbeth. Why wasn't Rapace brought back to continue the role she originated?
The first film adaptation of Stieg Larsson's novel was generally well received, and it sits at an 85% on Rotten Tomatoes. Rapace's performance as Lisbeth Salander was widely praised as well. In the story, Salander was a talented and introverted computer hacker who helped journalist Mikael Blomkvist solve a 40-year-old murder. In addition to her work as a computer hacker, Salander took joy in exposing and punishing men who abuse women. This made Salander and actress Rapace something of an unorthodox feminist icon to Swedish audiences.
So when American director David Fincher announced that he was going to direct his own remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, fans of the original had high hopes that he would bring Rapace back. But the director went forward with his own cast. It's unclear whether or not he had considered the actress for the role, but one thing was simple — she had no intention of returning to Lisbeth Salander.
Rapace sat down with Den of Geek in 2017 and answered a question that had been on fans' minds for years — did she have any interest in returning to the role? The answer was a firm "no." Larsson had finished the first three books in his series before tragically succumbing to a heart attack. Journalist David Lagercrantz took over the rest of the series. Rapace starred in the movie adaptations of the first three novels in the series. But once Larsson's work was done, so was Rapace.
Rapace told Den of Geek that she had just intended to act for the adaptations of the books that Larsson wrote himself, and she gave her all these films. During the years she was Lisbeth Salander, Rapace said that she felt incredibly close to the character and the work. She became so attached that when it was time to give up the character, she felt physically ill. Once she was able to separate Noomi Rapace from Lisbeth Salander, she said she couldn't ever bear to return to the work.
When it came to Lagercrantz continuing the books, Rapace stated she had no issue with keeping the series alive — she just knows her time with Lisbeth Salander is done. It's safe to say that with strong feelings like that, Rapace would have never had any interest in returning to the role in David Fincher's movie. Mara brought her own flavor to the role, earning positive reviews for the 2011 adaptation. Claire Foy also stepped into the role of Lisbeth Salander for 2018's The Girl in the Spider's Web to less positive reviews than those of her predecessors. But no matter how many more actresses step into the role of Lisbeth Salander, fans will always be partial to Noomi Rapace.