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Every year since the Toronto International Film Festival\u2019s Tribute Awards launched in 2019, at least one of the honorees has gone on to win an Oscar: Joaquin Phoenix, Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Chastain, Brendan Fraser<\/strong>\u2014you get the idea. On Sunday night, Vicky Krieps<\/strong> will join TIFF\u2019s illustrious class for her exceptional performance in Viggo Mortensen<\/strong>\u2019s romantic 19th-century Western The Dead Don\u2019t Hurt<\/em> (currently seeking distribution). The Luxembourg-born star\u2019s placement here makes all the sense in the world\u2014she\u2019s been steadily building her profile on the global cinema stage, from her breakout in Paul Thomas Anderson<\/strong>\u2019s Phantom Thread<\/em> to her celebrated lead turns in Bergman Island<\/em> and Corsage<\/em>, and she reaches new heights as a French-Canadian immigrant paving her own way on the American frontier in The Dead Don\u2019t Hurt<\/em>. But I\u2019ve known Krieps for a few years now, and particularly learned about her aversion to the spotlight. Given this award\u2019s history, when I saw TIFF announce her as this year\u2019s recipient, my first thought boiled down to: Is she ready for this?<\/p>\n Over morning tea in her Toronto hotel, Krieps persuasively argues in the affirmative\u2014mostly. There is a part of her, she tells me, that is ready to \u201cjump off the boat,\u201d hit the abort button before her star rises too high to reverse it. But bit by bit, she\u2019s learning to navigate a public-facing, scrutiny-laden industry as her unapologetic self. It\u2019s a confidence that is revealing itself in her performances too. Watch The Dead Don\u2019t Hurt<\/em> and you\u2019ll see one of the great actors of her generation only getting better, more exciting, more alive. She\u2019s done hiding.<\/p>\n Vanity Fair:<\/strong><\/em> I really liked this movie. It surprised me.<\/strong><\/p>\n Vicky Krieps:<\/em> Ah, yeah. Right? It\u2019s so good you say that because I feel bad about thinking that way. You go , \u201cOkay, another Western.\u201d Viggo is a man and he\u2019s been in these very classical Western-man stories. Even he\u2019s said it; it\u2019s not his fault. But in the movie, there\u2019s very masculine thinking. Doing it, I was sometimes wondering: Is it strong enough for the woman? In the end, she\u2019s still only a woman in a man\u2019s world. Viggo and I were never fighting, but we can be very stubborn and very soft. I think we both have this duality. I always want to say what I think, and I always believe that no one can tell me what to do. Then when I saw the film, I got hit with this, I don\u2019t know\u2014a wave of love. I understood. Now, I have to say I\u2019m happy it\u2019s this way and not any other way. Because any other way would\u2019ve been, I think, not honest. It would\u2019ve been not his film.<\/p>\n Given that you had that initial feeling about it, what made you want to do it?<\/strong><\/p>\n I was in Arizona shooting a movie the year before, and I would always drive around in the car to the set across this huge desert. Suddenly I started having these visions of blood in the ground. I was thinking a lot about how much blood has been shed into this same soil on both sides. The US is built on this terrible, heartbreaking chaos where everyone lost so much blood on every side. You can\u2019t even start trying to understand. This followed to\u2014and what I\u2019m going to say is true, and I know it sounds crazy\u2014me thinking, \u201cWhat would I want to do next? The only thing I think I would want to do is a Western.\u201d I\u2019m not joking, I really thought that. I saw myself in this desert on a horse, and the same week I got an email from my agent: \u201cViggo Mortensen<\/strong> wants to talk to you.\u201d I felt like I had to do it.<\/p>\n I read it and I really liked the craziness of the vision. It\u2019s not conventional, and I always need something that has to be unconventional. [Laughs<\/em>] Then again, even on the first reading, I had troubles with the more conventional, typical western side of the story, that the woman gets raped. A part of me is always like, \u201cBut why<\/em>? Of course she can be stronger. Why doesn\u2019t she get out?\u201d I got these feelings when I was a child watching movies, every second, like, \u201cWhy is she not this?\u201d Do you know what I mean? In the old movies, they were really bad. I would be so furious. But I went for this because I believed, if anything, that\u2019s why the movie needed me. This might sound like I think I\u2019m important but I don\u2019t. I just know that I cannot be corrupted. That\u2019s worth something.<\/p>\n Tell me if I\u2019m off base here, but I thought of the character in some ways like a metaphor for your career a little bit. Last time we spoke, we talked about the aftermath of<\/strong> Phantom Thread<\/strong><\/em> and your resisting a certain Hollywood trajectory. In this movie, we meet Vivienne in higher society with this man, and she\u2019s just like, \u201cNo. That is not for me.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Yeah, totally. It felt very personal. Also the suffering: There\u2019s a lot of suffering alone. She only cries when Olsen is gone. That\u2019s something I know a lot because as an actor you are not allowed to suffer. You can suffer in the roles, but everything outside, you come on set and it\u2019s like, \u201cLet\u2019s go!\u201d I bring the good energy no matter what happens\u2014if the ship is sinking, I\u2019m going to continue to play like the orchestra on the Titanic. That\u2019s how I feel often. And this is not because people are mean. People are<\/em> also mean, but let\u2019s leave that aside. As an actor, you are the character. And then as yourself you have to carry everyone. And as the character, you have to carry the movie. There\u2019s no space anymore for you to have real feelings of your own. And that\u2019s something that I think is very much in the film.<\/p>\n I did think of my other movies. I did had one take where I stood there and I thought, \u201cWow, this is the first time I let myself show it.\u201d I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever shown it. Rarely I get this outside view so I thought, \u201cWow, I\u2019m really, really letting go. I\u2019m really letting something show.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n