The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Girl

America's many rabid Stieg Larsson fans were thrilled when Scott Rudin recently acquired the English-language movie rights to the late Swedish author's wildly successful crime series the "Millennium Trilogy." The Internet is already a-flutter with speculation about who will play unlikely heroine Lisbeth Salander in the first volume, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo -- names from Ellen Page to Kristen Stewart to Natalie Portman are being tossed around -- but whoever lands the role will have a tough act to follow. Noomi Rapace, who plays the pierced and tattooed Lisbeth in the Swedish version, gives a truly singular performance. She can be seen in that film, a mega-hit at overseas box offices, when it premieres in select cities here this March. Rapace, who is half Swedish, half Spanish (her father was a Flamenco singer), transformed herself both physically and emotionally for the role as the brilliant, androgynous and potentially Aspergers-afflicted private investigator who helps journalist Mikael Blomkvist solve the four-decade-old mystery of a teen heiress's disappearance. For seven months prior to filming, the softspoken 30-year-old took kickboxing classes four to five times a week and endured multiple nose and ear piercings in order to scrap all traces of her "feminine side" and channel the tiny punk P.I. At a certain point, Rapace said, "I was in her or she was in me -- it was so strange, I didn't really know who I was or what I had become." On set, Rapace recalls, "I was pretty isolated the whole time. Everyone would be talking and having a nice time, and I'd be sitting in a corner drinking coffee in my own loneliness."

Though she's finished shooting all three Larsson films (The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest will be released in the U.S. later this year), and has since starred in Pernilla August's forthcoming drama Svinalängorna, there are still times, she says, "When I'll wake up in the middle of the night, and I've dreamt about Lisbeth, it's weird -- Lisbeth is still a pretty strong part of me."

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo will open in select U.S. cities on March 19th.