Noomi Rapace is set to play Mother Teresa in a new upcoming biopic about the legendary Catholic saint, directed by Teona Strugar Mitevska.
The Swedish actress, 44, will star in Mother, which will focus on seven pivotal days in the life of Mother Teresa.
The movie will centre on the saint’s decision to leave the Loreto Entally convent in Kolkata, India, and launch her own order, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Mother will be Teona’s English-language debut and the director feels she can relate to the Catholic saint, who died in September 1997, aged 87.
Teona, who directed the 2019 movie God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunya, revealed: ‘I absolutely related to her as a woman and I saw a lot of myself in her.’
Noomi Rapace is set to play Mother Teresa in a new upcoming biopic about the legendary Catholic saint, directed by Teona Strugar Mitevska (Noomi pictured this month)
The movie will centre on the saint’s decision to leave the Loreto Entally convent in Kolkata, India, and launch her own order (Mother Teresa pictured with a child in India in 1979)
Noomi shot to fame in 2009 for playing computer hacker Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
She also gained notoriety for the role of Madam Simza Heron in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows in 2011.
The actress most recently starred as an astronaut in the space-based Apple TV+ series Constellation.
Created and written by Peter Harness, the eight-part psychological thriller follows astronaut Jo, who returns to Earth after a disaster in space, only to discover that key pieces of her life are missing.
The action-packed series explores the dark edges of human psychology, and follows one woman’s quest to expose the truth about the hidden history of space travel in a bid to recover all that she has lost.
Although she’s enjoyed significant success in the movie business, the actress still struggles to balance her acting career with her personal life.
Noomi, who has a 21-year-old son called Lev, recently told The Guardian: ‘It’s a constant battle and internal conflict.
‘My son is everything to me, but I couldn’t just be home and be a mother, that would drive me nuts. That’s not me.
Noomi has been identified as the perfect candidate for the role of Mother Teresa (pictured in 1968)
Noomi soared to fame with her breakout role in 2009’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo playing computer hacker Lisbeth Salander
The actress most recently starred as an astronaut in the space-based Apple TV+ series Constellation (pictured)
‘And I want to live by example: be someone who fights for my dream, who stands up for my beliefs and who says everything is possible.
‘I came from a poor farm, I’m not educated, no one opened doors for me, I don’t come from money. So I’ve just been working my way through life and my son has been my partner in crime.
‘We’ve been side by side through all the different chapters, but I’ve been away and it’s painful.’
The actress recently revealed she didn’t learn to read or write until she was 12 years old because she was ‘self-taught and self-raised.’
Speaking to The Times about her unconventional upbringing, Noomi recalled how she was raised by her mother and stepfather in Sweden and Iceland after her father walked out on the family while she was born.
She explained: ‘There were no boundaries, really. I’m self-taught and self-raised, and I couldn’t properly read and write until I was 12, 13.
‘We didn’t have books or TV — I was out playing and building stuff and riding horses.’
Comparing herself to the feral protagonist in The Jungle Book series, Noomi continued: ‘Sometimes I felt like Mowgli, this child who was raised in the wilderness.’
Mother will focus on seven pivotal days in the life of Mother Teresa (pictured at the Alexander McQueen show in March)
