Vicky Krieps: I felt like I was 'disappearing' amid 'Phantom Thread' fame

Vicky Krieps felt like she was becoming a ghost herself after the success of 'Phantom Thread'.

The 2017 Paul Thomas Anderson-directed film catapulted stage actress Krieps to stardom in the United States. Krieps starred alongside Daniel Day-Lewis as a fashion designer's muse.

"While I was doing 'Phantom,' it was just like this jungle. Daniel being the king of the jungle, and me coming to study a little plant in the jungle and gradually making my place in its world," said Krieps. "So I think Paul Thomas Anderson, the director, and Daniel let me know that it was good to be this weirdo scientist. They gave me absolution, they made me feel that it's okay to be who I am and do it the way I do. But what no one could prepare me for was what happens when it's seen."

Krieps continued, "Suddenly people look at you and say, 'Oh, you're the girl from 'Phantom Thread.' "No, I'm me." It's very weird, but for the first few months, I always wanted to go have coffee with everyone [who saw the movie]. ‘Oh, have you seen my movie? Really? Because for me, it's about my plant. And someone saw my plant. And I had to learn how to deal with that more common look that you get. So it's no longer personal, because then you have become people's film."

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Krieps called fame "hurtful" because it overshadowed his own sense of off-screen individuality.

"It was suddenly very hurtful for me, because I felt like I was disappearing," the 'Corsage' star said. “I felt like I was constantly bumping into invisible walls. Like everything I was doing was wrong, because I didn't know how to play the game. Because I didn't want to play the game of "What are you wearing?" How do you look? What are you saying? What don't you say? How are you behaving?’ And I couldn’t. I really suffered from it. So I withdrew again into my forest.

Krieps previously told IndieWire that Anderson and director Marie Kreutzer "trusted me with my artistic choice." She said: "I felt free like on 'Phantom Thread' things happened because I knew I had the right to go beyond what is written."

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