Growing up like Mowgli

Noomi Rapace didn’t learn to read properly until she was 12

Noomi Rapace on her childhood: "There were no boundaries, really."

(Bild: Photo Press Service)

Actress Noomi Rapace ("Blinded") has spoken for the first time about the fact that she was unable to read and write properly until she was 12 years old. She grew up completely wild and free, without books or a television. 

In an interview with the "Times", the Swedish actress described how she grew up in a very unconventional way.

She had to teach herself to read and write because she grew up "without boundaries, books or television", she said, "I was self-educated, just like Mowgli".

The daughter of a Swedish actress and a Spanish flamenco singer, she was raised by her mother and stepfather in Sweden and Iceland after her father left the family during her birth.

"There were no boundaries"
She explained: "There were no boundaries, really. I'm self-taught and self-educated and I couldn't read and write properly until I was 12 or 13. We didn't have books or TV - I played outside, built things and went horse riding."

Sometimes she felt like Mowgli, the child from the "Jungle Book" who grew up in the wilderness.

Noomi Rapace became world-famous with the role of Lisbeth Salander in "Blinded".

(Bild: Moviestore Collection/face to fa)

Surname chosen by herself
Rapace, born Norén, also revealed that she and her husband, Swedish actor Ola Rapace, created their shared surname themselves when they married in 2012. Her husband's original name was Pär Ola Norell.

She told The Guardian that she chose the surname Rapace, which means "bird of prey" in French and Italian, because of her spontaneous nature: "I'm very spontaneous. I don't think too much about things: 'Let's go! Let's do it.' And there was something in me that was very much connected to the name."

Noomi also shared a humorous anecdote: Her son remarked when they had moved to London that he was the first born "Rapace" in the world, which confirmed to her that it was a good surname.