Noomi Rapace says her role in 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' left her with "pain and sadness".

The 41-year-old star shot to fame by playing Lisbeth Salander in the adaptation of Stieg Larsson's novel – as well as the sequels 'The Girl Who Played with Fire' and 'The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest' – but admits that she wasn't fond of being associated with the part.

Noomi told The Guardian newspaper: "I don't want to be the badass. I even hate the word. People are always pitching things to me, 'She's so badass, she's so you.' I'm like...

"(Making those films was) like drowning in trauma. It meant that the first connective tissue between me and the world was pain for many years. Pain and sadness was like my identity card."

'The Drop' actress continued: "Now I've healed a lot. Maybe I'm not lighter but I would say I allow more colours in me. I feel looser. The veneer, the shield I'd built up since childhood, is slowly peeling off. I'm alive now rather than surviving."

Noomi's new movie is the indie flick 'Lamb' and admits that the project is personal as it is set in Iceland, where she spent part of her childhood.

The Swedish star said: "I feel like I've been waiting for it for as long as I can remember. My body was telling me, 'This is what you need. To dig down into the soil and lava of Iceland."

Noomi says that she has a deep connection with Iceland and felt like an "outsider" in her native Sweden.

She explained: "I had a very strong love story with it from the first time I set foot there. I was always an outsider in Sweden: I was too much, too emotional, too passionate."