Biography

Rebecca Ferguson

Jump to

Overview

Born
October 19, 1983 · Sweden
Birth name
Rebecca Louisa Ferguson Sundström
Height
5′ 5″ (1.65 m)

Mini bio

Rebecca Ferguson was born Rebecca Louisa Ferguson Sundström in Stockholm, Sweden, and grew up in its Vasastaden district. Her father is Swedish. Her mother, Rosemary Ferguson, is of Scottish and Northern Irish descent, and moved to Sweden at the age of 25. Rebecca attended an English-speaking school in Sweden and was raised bilingual, speaking Swedish and English. As a student, she attended the Adolf Fredrik's Music School in Stockholm and graduated in 1999.

She came into prominence with her breakout role of upper-class girl Anna Gripenhielm in the soap-opera Nya tider (1999), when she was 16 years old.

She lives in the seaside town of Simrishamn, on the Swedish south coast. Ferguson has said she wanted to get away from city life and the public spotlight following her soap opera success. Swedish director Richard Hobert, spotted her at the town market in 2011, which led to her starring in his film A One-Way Trip to Antibes (2011).

Ferguson taught Argentinian Tango at a dance company in Sweden for a few years.

In 2013, Rebecca played Queen Elizabeth Woodville in the BBC historical drama The White Queen (2013), for which she got a Golden Globe nomination.

In 2015, Ferguson played Ilsa Faust, the female lead in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015). Her co-star, Tom Cruise, chose her for the film after having seen her in the mini-series The White Queen (2013). Her performance in the movie was highly praised and Rebecca will reprise her role in the sixth Mission: Impossible film.

In 2016, she starred in Despite the Falling Snow (2016), Florence Foster Jenkins (2016) and The Girl on the Train (2016).

Her other projects are Dune, Life (2017), The Snowman (2017), The Greatest Showman (2017), The Lady and the Panda and Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018).
- IMDb mini biography by: Polly_Kat

Family

Spouse
Children
Parents

Trivia

Performed her own stunts in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015). She went under vigorous fitness and stunt training, consisting of 6-weeks of a 6 hours-a-day training schedule, including Pilates, fight choreography and stunt practice.
Her mother helped ABBA translate the lyrics from their album 'Waterloo' from Swedish to English and was also the woman sitting cross-legged on a chair on the back of the cover of ABBA's 1975 self-titled album. Ferguson revealed this during her appearance on The Graham Norton Show on January 26, 2018.
Has danced from a very early age; ballet, tap-dancing, jazz/show and street funk to Argentinean Tango. Her interest in tango has led to her being asked to help teach beginner courses in Lund, Sweden.
From the age of thirteen, she worked as a model in magazines, for television/cinema commercials, and for different brand names (make-up, clothes, jewellery), etc.
Tom Cruise chose her for Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015) after having seen her in the mini-series The White Queen (2013).

Quotes

[on her inspiration to play Ilsa Faust in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)] I looked at Ingrid Bergman a lot. There's a gracefulness there that I wanted to bring in. Mission is fast and action-packed and intense and modern, so to be able to balance that with the input of something classic - it's a beautiful mixture.
[on doing her own stunts in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)] Jumping off a rooftop is one thing, but having your legs wrapped around Tom Cruise makes it a bit easier.
I need challenging roles. I look forward to reading a script where I call my agent and go, 'What the f**k are you thinking? Of course I can't do this!' I'd like to be uncomfortable and challenge that.
I've been very lucky to have strong women characters to play.
[on if she feels Swedish] I do. And I feel English as well which is why I like the combination when I can do an English film and speak a bit of Swedish. It's a mish-mash. My mum's English and my father's Swedish. But I feel sort of French when I'm in France even though I have no connection to it! I think I remind myself of Ilsa [her character in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)] in that because I adapt and I think that's the world we live in as well - doors are more open now, thank God.