The Eccentric Vicky Krieps on Ryan Murphy, ‘Ocean’s Eleven,’ and Netflix’s Pure Punk Lizzie Borden Season of ‘Monster’

“They love that story of ‘Vicky turning away from Hollywood,'” the European actress giggles to The Hollywood Reporter .

I frantically make a mental note to try and resist going with this — obviously successful, but hackneyed — angle, and quickly discover that the offbeat and slightly anarchic Krieps is much, much more fascinating than her rebuking of entertainment’s most exclusive club.

The half-Luxembourgish, half-German star is referring to her 2017 breakout performance in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread , in which she played the young muse of Daniel Day-Lewis’ haute couture dressmaker. “I got the email for Phantom Thread and I didn’t read the director, who’s producing, I just scrolled down to the PDF [script] because that’s what it’s about,” Krieps remembers. “It was not the full script, and I thought it was a student who didn’t yet have a script and was looking for an actress to write with, which is very funny, because it turned out to be Paul Thomas Anderson.” Related Stories TV 'Monster' Creator Ian Brennan Shares 10-Season Plan and Dives Into First Female Serial Killer Season With Wild 'Lizzie Borden Story' Movies How Fatih Akin Breathed Life Into San Sebastian's Haunting Opener 'Ghost Song'

After ascertaining the project was not from an aspiring filmmaker but one of the greatest of his generation, she signed on, made the film and premiered it in New York in December that year. It would land six Academy Award nominations. And so ensued the awards-circuit circus: A relatively unknown, 34-year-old Krieps was thrust into the limelight , shaking hands with top producers and directors keen to ensnare the hot new talent. Her response? Decline them all and head back to Europe. Her reasoning couldn’t be more sound.

“I did need a break, but I think every normal human being would need a break after [that],” says Krieps, rocking a pixie cut all the way from the South of France, where she’s currently shooting Bradley Cooper ‘s Ocean’s Eleven prequel (we’ll get into that later). “Coming out and going to the Oscars… I didn’t come from this kind of fame. No one in my family or surroundings is famous. So you need a break just to process, and that’s what I did. But that was mainly because I had two little children, and when you’re a mother and you have kids, I think your instincts can be much stronger.”

She has been adamant about taking career pauses “from very early on,” but still chuckles remembering the whirlwind few months with Phantom Thread . (And let it be known: Krieps is overjoyed to see the success PTA has accrued since. She actually narrated the Oscar-winning Two People Exchanging Saliva and collected the gold statuette before his slew of awards began rolling in at the March ceremony. Krieps stuck her tongue out at him while on stage.)

She continues about that period promoting the film: “I don’t know if you’ve heard this, but an actor ‘has a moment,'” says Krieps. “They’d say, ‘She’s having a moment!’ So what I did is I consciously passed on my moment. But I never really turned my back on Hollywood in the sense that I don’t like it.