Noomi Rapace discusses 'finding' Mother Teresa for new role

Noomi Rapace has discussed her research process in the run-up to playing Mother Teresa in a new film.

The 44-year-old Swedish actress will play the late nun, who died in 1997 aged 87 and who was canonised as a saint in 2016, in a film titled Mother.

The religious figure was controversial as while she was praised for her charitable work, she was also criticised over the care she gave to the poor, for her views on abortion and contraception, and faced accusations of racism and forced religious conversion.

Discussing her approach to portraying the historical figure, Noomi told Deadline, "I've been reading her letters, listening to her and doing research.

"There's also a lot of negativity written about her so I'm filling myself with everything I can and trying to find who she is for me and, in conversations with (director Teona Strugar Mitevska), we're finding our Mother Teresa."

The project, which is due to begin filming in September, will focus on "seven crucial days during the saint's life" ahead of her founding her Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, in 1950.

Noomi said, "I'm finding the connecting tissue between me and (Mother Teresa) now and I'm starting to see where I can relate to her, like me leaving home when I was 15 and moving into an unknown situation and her leaving home when she was 17 and moving to another country, learning a new language and being a woman in a man's world.

"All of these things, while just simple facts, I'm very curious about."