Who is Frida Gustavsson? Vikings: Valhalla actress reveals body image issues prior to modeling

Vikings: Valhalla, the much-anticipated spin-off to the fan-favorite History Channel series Vikings, premiered on February 25 on the popular streaming service Netflix. The action-adventure historic show was created by Jeb Stuart.

Since Vikings: Valhalla arrived on Netflix, the promising acting performances from the lead cast have been getting a lot of positive responses from fans and critics. The series centers around Leif Eriksson, the legendary explorer played by Sam Corlett, his sister Freydis Eriksdotter, astoundingly portrayed by Frida Gustavsson, and Nordic prince Harald Sigurdsson, played by Leo Suter.

In light of Vikings: Valhalla's success, Gustavsson's past model life has come to the forefront, and the actress has disclosed her body image issues before modeling.

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Vikings: Valhalla's Frida Gustavsson always wanted to be an actor, but body image issues affected her

Pursuing any career within the entertainment industry is a massively risky and intense endeavor. However, Frida Gustavsson not only tackled those challenges head-on and succeeded in building a prominent career as a model, but she also dared to leave it behind when at her peak to chase her biggest dream of becoming an actor.

Currently, Frida is celebrating the grand launch of Vikings: Valhalla. She also took out time to reveal some interesting insights about both her modeling and acting careers.

In a recent interview with Collider, the actress disclosed that she always wanted to become an actor:

"I’ve always loved performing and being in front of people. So when I was little, I was acting. I was in theater classes and then pre-puberty I went from being this little small child to being incredibly tall, like a stick figure, and I kind of had a hard time with that."

The 28-year-old reportedly talked about how she did not feel comfortable in her own body and felt insecure before entering the modeling world. Frida expressed her issues with body image and how it made her feel bad about her own body:

"I didn’t feel comfortable in my own body. All the girls had boobs in school and I was just straight, and I didn’t feel very good about myself. So I kind of lost my confidence to go up in front of people and be like, ‘Look at me!’"

Frida Gustavsson further shared how she was miraculously offered to do modeling. She almost couldn't believe it. But after talking to her father about it, the star realized that it would be a great opportunity for her to come out of her shell and show the world what she's really got:

"And by some kind of divine intervention, someone had a plan for me to deal with all of that, so I was scouted eating meatballs at Ikea. [Laughs] The most Swedish thing ever! When they first came up to me they were like, ‘Oh, do you want to be a model?’ I was choking on my meatball going, ‘What?’ I spoke to my dad who was there with me and we said it might be a good thing for me to try to break out of my shell a little bit and get more comfortable with myself."

Frida and her father's instincts were correct as in no time, as her modeling career took off. She has been a significant part of several prestigious modeling shows, including Louis Vuitton, Alexander McQueen, Chanel, and Jean Paul Gaultier.

In 2011, she was also named Elle Sweden's Model of the Year.

Things were going well in her modeling career, but her heart wanted something else. Frida added during the interview:

"I’ve always wanted to act. I’ve always had that feeling inside of me that I was like, ‘This is the only thing I think I’m ever gonna be truly good at. This is the only thing that I ever really want to pursue.’ But I also have so much respect for the craft and I think coming from a modeling background, sometimes people look at you in a certain way and it may be difficult to be taken seriously sometimes, so I was very aware that it wasn’t gonna be an easy road transitioning into acting in the way that I wanted to act."

With her outstanding performance as Freydis Eriksdotter in Netflix's Vikings: Valhalla, it looks like Frida Gustavsson is on the right path.