# Connie Nielsen

Connie Inge-Lise Nielsen (born 3 July 1965) is a Danish actress. She has starred as Lucilla in the films Gladiator (2000) and Gladiator II (2024) and as Queen Hippolyta in the DC Extended Universe. She has also starred in films such as Soldier (1998), Mission to Mars (2000), One Hour Photo (2002), Basic (2003), The Hunted (2003), The Ice Harvest (2005), Nymphomaniac (2013), 3 Days to Kill (2014), Inheritance (2020), and Nobody (2021).
She also had roles as New York Police Department Detective Dani Beck, the temporary partner of Christopher Meloni's Elliot Stabler in the NBC crime drama series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2006), the Starz political drama series Boss (2011–2012), the Fox crime thriller series The Following (2014), and the TNT limited drama series I Am the Night (2019), and starred in the Channel 4 drama series Close to Me in 2021.

## Early life

Nielsen was born in Frederikshavn and grew up in the village of Elling, Denmark. Her father, Bent Nielsen, was a bus driver, and her mother, Laila Inge-lise Matzigkeit (1945–2014), was an insurance clerk, who also acted and wrote musical reviews. She was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a Mormon.
She began her acting career working alongside her mother on the local revue and variety scene. At 18, she traveled to Paris, where she worked as an actress and model, which led to further work and study in Italy—at drama school in Rome and in master classes with Lydia Styx, a teacher at Piccolo Teatro di Milano in Milan. She lived in Italy for many years before moving to the United States.

## Career

Nielsen's feature-film debut was the Jerry Lewis French film Par où t'es rentré ? On t'a pas vu sortir in 1984, followed by a role in the Italian miniseries Colletti Bianchi in 1988. She appeared in the Italian film Vacanze di Natale '91 (1991) and the French film Le Paradis Absolument (1993).
She moved to the United States in the mid-1990s, and made her first appearance in a major English-language film in 1997 as Christabella Andreoli in The Devil's Advocate, starring opposite Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves. This first minor breakthrough led to roles in the films Permanent Midnight (1998), Rushmore (1998), and Soldier (1998).
In 2000, Nielsen appeared as Lucilla in Ridley Scott's Gladiator, starring opposite Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix. Since then, she has starred in American films, including Mission to Mars (2000), One Hour Photo (2002), The Hunted (2003), and Basic (2003), for which she had to cut off most of her hair. She also starred in the French thriller Demonlover (2002), directed by Olivier Assayas. She played the Irish mother to an orphan in A Shine of Rainbows (2009).
In 2004, Nielsen made her Danish film debut in the drama, Brødre (also known as Brothers), for which she won the Danish Best Actress Award, the Bodil, as well as Best Actress at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. She was also nominated for Best Actress at the European Film Awards. In 2006, Nielsen appeared in several episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Detective Dani Beck. She filled in for Mariska Hargitay, who was on maternity leave at the time of filming.
With Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jamie Bell, and Uma Thurman, Nielsen appeared in the 2014 Lars Von Trier film Nymphomaniac. She was featured in a series of promotional posters prior to the film's release, a campaign The Independent described as "shocking", observing, "Connie Nielsen appears somewhat moist in this poster for Nymphomaniac".
In 2015, she appeared on the TV-2 album Det gode liv in which she sang along with Steffen Brandt on the track "Brev til Mona". In September 2018, she appeared in the pilot episode of the CBS drama FBI with Jeremy Sisto and Missy Peregrym.
Nielsen is known as Queen Hippolyta in DC Extended Universe franchise, appeared in four films beginning with Wonder Woman (2017).

## Personal life

From 2004 to 2012, Nielsen dated Metallica drummer and fellow Dane, Lars Ulrich. They have one son together. Nielsen had a son, Sebastian, from a previous marriage to fellow actor Fabio Sartor; and Ulrich has two sons, Myles and Layne, also from a previous marriage.
Nielsen is fluent in her native Danish, English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, and Swedish. She also knows some Spanish.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1984 | Par où t'es rentré ? On t'a pas vu sortir | Eva | Credited as Connie Nielson |
| 1991 | Vacanze di Natale '91 | Brunilde / Vanessa | |
| 1997 | The Devil's Advocate | Christabella Andreoli | |
| 1998 | Permanent Midnight | Dagmar | |
| 1998 | Rushmore | Mrs. Calloway | |
| 1998 | Soldier | Sandra | |
| 2000 | Innocents | Megan Denright | |
| 2000 | Mission to Mars | Terri Fisher | |
| 2000 | Gladiator | Lucilla | |
| 2002 | One Hour Photo | Nina Yorkin | |
| 2002 | Demonlover | Diane de Monx | |
| 2003 | The Hunted | Abby Durrell | |
| 2003 | Basic | Osborne | |
| 2004 | Brødre | Sarah | |
| 2004 | Return to Sender | Charlotte Cory | |
| 2005 | The Great Raid | Margaret Utinsky | |
| 2005 | The Ice Harvest | Renata Crest | |
| 2006 | The Situation | Anna Molyneux | |
| 2007 | Battle in Seattle | Jean | |
| 2009 | A Shine of Rainbows | Maire | |
| 2010 | Kidnappet | Susanne | |
| 2011 | Perfect Sense | Jenny | |
| 2013 | Nymphomaniac | Joe's Mother | |
| 2013 | The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden | Baroness Von Wagner | Voice |
| 2014 | 3 Days to Kill | Christine Renner | |
| 2014 | Return to Zero | Dr. Claire Holden | |
| 2014 | All Relative | Maren | |
| 2015 | The Runner | Deborah Price | |
| 2016 | Ali and Nino | Duchess Kipiani | |
| 2016 | The 11th | Katrine Firth | |
| 2016 | Løvekvinnen | Mrs Grjothornet | |
| 2016 | The Confessions | Claire Seth | |
| 2017 | Stratton | Sumner | |
| 2017 | Wonder Woman | Queen Hippolyta | |
| 2017 | Justice League | Queen Hippolyta | |
| 2018 | The Catcher Was a Spy | Koranda | |
| 2019 | I'll Find You | Lena | |
| 2019 | Sea Fever | Freya | |
| 2020 | Inheritance | Catherine Monroe | |
| 2020 | Wonder Woman 1984 | Queen Hippolyta | |
| 2021 | Zack Snyder's Justice League | Queen Hippolyta | |
| 2021 | Nobody | Becca Mansell | |
| 2022 | A Week in Paradise | Fiona | |
| 2023 | Origin | Sabine | |
| 2023 | Ocean Deep | Mara | |
| 2024 | Role Play | Gwen Carver | |
| 2024 | Gladiator II | Lucilla | |
| 2025 | Nobody 2 | Becca Mansell | Post-production |

### Television films

| Year | Title | Role |
| 1993 | Voyage | Ronnie Freeland |
| 1994 | Le paradis absolument | Sarah |
| 2008 | Danny Fricke | Danny Fricke |
| 2015 | Unveiled | Joan McAllen |

### Television series

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1988 | Colletti bianchi | Marilù Bacchetta | Television Series; 12 Episodes |
| 1994 | Okavango – The Wild Frontier | Lena | Television Series; 16 Episodes |
| 2006 | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Detective Dani Beck | 6 episodes |
| 2011–2012 | Boss | Meredith Rutledge Kane | 16 episodes |
| 2014 | The Following | Lily Gray | 10 episodes |
| 2014–2015 | The Good Wife | Ramona Lytton | 4 episodes |
| 2018 | FBI | Ellen Solberg | Episode: "Pilot" |
| 2018 | Liberty | Katrina | 5 episodes |
| 2019 | I Am the Night | Corinna Hodel | 6 episodes |
| 2021 | Close to Me | Jo Harding | 6 episodes |
| 2022 | The Dreamer – Becoming Karen Blixen | Karen Blixen | 6 episodes |

### Music Videos

| Year | Artist | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1985 | Arcadia | Election Day | Girl dance | |

## Awards

* Rungstedlund Prize (4 September 2023).