At 16, Kristine Froseth went to a modeling casting call at a local mall in her native Norway with no idea that the runway would lead to a career as an actress. But after appearing in European fashion magazines (and a Prada campaign photographed by Steven Meisel), she attracted the attention of a casting director for the film adaptation of John Green’s best-selling YA novel Looking for Alaska. The movie was never made, but she landed an agent at CAA. “It was all crazy timing and luck,” says Froseth, now 22, who grew up in both Norway and New Jersey and now lives in Brooklyn.
Starring in the 2016 music video for the Weeknd’s single “False Alarm” only fueled her desire to act. “I have always been a cinephile and appreciated that world,” she says, “but I never had the guts to tap into it.” Until now. She’s wrapped roles in three upcoming films: revenge thriller Apostle, horror movie Prey, and indie adventure Low Tide, “an interesting story about human nature, which I am obsessed with—why people are the way they are,” she says. This fall, she’ll be in the 10-part thriller The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair, airing on Epix, and in Netflix’s romantic comedy film Sierra Burgess Is a Loser.
Her status as Hollywood’s latest ingenue hasn’t impeded her ability to be starstruck by her leading men, who include Patrick Dempsey and Dan Stevens. “Oh my gosh, his blue eyes!” she says of Stevens, best known for his role as Matthew Crawley on Downton Abbey. “I could not stop staring. I was just daydreaming every time I talked to him.”
This article appears in the June issue of Marie Claire, on newsstands now.