Alicia Vikander: Michael Fassbender and I have never hidden the fact we’re a couple

Vikander and Fassbender met on the set of The Light Between Oceans
Loved up: Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender
Karwai Tang/Getty
Alistair Foster26 September 2016
The Weekender

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Alicia Vikander has opened up about her relationship with Michael Fassbender, insisting: “We’ve never hidden the fact that we’re a couple.”

The actress, who won an Oscar in February for her performance in The Danish Girl, has been dating Fassbender, 39, for almost two years. They met on the set of The Light Between Oceans and have in the past been very private about their relationship. But Vikander, 28, told PORTER magazine: “We’ve never hidden the fact we’re a couple… he’s extremely hard-working.

“[On set] he was like, ‘Give me something new! I just need a new idea. I need to do it differently.’ I just thought that was cool. Because that was what I was trying to do, too. To push each other and come up with new ideas each time.”

Born in Sweden, Vikander trained as a ballerina in Stockholm before she was rejected by a theatre school and decided to go into screen acting.

The Swedish girl: Alicia Vikander in her PORTER shoot
Ryan McGinley, courtesy PORTER magazine

She claims she would not have been able to land one of her early roles in 2012’s Anna Karenina, which was filmed in London, if workers were not able to move freely within the EU.

Discussing the result of the June referendum, she said: “I couldn’t believe my eyes. I am European. I grew up in a small country. Without it, I would not be where I am in my career — I wouldn’t have been able to live with my three girlfriends in London.

“As a foreigner, I probably wouldn’t have been cast in Anna Karenina if they’d had to pay for a working visa. I hope in America that it opens people’s eyes that you can’t just let things happen. You need to get involved.”

As a ballet student, Vikander made friends with musicians Caroline Hjelt and Aino Jawo — better known as Icona Pop — and Tove Lo while they were studying in Stockholm. She said: “I kind of set myself the rule that I was going to find friends who weren’t part of that [ballet scene], to get a break. They were like the cool girls. That was kind of my rave period. I couldn’t even drink because I had to go to school, but it was kind of a relief to go out and dance.”

The actress, who has also had acclaimed roles in Testament Of Youth and Ex Machina, will next appear in drama film Tulip Fever and has been cast as Lara Croft in a new Tomb Raider movie due out in 2018.

Cover star: Alicia Vikander on the front of PORTER
Ryan McGinley, courtesy PORTER magazine

But she said people thought she was stilted during her first English-speaking interviews because she was not speaking her native tongue.

“You can seem reserved when it’s not your own language, because you think about what you want to say,” she said. “And you get frustrated. The worst thing is when you start to sound fluent, so people assume that you are, but you don’t have a tenth of the vocabulary as everyone else.”

To see the full interview with Alicia Vikander, buy the latest issue of PORTER, on sale globally on Friday September 30. Also available as a digital edition or go to portersubscription.com/portersub.

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