Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander Finally Put Romance on Display at Venice Film Festival
Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander are no longer hiding their love away.
The ultra-private couple made their romance official at the Venice Film Festival on Thursday. The pair hit the red carpet together for the first time to promote their new film, The Light Between Oceans.
It was on the set of Light in 2014 that the romance between Fassbender, 39, and Vikander, 27, first blossomed, so they have had a lot of time to prepare for their official coming out, which took place in two phases. First, on Thursday, they participated in a photo call keeping things casual amid a scenic backdrop.
They did a standard pose — looking cool with their shades (she had on a Prabal Gurung dress) — as well as one of them looking at each other. That was as cutesy as it got.
On Friday, they stepped it up at the premiere. They had their arms around each other and wore big grins.
They couldn’t even watch the movie without photographers trying to capture their chemistry.
The romance between the pair began in 2013. They were at the Toronto Film Festival (the German-Irish actor was promoting 12 Years a Slave; she was peddling The Fifth Estate) and they found themselves dancing at a party.
“We had a boogie. He’s a very good dancer,” Vikander told USA Today. However, Fassbender “felt like I couldn’t dance,” he added. “I thought I was pretty good, but she was there with a friend of hers, just jiving all over the place. I was like, ‘God, I feel like I’ve got two left feet.’ Then I left, defeated.”
The next year, they really became acquainted on the set of Light, in which they play a married couple who discover a newborn baby in a rowboat shortly after losing their own child. The film is based on the 2012 book of the same title by M.L. Stedman.
Director Derek Cianfrance said that sparks flew right away and made a (funny) comparison of their chemistry to another popular pairing.
“What I saw was two great people who were so supportive of each other, who were really picking each other up, and pushing each other,” Cianfrance told Vanity Fair. “Michael and Alicia, they were like Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. They were going to make one another better. And they were better together.”
While the couple parted ways briefly in 2015, they were back on by awards season earlier this year, when Vikander picked up a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for The Danish Girl. (He was nominated for Best Actor for Steve Jobs.) They skipped red carpets but sat next to each other in the audience and even shared a kiss when she won. (They made a point not to kiss at the BAFTAs.)
Fassbender talked about his ladylove during an interview with Good Morning America on Thursday, saying, “Yeah, we met on that job and have been seeing each other since. She’s such a fierce performer. She’s so brave. She’s not afraid to bring ugly personality traits to the forefront in characters. So I was really impressed by her immediately.”
They both look impressed by each other, don’t they?
