Irish actor Michael Fassbender has said he was “kind of scared” when his girlfriend Alicia Vikander got a part alongside him in their first movie together.
The stars began their romance while filming The Light Between Oceans, which had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival. In the movie the pair play a married couple who are desperate to have a child after two miscarriages.
Later they discover a child washed up in a boat near their home and decide decide to raise the little girl as their own but things get complicated when the child's mother (Rachel Weisz) shows up.
The glamorous couple, who remain famously private about their relationship, were all smiles as they walked the red carpet in Venice.
Fassbender said he was incredibly impressed by his co-star, who had yet to win her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for The Danish Girl. He told reporters that "I was kind of scared when Alicia came on board" and said her presence in the movie forced him to up his game.
"She was so fierce and hungry. It’s always a great thing to see in an actor who is getting an opportunity, who isn’t that well-known yet. It was obvious where Alicia was headed, but it’s great to see that hunger . . . That sort of hunger when new, fresh actors come on the scene really makes more established actors up their game. I felt like I had to get my shit together and respond.”
Vikander herself said that playing a pregnant woman in the movie was "the biggest challenge" for her and admitted to insecurities about the role saying she was worried that audiences might not find her believable because she hasn't a family of her own.
"I’m not a mother and it was the one biggest challenge in this film. The extreme longing for a child this character has is something a lot of women share.
"She also goes through miscarriages, and I know it’s a subject that is not talked about much . . . I always imagined having a family in the future, but I sit there imagining half the women in the audience thinking, ‘She doesn’t really know what it’s like.’”
However, she was full of praise for Fassbender's support, which she said "were a big part of me daring to go all the way".
The pair were characteristically shy about divulging too much detail about their own plans together. When asked if playing a family man was a rehearsal, Fassbender diplomatically replied that “Everything is a rehearsal".
