--- title: Alicia Vikander, Michael Fassbender Talk Relationship description: Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender explain why they prefer to keep the details of their relationship private. canonical: https://time.com/4468877/alicia-vikander-michael-fassbender-relationship/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-26T20:59:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:35:55.841Z og:title: Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender Don't Talk Love og:description: "I’m not going to talk about my private life with a total stranger" og:url: https://time.com/4468877/alicia-vikander-michael-fassbender-relationship/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender Don't Talk Love twitter:description: "I’m not going to talk about my private life with a total stranger" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender Talk About Why They Don't Talk About Their Relationship > Sponsored content. 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There is no cost and no subscription requirement.  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Aug 26, 2016 8:59 PM UTC  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Aug 26, 2016 8:59 PM UTC [Alicia Vikander](http://time.com/4311776/alicia-vikander-lara-croft-tomb-raider-reboot/) and [Michael Fassbender](http://time.com/4435113/michael-fassbender-alicia-vikander-light-between-oceans/) may be willing to discuss their characters’ marriage in their upcoming movie [_The Light Between Oceans_](http://time.com/4235464/light-between-oceans-trailer/?utm%5Fsource=feedburner&utm%5Fmedium=feed&utm%5Fcampaign=Feed%3A+time%2Ftopstories+%28TIME%3A+Top+Stories%29), but when it comes to their real-life relationship, the couple prefers to keep things on the down low. During a recent interview with [_Entertainment Weekly_](http://www.ew.com/article/2016/08/26/alicia-vikander-michael-fassbender-relationship-light-between-oceans), the two actors — who began dating while filming _Light_ — spoke about why they don’t like to discuss their ongoing romance. “I’m not going to talk about my private life with a total stranger, unless I feel like I need to. Why would I?,” Fassbender told _EW_. “I might have been curious about actors’ lives when I was growing up. That’s human nature. We’re all curious about a lot of things. But my curiosity didn’t obligate them to tell me.” > [](https://twitter.com/EW/status/769249588121395200) Fassbender went on to explain that he thinks knowing too much about an actor detracts from the movie watching experience. “It’s the worst thing if you’re sitting there in the theater, going, ‘Oh, that’s the guy who dates this person and likes to do this in the morning and that in the afternoon,'” he said. “Then you’re just watching a brand, as opposed to an actor.” Vikander agreed with him, adding, “I remember in Sweden, I used to set the alarm for 2 or 3 a.m. and get up with my mom to watch the Oscars. But for me, that was the same as the stories I saw up on the movie screen. Things have changed with social media and technology, but I still feel it helps when I know less about the actors I look up to. That’s what I mean — I love the mystery behind it all.” Read more at [EW.com](http://www.ew.com/article/2016/08/26/alicia-vikander-michael-fassbender-relationship-light-between-oceans). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4468877/alicia-vikander-michael-fassbender-relationship/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4468877/alicia-vikander-michael-fassbender-relationship/"},"headline":"Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender Talk About Why They Don't Talk About Their Relationship","datePublished":"2016-08-26T20:59:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:35:55.841Z","description":"Building a mystery","url":"https://time.com/4468877/alicia-vikander-michael-fassbender-relationship/","keywords":["Newsfeed","movies","celebrities","michael fassbender"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4468877/alicia-vikander-michael-fassbender-relationship/","name":"Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender Talk About Why They Don't Talk About Their Relationship"}}]}] ```