Alicia VikanderAlicia Vikander revealed in an interview this week that after a "marathon" nine months, she quietly welcomed her second child with her husband and fellow actor Michael Fassbender.
The actress sat down for Elle with fellow thespian Taylor Russell to chat all about acting and motherhood after the release of her film, Firebrand. The film, which was released in June this year, follows the life of King Henry VIII's sixth wife, Katherine Parr, and co-stars everyone's favorite heartthrob, Jude Law.
Taylor Russell, who is set to star alongside Alicia in the upcoming film Hope, gushed about the actress's impressive physical work after she "literally just had [her] second baby".
Alicia explained in the interview that, "All women have such different experiences, and going through it a second time was definitely harder for me."
"But I think training made it easier. Going through those nine months is like a marathon, so it does help if you're strong going into it. It's so physically demanding, and I have so much admiration for any woman who has done it."
The Swedish native first met her husband in 2014 on the set of their film The Light Between Oceans, before marrying in a gorgeous Ibiza ceremony in 2017.
© Karwai TangIt wasn't until the pandemic when Alicia and Michael decided to start a family, she explained in the interview. "Leading up to now, there was Covid, and the [actor's] strike happened, and I stopped working for a while and had kids."
Before welcoming their first child, a boy, in 2021, the couple sadly experienced a devastating miscarriage. She told The Times in 2022 how difficult the loss was, especially in light of the film the pair met on.
© Getty"We have a child now, but it took us time," she told the publication. "[The miscarriage] was so extreme, painful to go through and, of course, it made me recall making that film [The Light Between Oceans]. That film has another meaning now."
The film follows the couple's characters as they deal with the grief of two miscarriages on a remote island off the Australian coast. Upon finding an abandoned child, they raise it as their own until her biological mother shows up on the island looking for the baby.
© Antoine FlamentThe 35-year-old explained to Elle how strange it felt to give birth on screen before experiencing it in real life: "Your job is to pretend as an actor, but every time I had to give birth, I said to every woman on set, 'I'm sorry.' I felt like such an imposter."
The notoriously private pair seem to be making it work as Alicia has a slew of upcoming projects and Michael just wrapped spy drama Black Bag alongside his co-star, Cate Blanchett.
© Getty ImagesShe told Elle how she juggles her family life and her career, saying, "I am preparing for two jobs at the moment, and I have come to a point where I'm finding the balance between work and having a family."
"I narrow it down to two things now – the people I really want to work with, and the projects that I feel are going to be a creative, joyous time. I am privileged that I have the choice of whether I work on these big things."
