Oscar-winner Vikander found romance on set of new film

Alicia Vikander doesn't need much make-up to look ravishing on or off-screen.

Blessed with stunning good looks, the Swedish actress, 28, never fails to turn heads on the red carpets too, something she credits her stylist for.

"My stylist is one of my best girlfriends now because I think she is the coolest woman that I know.

"She is a very experimental fashion stylist for editorial magazines. She introduced me to some really cool brands."

The London-based actress adds that she "doesn't put anything on that I haven't chosen to do myself".

Vikander, who won the best supporting actress Oscar for her work in The Danish Girl (2015), plays spirited and impulsive Isabel in The Light Between Oceans, now showing in cinemas.

Isabel marries Tom (Michael Fassbender), a lighthouse keeper and a World War I (WWI) veteran, and when they are unable to have children, they make a life-altering decision to keep a castaway baby who washes ashore.

Her experience in The Light Between Oceans was nothing short of memorable.

Not only did she find real-life romance with co-star Fassbender on set, Vikander's first scene is unforgettable.

Director Derek Cianfrance wanted to prepare her for an unrehearsed response so he had her blindfolded and brought to set in pitch darkness.

"They walked me into this windowless shed in the darkness where they put me in my costume for the first time and had me sit there. I didn't see Derek, I didn't see anyone.

"Then the assistant director came in and opened the door and I ran up the hill as Isabel, and that's when I felt her child-like excitement and love of nature. At that moment, the sun came up. I had never seen such beauty in my life. I experienced it as Isabel, and it's something that I will carry with me forever."

What attracted you to this project?

The film-maker. It's my main thing. It felt very fortunate to be given a challenging part to portray. It took me just the time I got in the room and chatted with Derek. He is the person who is actually going to turn this story into a film and whatever vision he wants to translate.

When I had met him, I had seen (his movies) Blue Valentine and A Place Beyond the Pines.

I saw it two times in the cinema even though it was a tough thing to watch (laughs).

What did Isabel see in Tom, who is not the happiest guy?

Everyone is in kind of a post-reaction of WWI. She herself has lost two brothers. But she has kept the light and the immense amount of survival and life force within her.

Personally, I find Tom quite heroic in this film. He is quite introverted at the start and I think she is quite curious about him. And also, she knows that he has been part of the war that probably her brothers were in.

He is a man of his word and very stoic in a way. Later on, she manages to crack him open a bit. Behind that is a man who would do anything for the people he cares for.

Are those qualities you find attractive in a man?

To have someone you can trust, that you believe is kind and would support you in anything you do, is someone whom I would prefer to have close to me.

What was it like working with Michael?

The first time we really had a chat was when we started rehearsals in Wellington, New Zealand. I think you always wonder if you are going to have chemistry with your partner, especially making a film which is as intimate and emotionally intense as this one.

It felt very easy right from the start. I had seen both Hunger and Fish Tank many years ago and I thought he was one of the bravest actors that I had seen.

Were you intimidated the first time you met him?

Of course (laughs), because you can see in his work how well prepared he is. For each role I have seen him in, it always feels very simple and yet every character feels very different.

So for me to come in there, it helped to have as challenging an actor as Michael to both help you and to push you. He was, from the very beginning, supportive.