Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander fell in love IRL while making 'Light Between Oceans'

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Michael Fassbender Alicia Vikander in "The Light Between Oceans."

In "The Light Between Oceans," Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander play a couple who fall in love and get married. It's one of the most nuanced and convincing romance movies in the past decade.

It might be because the actors are in a real-life relationship.

The two started their relationship while making the movie in 2014. And because neither actors have social media presences, it's been a bit under the radar. It had its most public moment earlier this year when the two kissed when Vikander won her Oscar for "The Danish Girl."

It's not the first time something like this has happened in the annals of Hollywood. In fact, the same thing happened with director Derek Cianfrance's last movie, "The Place Beyond the Pines." Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes played a couple there, and now they're a couple in real life - with two children.

Fassbender denies that the movie role had anything to do with his real-life relationship.

"It wasn't the first time in a movie either of us had played somebody who is falling in love," he told Entertainment Weekly. "There is an element of separation there. If I'm playing a murderer, I don't go out and start murdering people."

But still, their performance onscreen is powerful and intimate. It's almost as if Cianfrance isn't only a good director, but a matchmaker.

"Light Between Oceans" is in theaters Friday, September 2. Watch the trailer below.