Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander have started promoting The Light Between Oceans, the film they made together back in 2014. The film was originally slated to be released last year, but it ended up being pushed to this year, in the dead of summer. It could be seen as smart counter-programming to all of the would-be summer blockbusters. Or it could be an attempt to bury a film which might not be very good? I say that because I flat-out loathed the book and the story, and I’m not expecting to enjoy the film adaptation at all.

So, Fassbender and Vikander have started doing the promotional rounds. They did a EW Tumblr Q&A session, which you can read here. The biggest quote was Fassbender being asked about his love for James McAvoy, and Fassy confirming: “I love James McAvoy. Hard.” They also chatted with E! News this week:

It’s sort of perfect, for me, that Vikander was cast as Isabel in this film because she has to try to defend the absolute worst character in the book. Isabel is a terrible person, made worse by the fact that we’re supposed to find her sympathetic. She’s not.

And finally, they did a joint interview with ET too. You can see the video here.

Real-life couple Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander play married in their tear-jerking new film, The Light Between Oceans, in theaters on Sept. 2, 2016. In an interview with ET’s Carly Steel, the duo recall the first time they actually met before working together on the film.

“We had met at Toronto Film Festival and just on the dance floor,” Vikander revealed, with Fassbender chiming in: “I thought [I was a good dancer] until she started dancing and then I felt like I had two left feet.”

The duo say they first “properly” met during rehearsals for the film in 2014, but their chemistry, Fassbender says, “was sort of there from the beginning.” While the tone may have been serious in front of the cameras, Vikander and Fassbender say they kept their party moves going behind the scenes.

“There was a load of dancing in the mornings, actually,” Vikander reveals, Fassbender adding: “Because it was cold.”

Apparently, the cast would gather in a wood shed on set, where the makeup team was set up — with BB guns. “We had the headshots of everybody on the wall and we were shooting them,” Fassbender exclaims, prompting a laugh from Vikander. “And we had a lot of good music dancing in the morning.”

But once the cameras were rolling, it was all business for these lovebirds. In fact, Fassbender couldn’t help gushing over his girlfriend’s star power in our interview.

“She’s a very fierce performer and very brave,” he says. “It’s impressive to see.”

[From ET]

I’m trying to do the math on this… they met at TIFF in 2014, I’m assuming, then quickly jumped into filming on TLBO just a few months later. And they fell in love then, fall/winter 2014. So they’ve been together for about 20 months. I think that makes it Fassbender’s longest sustained relationship since he’s been famous. His thing with Zoe Kravitz was on-and-off for the better part of two years, and his thing with Nicole Beharie lasted a little over a year. Huh. I had been wondering this whole time if Vikander and Fassbender would split soon after they promoted this film, but now I wonder if they’ll actually make it another year or so. You never can tell.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.