Alicia Vikander opens up about ‘mum guilt’ after working long days away from children

Alicia Vikander has given a rare insight into the parental guilt she “battles a lot” while working long days on set.

The Danish Girl actor, 36, told Vogue that she and her husband, Shame star Michael Fassbender, typically alternate when they’re working so that they can take turns looking after their two sons, aged four and one, at their home in Lisbon.

Vikander said she has often grappled with feelings of guilt while being away at work starring in projects, including Catherine Parr drama Firebrand and forthcoming Olivier Assayas film The Wizard of the Kremlin.

“With all the parent and mum guilt that you already carry with you constantly – I am battling that a lot, all the time,” she said. “Now with the four-year-old we talk about it: ‘It’s time for Papa to go back and then I’ll be at home.”

She added that days on set can be very long, explaining that she will often leave the house “before the kids get up and then maybe not get back before they sleep”.

For the first time, Vikander is working at the same time as Fassbender as they have both landed acting jobs in London. Vikander is preparing for her role in The Lady from the Sea at the Bridge Theatre, beginning this September, while Fassbender is filming the second series of spy drama The Agency.

The Swedish actor then wondered how her mother– actor Maria Fahl Vikander – coped with juggling her own acting career and raising children.

“The only way she could have done it was because in Sweden, if you were at the state theatre, they will subsidise you to have a babysitter between certain hours,” Vikander said.

“There would have been no way she could have done her job without that.”

Vikander, who met Fassbender when they starred as the leads in the 2016 romance film The Light Between Oceans, said that motherhood has changed her in many ways.

She added that she has become more maternal and kinder to herself in the process.

“I love being a mum. I was terrified of what it is, going into it. I wasn’t really very maternal until I had my own children. But maybe even more after the second one arrived, I started to feel like, ‘OK, I know this a little bit now.’ I’m a bit kinder to myself too. ”

Vikander and Fassbender wed in 2017, a year after meeting, and welcomed their first son in 2021.