FILM · 2016 · UK
The Light Between Oceans
18 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (18)
- #001
Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander revealed that director Derek Cianfrance had them live together on set for six weeks.
- #002
The film was shot in Stanley, a quiet coastal town in northwestern Tasmania. Local spokespeople hoped the film would increase tourist numbers in the region.
- #003
Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender met on the set of this film in September 2014 and announced they were dating in December 2014. They married in October 2017.
- #004
Before filming in Stanley, the historic pier was rebuilt with a rustic look. Stanley locals adopted a 1920s appearance ahead of the shoot, which led many men to grow beards for extra roles.
- #005
This was one of two films shot in Tasmania, Australia, in 2016, a region that has almost never hosted film productions. The other was Lion (2016).
- #006
At the start of the novel, whose main events span more years than the film, Tom is 28 and Isabel is 19. When the film was shot, Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander were 37 and 25 respectively.
- #007
Five people played the character Lucy/Grace: twins Elliot Newbery and Evangeline Newbery as a baby, Georgie Gascoigne at age one, Florence Clery at age four, and Caren Pistorius as an adult.
- #008
While filming took place in Dunedin, Otago, local students from New Zealand's University of Otago performed as extras in the film.
- #009
This was the last DreamWorks film released by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures through Touchstone Pictures under the original deal.
- #010
Local Stanley farmer Ritchie Wells appeared in the film with his team of oxen, which he had trained for five years, during the shoot.
- #011
It is the last film to date produced by Touchstone Pictures.
- #012
This was director Derek Cianfrance's fourth film and his first adapted from a novel.
- #013
The two notes Isabel (Alicia Vikander) plays when she sits down at the piano after her first miscarriage are the beginning of the film's main motif and main musical theme. A few minutes later, after Tom (Michael Fassbender) surprises her by repairing the piano, the man who helped with the repair begins to play the full main theme, which then continues to the end of the scene.
- #014
The film's cast includes two Oscar winners, Alicia Vikander and Rachel Weisz, and one Oscar nominee, Michael Fassbender.
- #015
Both leads, Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander, had previously played artificial intelligence characters, in Prometheus (2012) and Ex Machina (2015) respectively.
- #016
Rachel Weisz (Hannah) and Caren Pistorius (the adult Lucy-Grace) had previously appeared together in Denial. Pistorius was also in Slow West with Fassbender.
- #017
In a 2025 article in Town and Country magazine, director Derek Cianfrance said he had considered casting Kirsten Dunst in a project around 2014 but worried she could not do an Australian accent. That project was probably this film, set on the Australian coast. Cianfrance would later work with Dunst on Roofman in 2025 and admit he believed she could do anything.
- #018
Jack Thompson (Ralph Addicott) played a supporting role in Wake in Fright (1971), adapted from Kenneth Cook's novel. One year after that film's release, Caren Pistorius (adult Lucy-Grace) appeared in Wake in Fright (2017), a TV miniseries based on the same source material.
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