Michael Fassbender

A
s a child, Michael Fassbender believed he could fly. In fact, he was convinced that he was Superman and he still remembers his joy at being bought a Man of Steel outfit when he was six.

Such childhood beliefs and imaginings are not uncommon but few of us grow up and still play superheroes and villains. Even daydreaming Michael, growing up in the countryside of Killarney, could hardly have believed that one day he would become steel-bending X-Man Magneto. But then, his belief in himself has always been strong, despite his parents’ worries about him at school and his lack of direction. However, once he had found his way – by chance – he set about it with an enviable and unwavering determination.

His rise to stardom may seem meteoric but it only went into hyper-drive following his breakthrough movie
Hunger
and by that stage he had put in plenty of groundwork. Having quit drama college early after becoming disillusioned with the way they did things, he set about getting an agent and, with the impetuousness of youth, felt that he was ready to make his mark. But it very nearly cost him dearly as he missed out on the college’s auditions process and he spent years in the wilderness, scrapping for acting jobs which were few and far between. To support himself he worked behind bars in London, barely able to afford the living standards of the capital. Memories of these days are never far from his mind and, even today, he respects bartenders and is appreciative of a well-stocked and well-run bar!

Back then his goal in life was to earn a living solely as an actor. That achievement took some time – a lot longer than he had imagined – but it was an invaluable experience that gave him the time to learn his craft, make some mistakes, come to terms with them and move on, and to appreciate the good times when they finally came. It has helped to keep him grounded amid the glitter and showbiz razzmatazz of premieres, parties, awards and a fan base that continues to expand.

Hollywood royalty such as George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Quentin Tarantino are now among his friends. But he remains firm to his roots and strives to return home to see his family and friends in Killarney at least three times a
year. He remains very close to his parents and has enjoyed the opportunity of being able to take them to showbiz premieres and awards gatherings. And they are very proud of their famous son as well as their academic daughter.

Michael has mixed with some of the biggest names in the business. He’s been acclaimed at glitzy awards ceremonies for his acting, shared a drink in Venice with Tarantino, joked with Brad Pitt and danced with Keira Knightley. But one of the most enjoyable things he has done in his life – since he became a star – was something he had dreamed about as a teenager. Michael and his father Josef had talked back then about one day taking a road trip through Europe on motorbikes. At the time he had neither a bike nor a licence but, as he has a habit of doing, he eventually made the dream come true. They had the most marvellous time and it was a life-enhancing experience that neither of them will ever forget.

Once he’d got his break with
Hunger
, Michael made a string of films at a hectic rate, forcing himself into public consciousness. Another dream of his had been to find a director with whom he could bond and work with on a regular basis and he found that in Londoner Steve McQueen, who first directed him in
Hunger
and then in
Shame
– both of which received huge acclaim. Neither movie was easy, to say the least. To play Bobby Sands in
Hunger
he went on a strict diet to lose over two stone and in
Shame
he had to undergo full-frontal nudity and sex scenes to play a sex addict.

Michael has a chameleon-like ability to lose himself and take on the personas of the various roles he is playing. He might be a star but there is an everyman quality to him that allows audiences to forget the actor and really believe and engage in whichever character he is playing. As Steve McQueen put it, ‘Apart from being big and strong and bold, there is a fragility to Michael, and certain things are revealed through him that we can see in ourselves, and that’s very rare. He has a heart. You’re never disconnected from him.’

Michael is also always challenging himself. While some stars are concerned about their image and in taking on the right roles to fit their public persona, Michael firmly rejects such behaviour. If the script and character interest and intrigue him, he will take it on. Nothing else matters. Along the way, he has played a wife-beater, a serial murderer with a foot fetish, a devil, a psychotic killer, a paedophile and an assassin – and he has spanked Keira Knightley!

Despite having joined the A-list, Michael still feels an outsider in Hollywood but that has as much to do with his upbringing as anything. A curious mix of Irish and German, his name stood out at school when the family moved from Germany to Killarney when he was two. At home Adele insisted that he speak German at the dinner table so that he would be bilingual and there is certainly something of a dual personality about him that fits the stereotypes from both countries – a steely Germanic discipline on the one hand
and a cheerful, rousing partygoer on the other. ‘I don’t feel hugely nationalistic, whether it be Irish or German or anything,’ he says. ‘So I guess what my background gave me is the idea that the world is so` small that borders seem a bit absurd.’

It’s all part of the mix in Michael’s everyman quality that makes him so interesting. His belief and confidence in himself overlap with an innate shyness. He also has a nice modesty about him but also a genuine fondness for people. He happily signs autographs for fans, poses for their pictures and chats with them whenever he is approached and it’s all done with his trademark wide grin. It’s the smile that makes many women go weak at the knees. And then there’s the piercing blue eyes, the soft Irish accent, the toned physique. But he’s no pretty boy – he’s very much a man’s man with rugged good looks. Red-blooded males see him as a down-to-earth type who’s one of the lads – someone who you could have a drink with, share a laugh or play sports with.

Michael has brought that same naturalistic quality to his acting. He’s been feted as the next Brando, the next Pacino, the next Daniel Day-Lewis – all of whom were teenage heroes of his. Every role he takes on is given a hundred per cent. His preparation is intense and has often astounded his fellow actors and directors. He strives to really get under the skin of his characters, to play them for real. Even a comic-book character such as Magneto in
The X-Men: First Class
is treated in the same way. Michael
gave the character gravitas and filled him with conflicting emotions and an inner turmoil that had audiences caring about him. He wasn’t simply just good or bad.

Variety has always been the spice of life for Michael. A string of work in British TV dramas eventually led to
Hunger
and he has not stopped taking risks since. ‘He’s the real deal,’ says Gary Oldman.

Michael has the ability to play independent movies one moment and studio blockbusters the next. And he doesn’t always need to be the star. Often he takes subsidiary roles that interest him. In Steven Soderbergh’s
Haywire
, he only made a relatively brief appearance with its star Gina Carano but it was the most memorable scene in the movie. Similarly in Quentin Tarantino’s war movie,
Inglourious Basterds
, he had little screen time but played the part of British officer Archie Hicox to perfection, culminating in an unforgettable Mexican stand-off with Nazi officer Major Hellstrom in a French bistro, where both men are holding pistols under the table aimed at each other’s crotches.

Michael has appreciated the kindness and encouragement that he has received from some of the biggest names in Hollywood and, in turn, he has tried to help and encourage others trying to make it in the business. Straight after filming the big-budget
Inglourious Basterds,
Michael returned to London to film a short called
Man on a Motorcycle
, made on a shoestring by former musician and video-maker John Maclean, who was making his film
debut. Michael had admired his videos and offered to appear in any film he made. John hurriedly wrote one and, true to his word, Michael fitted it into his hectic schedule of back-to-back movies.

From a sexual predator amid the council homes of Essex in the low-budget
Fish Tank
to the romantic Rochester in
Jane Eyre
; from a muscular Roman soldier in
Centurion
to a humanoid in the space fantasy
Prometheus
; from a sex addict in
Shame
to sex therapist in
A Dangerous Method
– there seems to be nothing Michael is not capable of doing. In the main he has shown a knack for choosing excellent roles. No one gets it right every time but, even in those films that have failed to set the world alight, he has usually been praised for his own performance. Along the way he has collected numerous Best Actor awards from around the world – many for his portrayal of Brandon in the uncompromising
Shame
. His full-frontal nudity in this movie made him the butt of much good-natured ribbing from family and friends in Ireland to Hollywood stars George Clooney and Charlize Theron.

The exciting thing is that Michael is still a young man and this is just the beginning. As he says, he likes to keep people guessing about what he will do next. ‘I’ve been going on my gut pretty much from the beginning. I’m not always going to get it right but risk interests me. There is some embarrassing element to everything I do in life. I used to beat myself up a lot but, if you’re really
going to learn and expand, you’re going to be open to doing things that perhaps don’t work out the way you envisaged. I’m not going to hamper myself with fear.’ But he takes every day as it comes, enjoying the moment and appreciating his good fortune, and doesn’t fret about what he should or should not be doing. ‘I don’t say, ‘I have to play the Dane [Hamlet] one day,’ he says. ‘I don’t really think like that. I just wait and see what comes up and I’m always open to it. If I react to the script, I’m up for anything.’

It was Michael’s mother, Adele – a big fan of American cinema from the 1970s – who instilled in him his love for movies and first brought to his attention the talent of the character actor John Cazale who played, among others, Fredo Corleone in
The Godfather
. Cazale has remained one of Michael’s heroes, along with the likes of Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Gene Hackman, Robert Mitchum, Montgomery Clift, Daniel Day-Lewis, Sean Penn and Paddy Considine.

Another man he calls one of his heroes is Steve McQueen and he will remain forever grateful to the director for the ‘lucky break’ that turned Michael from a jobbing actor into an international name and set him on the course to stardom. ‘Steve is family to me now,’ he said. ‘We’re so close on and off set. He changed my life, giving me the opportunity in
Hunger
. We were heading into a recession and there were fewer roles for fewer actors. For me, a thirty-year-old unknown, to get a leading role, and
somebody willing to take a risk – that was a big deal, which allowed me to show potential within the craft. I’m forever indebted.’