Michael Fassbender (13 page)

A
fter less than a year together, Michael had split up with Leasi Andrews in the autumn of 2009. But on 10 March 2010 he was staggered when she sensationally applied for a restraining order against him. Michael refused to comment publicly on the accusations and Josef told the
Irish Sun
, ‘Michael is the most gentle man you could ever meet.’

In the meantime, Michael went home to Killarney, where he acted as grand marshal for the St Patrick’s Day parade on 17 March. Hiding his personal concerns, he was all smiles as he arrived at a civic reception held by the town council where Major Michael Gleeson presented him with a pen made of Arbutus Killarney wood and a
Killarney-crested
tie. Later he headed the parade in a horse-drawn carriage, accompanied by Major Gleeson, as his proud parents looked on.

‘I’m overwhelmed. It’s a great honour to be involved here today,’ he said in between signing autographs and posing for photographs with fans. ‘It feels quite surreal but it’s very pleasant. There’s a general feeling of support, of encouragement and lots of love – all the happy faces I see when I walk the streets of Killarney.’ Grinning broadly and laughing, he threw himself boisterously into some traditional dancing in the streets with the Irwin School of Irish Dancing.

The annual parade had been organised for many years by Councillor Michael Courtney, the father of Donie Courtney whose acting classes had first inspired Michael back in his schooldays. Sadly, Courtney senior had died unexpectedly earlier in the year, shortly before he was due to take up the post of the town’s mayor, so this year’s parade was held in his memory. More than 60 groups and floats and 6 bands participated in the parade and afterwards Mr Courtney’s councillor son, Hugh, thanked everyone for making it such a success.

‘I would like to thank Michael for travelling back from his busy filming schedule for the parade that honoured the memory of my father,’ he said. ‘Michael has for a long time been a friend of the Courtney family, from the days he and I spent together in the Sem, right through to his acting connections with my brother, Donie. Michael
has been and I hope will continue to be a wonderful ambassador for Killarney and we wish him continued success in his acting career.’

The following day Michael went back to his two former schools. First he visited Fossa National School where the young children screamed, cheered and waved homemade banners as he arrived. There to meet him were principal Kieran Coffey and two of his former teachers, Linda O’Donoghue and Angela Lynch, who had fond memories of him when they taught him in the late 1980s.

Michael said he had many happy memories of the years he spent in Fossa and made a nostalgic visit to his old classroom, where he found his former desk. He happily posed for photographs with the staff and signed many autographs for the star-struck pupils who took part in a question-and-answer session with him. One particular question amused teachers and movie star alike when a young child asked him what it was like to meet Ryan Tubridy on
The Late Late Show
. Michael was also entertained by the pupils singing a medley of songs from classic movies and he joined in enthusiastically with the singing.

After spending well over an hour at Fossa, the next stop was St Brendan’s College, where he had attended secondary school in the 1990s. He was introduced to a packed canteen by popular English teacher Seamus Grealy, and Michael chatted with the students before picking up a guitar and playing a few songs.

Four days later he was in Derbyshire to begin filming
Jane Eyre
. Set in the Peak District in the 19th century, Charlotte Bronte’s classic novel tells the story of Jane, who is treated cruelly as a child by her aunt and is sent to a brutal boarding school. After a couple of years as a teacher she advertises her services as a governess, and receives one reply. It is from Alice Fairfax, the housekeeper at Thornfield Hall, a remote house in the Yorkshire Peak District. Here she teaches a young French girl named Adele and finds a friend in the kindly Miss Fairfax. Jane settles comfortably into her role. One day while she is out walking, a horse slips and throws its rider to the ground. She helps the man back on and later, back at the house, discovers that he is Edward Rochester, master of Thornfield Hall. He teases her, asking whether she had bewitched his horse to make him fall, and the two strike up an intriguing and flirtatious relationship. Adele, it transpires, was left in Rochester’s care when her mother died.

Meanwhile, odd things are happening in the house. A mysterious fire breaks out and Jane hears a strange laugh that nobody else admits to hearing. Jane is heartbroken over Rochester’s impending marriage to Blanche Ingram. But on a summer’s evening he suddenly proposes to Jane and she accepts. But she is frightened one night when a savage-looking woman enters her bedroom and rips her wedding veil in two. Rochester attributes the incident to drunkenness on the part of one of his servants, Grace
Poole, whom he also blamed for the fire. But if that were so, why does he continue to employ her?

Rochester eventually leads Jane to the altar but it is dramatically declared that he cannot marry because he is still married. Rochester admits this to Jane but explains that his father had tricked him into the marriage for her money. After the ceremony, he had discovered that his bride was rapidly descending into madness and he eventually locked her away in Thornfield, hiring Grace Poole as a nurse to look after her. But whenever Grace has too much to drink, his wife escapes and causes the strange happenings at Thornfield. He begs her forgiveness and asks her to go with him to the south of France but Jane runs away.

Years later she returns after hearing that Rochester’s wife had set the house on fire and committed suicide by jumping from the roof. In his attempt to rescue her from the fire, he had lost a hand and his eyesight. Jane expresses her love for him and says she will never leave him again.

Michael admitted to feeling nervous about taking on such a well-known role but his mother and sister were such big fans of the Bronte sisters that he wanted to see what they thought of him as Rochester. ‘For sure, there’s a fear element involved,’ he told
GQ
magazine. ‘The novel alone is an amazing piece of work that you want to do justice to. I like that fear with me when I enter most jobs. If I don’t have that fear, I’m complacent, I’m in a comfort zone, so I want to be there. I want to continue
learning as much as I can. Fear is a healthy thing – it keeps you disciplined. You have to make sure you’ve done your homework.’

When Michael learned that the film was to be directed by Cary Fukunaga he became very excited. Michael had loved the American director’s acclaimed film
Sin Nombre
, a Spanish-language movie about Mexican gang members trying to escape to the United States. ‘
Sin Nombre
was such a good film, such a beautiful story and so beautifully told. I was like, “This is going to be interesting – an American director coming over and doing his take on this, the classic British piece,”’ he recalled.

As with
Fish Tank
, Michael felt that the characters in
Jane Eyre
had depth and were multi-faceted, behaving unpredictably in various circumstances. ‘I like that the characters are ugly and they’re beautiful and they’re cruel and they’re nurturing. There’s so much complexity to them, they’re so well written, and I find that interesting. There’s an ambiguity within them. You’re wondering where things will lead. Are they going to nourish each other or rip each other apart? That’s why people keep coming back to these characters, because they are so well thought out – as opposed to formulaic stories where, after the first ten minutes, you know where the arc of a character is going to go. This is ever changing, keeping the audience on their toes. And that’s what really attracted me to it, to the performance.’

Alison Owen, who produced
Jane Eyre
, said that Cary
Fukunaga only ever wanted Michael for the part of Rochester. And she seemed just as enamoured with him – if not more so – than the director. ‘He’s dream casting,’ she said. ‘He has a natural air of mystery, which is perfect for the role of Rochester. A number of
Jane Eyre
films have failed because Rochester wasn’t strong enough. And Michael is obviously very good looking and sexy, which helps.’

Despite the fact that Rochester had been portrayed in many film and television adaptations before, Michael found his own insights into how to bring something new to the role. ‘The first thing that struck me and I thought was quite interesting about Rochester is that he seems to be sort of bi-polar,’ he told the
Hollywood Reporter
. ‘His emotions are very skittish and can go from high to low very quickly.

‘He is like a Byronic hero. He’s cruel, he’s arrogant, he’s intelligent, he’s sort of without a social standing so even though he is of the aristocracy he doesn’t really like that crowd. He doesn’t see the barriers between the social classes as it were, so he’s quite a fair person, and in some respect I like that.’

Michael also had the feeling that Rochester had been to some very decadent places in his life and that his guilt and bitterness and sense of a lost youth have remained with him and can sometimes be seen in flashes. It’s through Jane that he becomes healed, so he wanted to show a sick person in some respect and, by the end, he’s found a peace and reconciliation.

Perhaps surprisingly, Fukunaga knew he had found his Rochester after seeing Michael in a very different role – as Bobby Sands in
Hunger
. ‘I hadn’t seen that sort of fierceness in an actor in a long time,’ he explained. ‘There was an intelligence, an intensity and a masculinity that is very difficult to find in a leading man. Michael can be tortured and still be intelligent and communicate through his eyes and his emotions all the stress of the life Rochester’s lived but also still have that sense of humour, which is key to their attraction to each other.’

In the title role was 20-year-old Australian actress Mia Wasikowska, who had starred in Tim Burton’s
Alice in Wonderland
. Michael had not expected her to be quite as good as she was. After he began working with her, he described Mia as being ‘the future of acting’ and ‘really something special’.

Michael was delighted when Dame Judi Dench was cast as the housekeeper, Mrs Fairfax. Like many others before and since, he was bowled over by her professionalism, kindness and mischievousness. ‘I feel blessed every day being able to talk to her,’ he said during a break in filming. ‘Whatever gold dust is on her, I hope it will fall onto my shoulders! It’s a real privilege to be able to work with her.’

As for Fukunaga, Michael found the director to be ‘intelligent’ and ‘a perfectionist who tries to get the best out of everything – every shot, every moment, every beat.’ He also believed Cary had an advantage as an American who hadn’t grown up with the book. It meant that he
wasn’t so reverent and brought a fresh eye to the story and had the confidence to make bold decisions. ‘He’s a real academic, he does his research and he knows how to frame a shot so beautifully.’

There was much humour during filming when Michael had to ride a rather flatulent horse named Prince. ‘We had a pretty interesting bond!’ he joked later. ‘Every time I got on him some strange stuff was happening “downstairs” so we’d have to get the horse handler and he would get on Prince and take him for a trot down the road and the horse would come back more settled.’

But the spring weather proved to be rather wet, which caused some delays and that, combined with some niggling production problems, was making Cary feel a bit down. Michael lifted spirits his spirits when he invited him, Mia and producer Alison Owen for dinner, when he cooked and served a splendid dish of his father’s speciality – rack of lamb. ‘We all just sat around and enjoyed one of the small, perfect things in life – a good meal,’ said Cary. ‘And I remembered exactly why you make movies. It’s not just about the project but about the process, and I think one thing that makes Michael special is his ability to stop and pause for a second.’

Mia also found him great fun to work with. ‘We were perfectly matched in that we were able to counter the intensity of our scenes together with a lot of goofing around,’ she said. ‘Michael’s just so incredible. He’s so charismatic himself. We got on so well and we were able
to have a lot of fun and then channel that fun into the intensity of the material.’

Even during romantic scenes the pair got the giggles. A moment of particular sexual tension between them, when Rochester and Jane nearly kiss, was almost ruined when Mia felt the urge to laugh. It was the last scene they had to film and by that stage everyone was tired and pleased to be near the end so they could shake off their characters and rest. Just like the last day of school term, the anticipation and excitement expressed itself in high jinks, silliness and giggles. ‘I was off my rocker that day and I remember trying to reel it in to have the seriousness to do this scene,’ Mia told
Total Film
.

Imogen Poots, with whom Michael had worked with on
Centurion
, played socialite Blanche Ingram whom Mr Rochester courts in order to make Jane jealous. The role required her and Michael to perform operetta duets and both actors, at times, found it hard to keep a straight face. They later joked that they would always have a duet up their sleeves should it ever come in useful in future.

In an interview with
Glamour
magazine, in which Michael discussed playing the romantic leading man, he was asked what the most romantic thing he had ever done for a woman was. Never one to talk much about such things, he replied, ‘I don’t know. I always think surprise holidays are pretty good. Just packing a bag and going to the airport. Give them some idea of what to pack but not too much idea. That’s good fun.’

His interviewer also posed another question that showed an insight into his interests. When asked which period in history he would most like to live in and why, he replied, ‘I’d like to be a musician in the 1960s because it seemed like a lot of fun and there was a lot of shared creative talent. The fact that you could walk into a room and maybe John Lennon was sitting there and Bob Marley and Mick Jagger, just jamming. Or I would like to be a Formula 1 driver in the late 1970s, early 1980s. That would be kind of cool.’