Michael Fassbender Breaks Down His Career, from 'Inglourious Basterds' to 'X-Men' | Vanity Fair

when we got to Days of Future Past Ian McKellen was going to be in the same movie as me so I called him up and I was like how do you feel about doing my accent Ian no we never had that conversation hi I'm Michael fasbender and this is the timeline of my [Music] career Christenson tenis spear I got the name right didn't I Christensen yes sir I first discovered acting when I was 17 I just had figured out that I wasn't going to be a leag guitarist and a heavy metal band cuz it just wasn't good enough and then I went to Drama Center London I dropped out after the Christmas show in my third year I've had recurring dreams where I've gone back to drama school to finish the last 6 months which shows that there's some sort of like psychological effect that that's had on me ke you sitting in your bayet there why don't you leave the singing to L when I got cast in Band of Brothers I was working nights uh in a warehouse it was more physical job than I had planned but uh I I realized that I was just so tired during the day cuz I was doing night shift so it was like start at like 8:00 at night finish at 7 in the morning and I just didn't have the energy to go to auditions I wasn't getting any anyway but I felt like I I really didn't want to go to them because I was just so tired and then I thought wait a sec something's got to change here and then I got an audition for Pearl Harbor and Band of Brothers I think within like 2 weeks I auditioned for both those jobs I did a good audition for Pearl Harbor but they cast Ben Affleck I don't know why um and and they actually wrote back to me it was a like a a sweet response that you know was good for my confidence and then the other one was Band of Brothers the first day of Band of Brothers I remember actually going to boot camp we all got together in Hatfield where they had shot Saving Private Ryan we all met up there and we got into all our army gear and then we got in a bus and we headed off to boot camp for 10 days so I have really clear memories of that first day our ancesters built this wall using ancient stones from the bosom of Greece herself and with a little Spartan help your Persian Scout supplied the mortar for 300 I think we trained for 10 weeks before we stepped in front of a camera and because the film is so physical I think I have maybe four lines in the movie maybe so it's very much physically based character performance and so to get in shape was key but yeah I just enjoyed the fact that I was you know getting in shape and getting paid I'm clear the reason done I'm clear of all the repercussions but I will act and I will not stand by and do no when I first met Steve McQueen I thought the meeting went really well and he hated me I found out afterwards I remember I I got the script for hunger and I was thinking oh you know my mom's from Northern Ireland I was very conscious about doing something that would show respect to everybody that comes from there and so I went in to meet Steve and I was just immediately taken by him he was just an original mind and an original person I knew I was going to learn a lot working with him and I left the you know the meeting and I was thinking great and he was like don't want to see that guy again and it was Gary Davey the casting director was like no I really think this is the guy you know at least you know call him back to do an audition at least so he called me back I did the audition and that was it from that day on we became fast friends and really close it's a subtextual film criticism study of the work of German director GW PS what should we drink to Sir well um down with Hitler all the way down so yes I remember when I first saw Pulp Fiction I was just like what is this it was so new and he was such an influence on me starting out as an actor Reservoir Dogs was huge for me so to be on set working with him was for me it was like it was quite a surreal experience I definitely pinching myself a lot on set and you know he loves film he's just an encyclopedia when it comes to anything that's been on screen and he is so passionate and every character that he's written he knows and loves so you better know and put in you know the attention the detail to everything cuz he has done it you know even that thing of like three you know that detail for me I was like wow okay yeah I realized my dad's German so he always counts first with the thumb and that's such a German thing and I was like that detail is like classic you know Quinton Tarantino to to pick up in that detail to put it in his film and to make it such a Monumental moment in that scene in The Tavern incredible it was a joy working with them that's [Music] s let's just say I'm Frankenstein's monster what really drew me to that story first class and the character was this idea of an outsider and what it feels like to be an outsider and to feel like you don't belong and that for me was an interesting core to work from for the character and to find the justifications in what his actions were which again were pretty Monumental the lengths that he was willing to go to and what the motivation of that was and essentially the core of it is just Magneto just needs a hug if you're in there I'd like you to know that I agree with every word you said we are the future when we did X-Men first Class I talked to Matthew vaugh about the accent you know should I go in the direction of melen and Matthew was like no he was like your accent so weird funny it was like I like it you know stick to your accent so I was like okay and then when we got to Days of Future Past Ian McKellen was going to be in the same movie as me so I called him up and I was like how do you feel about doing my accent Ian no we never had that conversation obviously um so I then I was like okay well I better start trying to speak a little bit more like Ian McKellen cuz we're both going to be in the film together and he's playing the older version of Magneto so I actually changed it in uh Days of Future Past because we were both in the same film are you still Charles's Raven or are you a Mystique you wouldn't notice it if you watched it that just it was all in my head this isn't working out obviously I need to find somewhere else to live I don't have anywhere else to go it's a very particular addiction let's say you're addicted to alcohol it's an external thing that you're bringing in and so it's something that you can exist without you know whereas when it's sex or food those sort of relationships I think it's it's super difficult because these are things that are innately within us you know to reproduce you have somebody who's longing that for that intimacy but can't deal with it you know anything intimate is just like a rash but then at the same time doing very intimate acts with somebody having that compulsion to do and super complicated I mean I met somebody who Brandon was based on and just sitting down talking with him was a big help and an insight into that sort of headp space but for sure for me that was definitely the darkest of places for me as a character Steve has got like a lot of special qualities but also I found he was always very accessible with his intelligence anytime he was trying to explain something it was in a very practical way and it was also coming from a personal place a lot of the times he would reveal something about himself the main key thing and I think I speak for All actors that have worked with Steve I think I can do that confident is is is trust there's such a feeling of trust onet and trust is the key thing you're opening yourself you're naked in a lot of respects and showing real sort of sides of yourself self and vulnerabilities you got to go to those places that that are not easy to go to and he's also somebody that instills a lot of confidence in your instinct you know trust your instincts don't second guess yourself again because you're in the hands of somebody who is so um brilliant you can allow yourself to go to those places because you know that he's going to take care of you it when I first came on set for Prometheus Ridley was like oh watch the film The servant and Dirk Bogart's character I was like oh great I love that when there's like a film to take you know um some inspiration from and then when I arrived on set he was like he's like a butler you know he's like checks the dust and that alone I was like I was after the races I knew exactly there and where I was going and also the fact that this character is obsessed with Lawrence of Arabia and this film I was like wow that's such an interesting little Quirk well what's the trick then the trick William Potter is not minding that it hurts the trick William Potter is not minding that it hurts I think the interesting thing for David watching Lawrence of Arabia is it's sort of this idea of God and creation and I think it's a great character in terms of what he's achieved what he can achieve you know defying all the odds but there's tragedy within the character and I think he finds that maybe curious you know studying The Human Condition and the idea of an AI becoming obsessed with something I think is kind of scary in itself whatever it is you know why has he sort of you know honed in on this particular thing there's something quite unsettling about that or unbalanced come on where your Mar move your feet I think you know dealing with a character like EPS who's does such you know horrendous things there was a couple of things with the character first of all he's not a very intelligent man and he's got a lot of power and that's so scary but then the core of the relationship which really is paty he's in love with Patsy but there's no way that he can process that he doesn't have the tools to do it the time that it is his position his emotional and limited intelligence the results are horrific and you know when Steve was talking about all the characters in 12 years of slave there was never an approach to EPS in terms of a judgment I think that's super important when you're dealing with characters that do really despicable things is just trying to sort of understand them and facilitate them and facilitate what they're supposed to do in the story and not to let like judgment get in the way of that because he's got such an important part of all of the character stories in there you know py and Solomon it's such an important part you have to do justice to it and by doing Justice to it you can't judge [Music] it [Music] tough def super liberating to work with masks and you know it's something that if I'm doing workshops with students or you know Comedia dear is a great tool to sort of you know you know let go and and get rid of inhibitions putting on a mask is is is very powerful like that and certainly that was the case with Frank I knew that it was again physically trying to represent what was happening inside the head that was a lot of fun and also the lack of movement says a lot because you now allow the audience to do some work so the audience are coming there they're watching this character and they're projecting what they are seeing or thinking or feeling onto that character so it's really interesting like that with masks you don't necessarily have to do a lot actually by being still a lot can be communicated a long time ago you asked me a favor before a product launch and I said no you wanted me to acknowledge the if you're about to say you were wrong I want to prepare This Journal I was 100% right and you were spectacularly wrong I just remember when I first read the script I was like this is incredible it's the best thing I've ever read he's such a brilliant writer that it's very hard to edit what he writes because everything's interl it's like a brick you pull it out the wall the whole wall comes down so you can't edit him it's there it's got to stay there I don't have any trouble remembering that John because of it being the worst night of my life and I forced the vote because I believed I was right I still believe I'm right and I'm right there is um a Cadence to how the dialogue has to be spoken and if you don't jump on board with that Cadence it won't make sense there's sense like Shakespeare there's there's a rhythm that he has written it to and you have to obey that and if you fall off that Rhythm you kind of get kicked off and you got to start again there's no room for improvisation there's no need to whatever is on the page is excellent finding the rhythm of how what's written is key to how you deliverer you know and how you discover the character through it my camo is based on a German tourist I saw in London a while back no one really wants to interact with a German tourist parisians avoid them like the rest of the world avoids Street mes it's a very precise way of working David Fincher is obviously a master of film making and it's somebody that has done it all you know from working in a cinema when it was still like changing film reels to working in the camera Department obviously the directory is today it's about everything that's in the frame and so every day is just about fractional stuff it's everything is super precise it was an amazing experience I have to say because he has such high standards again and he holds himself uh you know accountable to those standards more than anybody else object is turning speed hustle hustle hle hle puz you know what forget about it forget about it improvisation is a very specific thing because extensively it's like 90% of the movies is improvisation in next go WIS and you know you're all doing it collectively you need a good collection of people to do that and of course a great director to sort of be pulling all the strings make sure that there that this ship has a Rudder and it's going in a certain direction you've got to be brave you've got to like throw yourself into the scene you got to be prepared to fall flat in your face and make a fool of yourself and do it many times and through that you discover things in the scene but really you're not you discover it afterwards because to really do it well you've really got to be present you got to listen you know that's the great thing about improvisation you really do have to listen cuz the other person's throwing something at you and you've got to be awake and alive you're C [Music] awaits your landlord is C he lives in the house next door and he's available 724 to address your every need 724 7 days out of every 24 Ty is continually throwing stuff at you so he's like say this and then he'll say like 20 lines and you're like okay well I can't remember all of that so I'll try and take the essence of it but that's how we did you know that's how we shot the whole thing there's a lot of stuff getting thrown in and it's kind of like a blender of ideas and then you just got to get a you know a flavor of it a color of it and then do your own thing with it um and that's kind of how the whole thing was formed I feel like I I've learned a lot and I continue to learn every time I go back on a film set I have the same doubts and fears when I got back and said I was like this is my job this is what I do and and then you know the same feelings of you know responsibility and like I say doubt and passion those things remain the same

Channel: Vanity Fair

Views: 1,251,747

Keywords: 12 years a slave, 300, band of brothers, career timeline, entertainment, frank, hunger, inglorious basterds, michael fassbender, michael fassbender acting, michael fassbender best movies, michael fassbender career, michael fassbender interview, michale fassbender movies, movies, movies and entertianment, prometheus, shame, vanity fair, vanity fair michael fassbender, x-men days of future past, x-men first class, xmen first class

Id: yfc5K9ZM6h0

Length: 17min 39sec (1059 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 12 2023