Michael Fassbender

by Jim Maloney

  The filming experience was also made easier for Michael because of the bond he made with his co-stars. ‘It was great working with Kierston,’ he recalled. ‘She’s very no-nonsense and when I first saw her I thought she looked like Brigitte Bardot. She’s got this very interesting quality to her – she’s got this sultry, sexy rawness to her and she’s very free and easy to work with. I watched It’s a Free World while we were working and saw how talented she is. She’s also fun.’

  Michael thought that Andrea’s working method also brought out the best in Katie, tapping into her natural behaviour. ‘Katie is a very expressive person and very easy to play with as she’s not really acting. In Andrea’s hands you can get a very powerful performance in that way as it’s very raw, it comes from the gut, it hasn’t been overthought, it’s very intuitive.’

  In an interview with Under the Radar magazine, Michael talked about the excitement of staying flexible and open during filming and not adhering too strictly to what you have planned in your head. ‘Say you’re breaking up with somebody. It doesn’t always have to be tears and screaming. It can also be funny moments and understanding or whatever,’ he explained. ‘It’s just kinda freeing yourself up and being relaxed to allow whatever comes in on the day, to not try and block things. In your rehearsal period and your preparation, you have an idea of where it’s going to go but that doesn’t mean, on the day, it goes that way. Something might happen to you that day. You might get some bad news. To allow it to seep into what you’re doing, I think, is all right, because different things happen in people’s lives for real that will colour your interpretation or your reaction to something. So, I think just keeping it alive and being relaxed is the most important thing.’

  Finally, it was during the filming of Fish Tank that Michael heard, to his amazement, that his agent had arranged for him to audition for one of his teenage heroes, who was due to shoot a blockbuster World War II movie starring one of Hollywood’s biggest names.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CONFESSING TO TARANTINO

  Michael had assumed that Quentin Tarantino had seen him in Hunger but, in fact, he had yet to see the movie. But Michael’s agent had been pestering the director to see Michael for a role in his new, oddly spelt movie, Inglourious Basterds.

  Hollywood A-lister Brad Pitt had the lead role of Aldo, leader of a fearsome band of Jewish fighters, known as The Basterds, who exact their revenge on the Nazis in France, spreading fear by killing and scalping them. Michael was sent the script and was told there were two roles that required actors who could speak English and German fluently. One was the sinister but smiling Nazi Colonel Hans Landa and the other was British officer, Lt. Archie Hicox, who goes on an undercover mission in Nazi-occupied France. Michael was told to prepare for both roles but, because he was working on Fish Tank, he didn’t have time to learn both so he focused on Landa. He spent a day rehearsing an audition piece before flying out to Berlin, where the film was being shot, to meet Tarantino.

  He was nervous, particularly because Tarantino plays all the other parts when auditioning actors. Things were to get ever hairier when he arrived. ‘Quentin and I chatted for a bit, then he said, “OK, let’s take a look at Hicox,”’ Michael told the Sunday Times. ‘I was like, “What about Landa?” And he goes, “Well, I cast my Landa on Tuesday.” “Are you sure?” “Yeah, I’m sure, man.” Then there was a pause and he goes, “Look, man, any guy that gets cast as Heathcliff is not fucking German enough to play my Landa, all right?” And I thought, “I’m not going to argue with Quentin Tarantino about who he wants to cast, that’s for sure.”’

  So Michael took a deep breath and began reading for Hicox but, after he was done, Quentin told him that he was sounding like Michael Caine and that he wasn’t looking for that. So Michael had another go, this time giving it his best English stiff upper lip. The director thanked him and Michael left, feeling despondent. ‘I thought I’d made a balls of the audition, to be honest, and I was totally depressed when I left.’ But to his amazement, a week later he was offered the part.

  Only then did Quentin tell him that he was looking for ‘a young George Sanders’. Michael was not familiar with the urbane English actor with the rich, cultured English accent. He had co-starred with the likes of Bette Davis and Laurence Olivier during the 1940s and 1950s in All About Eve and Rebecca, and was the voice of the imperious-sounding tiger Shere Khan in Walt Disney’s Jungle Book. He was usually cast as a cad or villain – often both – but he had also played the heroic Simon Templar, aka The Saint, in several movies.

  Quentin sent Michael several DVDs of his movies to watch, including those of The Saint, and he finally understood what the director was looking for. ‘That’s where I got most of my inspiration, trying to concentrate on the clipped way he spoke and the rhythms and the colours of it. And that physicality – the way he carried himself and held a cigarette or a glass of whisky. Everything was like a sort of foreplay. I really wanted to encapsulate that. And I found some humour in the character.’

  Michael may not have thought highly of his original audition with Quentin but Lawrence Bender, who had produced Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown for the director, and was producing Inglorious Basterds, certainly did. ‘There were a lot of people being considered for that role,’ he recalled, ‘including some big actors. But he [Michael] was a powerhouse. He just knocked us out. It’s such a wonderful thing to watch an actor take control of the room.’ Quentin was pleased that he had not only found a fine actor in Michael but that he also spoke excellent German.

  Meanwhile, Hunger received its London premiere on 19 October as part of the London Film Festival at the Leicester Square Odeon. A rather tired-looking Michael arrived, along with the cast and director, and the film received rapturous applause. The critics’ reviews were effusive. The Independent called Hunger ‘a stunning, uniquely powerful film’ and the Daily Telegraph praised Steve McQueen for a ‘sensational feature debut, fearless and uncompromising, bolder than any film to come out of the UK in a long time’.

  Michael’s own reviews were the kind that he might have dreamed of as a struggling actor. ‘Michael Fassbender gives an extraordinary performance as Bobby Sands in a gruelling picture of immense power and beauty,’ said the Daily Express. ‘At its centre, Hunger features an extraordinary performance by the young German-Irish actor Michael Fassbender as Bobby Sands,’ agreed the Observer. ‘An icily brilliant and superbly acted film,’ said the Guardian, adding, ‘Fassbender gives another ferociously convincing performance.’

  The Times singled out the Fassbender/Cunningham scene as a ‘breathtaking centrepiece of a film that is both politically controversial and philosophically sublime.’ Its critic said that the two actors had provided ‘a master class in screen acting from two very different performers’.

  All the reviews were immensely satisfying to the team and a great relief but Michael was still nervous about what he considered the most daunting prospect of all – the movie’s premiere in Belfast the following day. Despite rumours that there would be a protest outside the Movie House cinema where the film was to be screened, in the event there were none and the film received a warm reception from most of the audience. But it did not please everyone. Some unionists thought it biased towards the republicans but Michael was pleased when a security guard took him aside at the after-show party to express his surprise that the film was such a human story. ‘That’s your average punter who’s going to go and see the film, and when somebody like that says it, I was like, “OK, the message is pretty clear,”’ Michael said later.

  Feeling that the screening had gone as well as he could have hoped and having relaxed at the after-show party, a relieved Michael invited his family – parents, aunts, uncles, cousins who were in attendance – back to his hotel for a celebration drink. This went on until 5am and, when he awoke a few hours later, it was to face an interview with the Guardian. Cradling a Bloody Mary, he told the paper, ‘Everybody I spoke to here, every family, has so
me connection with The Troubles one way or another and it’s still an open wound. I mean, I’ve seen so many films about The Troubles that I’ve found insulting.’

  But as he had hoped, Hunger’s message was pretty clear. The Irish Times said, ‘This haunting, boldly unconventional film plays on in the mind well after it’s over, as we ponder what we have seen and the issues it raises.’ The Belfast Telegraph described it as a ‘harrowing, brilliant film’ and said of Michael, ‘Few actors get a defining role so early in their film career but Michael Fassbender has done just that with his powerful performance as the IRA prisoner Bobby Sands.’

  Above all, Michael was enjoying the experience of taking on challenging roles that would push him and excite him. But, influenced by another childhood hero, John Cazale, he was interested in emotionally complex characters rather than heroic lead roles. When asked by Anthem magazine whether he was attracted to controversial ones, having played Bobby Sands in Hunger and the predatory Connor in Fish Tank, he replied, ‘It’s definitely important for me to keep challenging myself and take risks. That’s the most exciting thing about my job. I just want to learn as much as I can. I definitely like to do things that scare me a little bit but I don’t necessarily seek them out.’

  Michael enjoyed his experience with Steve McQueen so much that he was eager to work with him in the future. ‘I said to Steve, “If you ever want to work together again and I’m around, here’s my card!”’ Towards the end of the year he and Steve met again when they were among those invited to a function at the Houses of Parliament in celebration of Film Four, who had made Hunger. Over dinner, Steve told him the premise of a new film he was planning about a sex addict. Michael was surprised because Steve had earlier suggested that his next project might be a love story. But the more Steve talked about it, the more Michael began to think it was a subject ripe for a movie. ‘It seemed obvious to me after he had mentioned it,’ he recalled, ‘because the media at the time was taking a look at sexual addiction because of some celebrity element, but the film world hadn’t really tackled it. And knowing Steve, I knew it was going to be pretty uncompromising.’

  The idea had, in fact, come from playwright and screenwriter Abi Morgan, who had written the Channel 4 TV movie Sex Traffic. Intrigued by Hunger, Abi sought out a meeting with Steve McQueen and the pair met in a café. Each of them only had an hour to spare but they ended up talking for three and a half. ‘We had a discussion that started off about the Internet, then it went on to pornography, then we got on to sex addiction,’ Steve recalled. ‘Abi’s amazing. It was a situation where she immediately felt like a friend I’d known for a long, long time. The second time we met, in a restaurant, we’d written the first twenty minutes of the script by the end of the conversation.’

  Michael felt intuitively that whatever movie Steve was planning he needed to be in it. ‘Things changed for me after Hunger and to have the opportunity at that time to do something like that with somebody like him… it felt like we’d sort of formed a union then. So whatever it was, I was going to be involved with him if he wanted to have me.’

  In the meantime, Michael had to prepare for Inglourious Basterds. His character, Hicox, goes undercover as a German officer as part of a mission to assassinate the leaders of the Third Reich and, although Michael can chat in German, his diction needed working on. So, to avoid speaking German with an English accent, he worked with a vocal coach to prepare for the role.

  Filming got underway on 9 October but Michael, who only had a couple of scenes in the film, was not required until a few weeks later. The production team arranged his flight tickets to Berlin but Michael declined, saying he would make his own way there. The senior production crew were startled to discover that this meant travelling across Europe on his beloved motorbike, a Triumph Speed Triple. Worried that one of their key actors might injure himself on such a powerful machine, they forbade him to ride it until filming was over.

  Perhaps it was his Catholic upbringing but Michael felt that he needed to confess to Quentin about something from his past. During a quiet moment in Berlin, he took the opportunity to admit that when he was 18 he had not only put on a production of ReservoirDogs in a Killarney nightclub, but that he had directed and starred in it as Mr Pink, without asking permission for the copyright. To his relief, the director wasn’t concerned when Michael pointed out that the profit went to a good cause and that none of those involved in the production made any personal financial gain. ‘He was happy once I assured him that the proceeds went to charity,’ Michael told the Irish Times. Michael has since re-told this story in several broadcast interviews and does a decent impression of the director’s fast and breathless voice with the line, ‘Well, as long as nobody made any money out of it.’

  Inglourious Basterds was shot almost entirely in sequence, beginning with a tense and powerful scene in which Landa visits the French farmer Lapadite’s house. Landa is seemingly all charm and manners but there is a chilling undercurrent that ultimately leads to Lapadite betraying the Jews he is hiding under his floorboards, in order to save his own family.

  The dialogue and the thrilling, scary sense of foreboding was Quentin Tarantino at his best and was replicated an hour into the film in a scene between the undercover Hicox and another Nazi officer, Major Hellstrom, in a French bistro. Hellstrom overhears Hicox talking and is suspicious of his accent. He swaggers over to join him and his co-conspirators at the table, sharing a drink and playing a pub game. But, as with Landa, there is a menace about him that is not far from the surface and again the tension mounts in a game of cat-and-mouse, developing into a Mexican stand-off with both men aiming pistols under the table at each other’s crotches.

  Michael was fascinated by the way that Quentin would sometimes close his eyes during the filming of a scene with a lot of dialogue so as to concentrate on the rhythm of the language ‘like a piece of music’. He was also impressed by Quentin’s almost encyclopaedic knowledge and casual references to even the most unknown of movies and TV shows. ‘You could mention the most obscure Egyptian film from like nineteen-fucking-thirty-three, and he’ll have seen it, and he’ll tell you scenes of the film that he liked or didn’t like. It’s just astounding,’ he recalled.

  The two amused themselves when not filming by quizzing each other on film and television. Michael eventually stumped his opponent with a question going back to his childhood love of American TV shows. ‘I got him when I asked what the names of the two Dobermanns on the 1980s series Magnum, P.I [were],’ he recalled. ‘They were Apollo and Zeus. I was pretty pleased with myself.’

  As for his fellow cast members, Michael admitted to the Belfast Telegraph that he had convinced himself he would dislike Brad Pitt but that they ended up forming a strong bond. ‘I really wanted to hate him but he’s a nice guy and very encouraging. The fame doesn’t affect him. He just comes and does his work. He’s a real person and very focused.’

  Working with such luminaries did make Michael nervous though. As he told Irish TV chat-show host Ryan Tubridy, ‘It’s just mad to be standing on set with Brad Pitt there doing his stuff and Quentin in the corner. I’m kind of like, “Hang on a second. I’m from Killarney!” But then you get over it and off you go.’

  During filming, the producer, Lawrence Bender, was visited by his former girlfriend, Suni ‘Leasi’ Andrews, and their two-year-old daughter. Suni had played a character called Danya in a US TV supernatural drama called Dante’s Cove. Michael, who had split up with Maiko Spencer, was taken with her beauty and a romance ensued.

  Filming wrapped in December in time for the Cannes Film Festival the following May. Michael received high praise from Quentin – ‘Michael’s like an old-style British actor from the forties – he’s got the grace and the looks. I would love to work with him again.’

  Inglourious Basterds was a big movie on Michael’s career path but he had no time to settle back and enjoy his moment. Instead, he was determined to keep moving while the going was good.

  ‘I don�
�t know what’s going to happen. I’m flavour of the month at the moment but somebody else is going to roll around the corner in three months’ time. I just want to keep working. I can’t stop!’ he told the Guardian.

  Asked by the Belfast Telegraph if he was worried about the increased public attention he might get after a Tarantino movie, he replied, ‘I don’t think people really recognise me, to be honest. I just take each day as it comes.

  ‘I’m very happy to be observing and not be observed. I can sit in a café and watch people – I’m happier doing that. But the pros definitely outweigh the cons in this game. It’s such a privileged line of work, you can’t really complain about anything.’

  Shortly after finishing work on Inglourious Basterds, Michael starred in a short movie called Man on a Motorcycle, written and directed by a former musician with the Scottish group The Beta Band, John Maclean. Michael’s agent, Conor McCaughan, was a friend of his and was impressed by the music videos he had made for his other band, The Aliens. Conor introduced John to Michael, who had also admired his videos. John was progressing into short movies and when Michael offered to appear in one, a delighted John quickly wrote Man On a Motorcycle, which he said was based around Michael’s availability and ‘what he would probably find fun to do’.

  Man on a Motorcycle was so low-budget that it was filmed on a camera phone and involved a week of shooting a motorcycle courier around London. Another actor filmed those scenes wearing a crash helmet but when he took off the helmet it was edited to show Michael. The clever technique meant that he was only required for one day of filming, which was just as well, for he was about to become very busy collecting awards.

  CHAPTER NINE