Arts & Leisure | By Karen Butler | December 21st, 2011
Michael Fassbender says he feels blessed to have had the opportunity to work with British writer-director Steve McQueen on not one, but two extraordinary projects – 2008’s “Hunger” and the current release “Shame.”
“It’s a chemistry that I’m very, very grateful for and I feel so blessed I’ve come across it because, for me, it was something I was always looking for — a collaborator,” the 34-year-old actor told reporters in Los Angeles recently. “‘Hunger’ was a big break for me. It was his first movie and so we were experiencing a lot together. I could see on Steve’s face the passion and how he wanted to get it right and I wanted to get it right, too, and we just formed a language very quickly. When we started ‘Shame’ it was just like picking up where we left off. It was like we had just walked off the set of ‘Hunger’ and on to that.”
In “Hunger,” Fassbender played Bobby Sands, the Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteer who led the 1981 Irish hunger strike to protest the treatment of republican prisoners at a jail in County Down, Northern Ireland during the Troubles. He died at age 27 after starving himself for 66 days.
The German-born, Co. Kerry-raised actor gives another unforgettable performance in “Shame.” His portrayal of Brandon Sullivan, a fictional New York sex addict whose life spirals out of control with the arrival at his home of his troubled sister, played by Carey Mulligan, has already earned him Best Actor prizes at the Venice Film Festival and British Independent Film Awards. He was this month nominated for a Critics’ Choice Award and is expected to be a major player in Hollywood’s upcoming Oscars and Golden Globe Awards races.
Asked how he prepared to play such a raw, damaged man, Fassbender said he relied heavily on the film’s screenplay, which told him nearly everything he needed to know about Brandon.
“Part of my preparation, a very big part of it is, I re-read the script. I might read it 300-350 times, so I’m spending a lot of time with [this character] and I’m getting to know him and sort of, throughout the day, I’ll be like, ‘Oh, what would Brandon do in this scenario?’ Just little pieces that you’re gathering. You’re gathering little pieces every day and you’re putting it together and you’re sitting down with it and you’re thinking, ‘Is this logical?’ And if it is logical, well, then give it a try and then Steve is there to steer me in the right direction. It’s just sort of about trying to understand him and relate to him as opposed to the judgment thing, which would be a mistake,” Fassbender noted.
The actor, who attended St. Brendan’s school in Killarney and continued his studies at the Drama Centre in London, said he was never concerned about the impact appearing in the movie’s explicit sex scenes might have on his career. In fact, he laughs when he recalls this piece of sage advice he received from McQueen, “He’s like, ‘You’re an actor — it’s your job, so do it.’”
“I keep things very simple,” added Fassbender, who has starred in the films “300,” “Fish Tank,” “Inglourious Basterds,” “Jonah Hex,” “X-Men: The First Class,” “A Dangerous Method” and “Jane Eyre”, as well as the British supernatural TV series “Hex” and the celebrated World War II miniseries “Band of Brothers.”
“People are like: ‘Oh, my God, and then you’re naked. What is that going to do to your career?’ It’s like I’m not a politician. My job is to facilitate characters. I’m a storyteller. And this is one facet of telling that story.”
Up next…
Fassbender is attached to co-star with Colin Farrell, Gabriel Byrne and Cillian Murphy in actor Brendan Gleeson’s directorial debut, “At Swim Two Birds,” a film adaptation of Flann O’Brien’s classic 1939 novel.
Rated NC-17 in the United States, “Shame” is in theaters now.
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