Press junket interviews

http://www.upcoming-movies.com/Articles/michael-fassbender-talks-x-men-first-class/

Michael Fassbender Talks X-MEN: FIRST CLASS!
05/28/2011 by Steve Ramos

Michael Fassbender made fans laugh when he described the need to channel his inner ten-year-old in order to believably act in a helmet and cape as the young Magneto. Fassbender co-starred as Magneto in X-Men: First Class, director Matthew Vaughn and screenwriter Jane Goldman's take on the origins of the popular mutant hero group with James McAvoy as a young Charles Xavier in 1962, and their battle against Hellfire Club leaders Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) and Emma Frost (January Jones).

“I was thinking about the hand movements: should everything be done more with the eyes then the hand?” Fassbender said to The Guardian. “But once you decided to go down that route, you’ve got to fully commit to it. It’s like wearing a helmet and a cape. I’m a grown man, for God’s sake! But once you do it, you’ve got to ignite that inner 10-year-old and just enjoy it.”

Vaughn described the relationship between Magneto and Xavier along the lines of the relationship between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King and emphasized the serious themes in the movie in addition to its super hero action.

Vaughn also excited fans with talk of X-Men: First Class sequels.

"I think it takes about five years for a decade to really start getting its identity,” Vaughn said earlier. “So the fun thing about this for me would be doing a sequel in the latter part of the decade, where you've got The Stones, The Beatles, Flower Power."

X-Men: First Class opens in theaters June 3.

http://www.blogomatic3000.com/2011/05/26/x-men-interviews-michael-fassbender/

X-Men Interviews: Michael Fassbender

An interview with Michael Fassbender, X-Men: First Class
By Kate Atherton

A new Magneto?
“At the beginning, when I found out I’d got the job, I thought about studying Ian McKellen, getting my hands on anything I could where he was a young man on screen and just studying his physicality and voice and whatnot and then I sat down with Matthew and we discussed it and he decided that wasn’t the way he wanted to go. And so at that point I ditched that idea totally and then just used the comic book material, the source material that was available. I was spoilt, really, there’s so much there in the character’s biography that I could draw from there.”

Physicalising the power.
“I just tried how can I physically represent constipation through my hands. That was kind of my inspiration really. Obviously that manifests itself in various physical attributes. I didn’t really know what to do. There was an element of me that obviously that feels like a bit of an idiot as a grown man trying to bend things, metal things, with my hands. I wasn’t even sure if I should have physicalised it with my hands but the safety point was that Erik in his life is not really sure of how to harness these powers. And so it was a little bit haphazard and random. Of course, it’s only really through meeting Charles that he unleashes his full potential. I was really happy when I watched the film because I’d seen some of what Bill [Milner] had done with the young Erik, which is amazing. But I hadn’t seen him do any of the metal stuff and I was really happy to see in the film that I was echoing what he had started off. So it was very good. It worked out OK.”

The blurring between good and evil.
“That’s what interests me as an actor and as an audience member. When I go to the cinema nowadays especially with big commercial films, an audience is spoon fed through the entire experience and they don’t have to do any work. And I believe when you see a film you should have to invest something yourself and you should have to do a little bit of work as an audience member. When you leave the cinema or the theatre you should be having those conversations, with yourself if you’re crazy like me, or with friends afterwards. Should I be backing Erik?…. There should be an ambiguity. The grey areas, I think, are most interesting. I don’t like ‘here’s your villain, here’s your hero’. That just makes it too comfortable and easy for an audience.”

Alienation.
“I think that the idea of alienation for whatever reason is still very prevalent within our society. Most people deal with it at some point in their life unless they’re the golden child. I think that’s something that we all need to address; the fact that us as a race still remains very tribal and we haven’t moved away from that in hundreds and hundreds of years of experience of, it is quite interesting.”

The Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis.
“I wasn’t around in that period of time but my parents were and there was something very interesting going on in the world at that time where everybody was unsure. There was a real sense of anxiety. People were building bunkers outside their houses. They were stocking up with three years’ worth of canned goods and nobody really knows how close we actually got to nuclear war at that point. What happened behind the scenes? What actually was going on? I think there’s a mystery which is definitely there to be exploited.”

The next Bond?
“It’s very flattering, of course. Matthew [Vaughn] had kind of mentioned it in some of the earlier meetings and said it invoked a lot of memories for him from those early Bond films but for me in terms of approaching the character of Erik I didn’t really go down that route. They dressed me up in clothes that were pretty cool, bespoke suits, that harkend back to those early Bond films. But I really sort of approached it through the material that was available in the comic books. And in terms of what I expect or hope for the future, I never try and plan anything or never expect anything. I think Daniel’s doing a fantastic job and let’s just deal with this film at the moment and see how that does!”

Working with January Jones (Frost).
“To be honest with you, you try not to make her feel uncomfortable. It’s a difficult scenario for her. She’s dressed there in skimpy clothes and obviously there is a plethora of fans out there who get all excited at the prospect of it. So you’re there working with her as a professional. It wouldn’t do well if you brought that sort of giddiness in to the room.”

Fame.
“Hopefully it’s not going to change anything regarding my everyday life and I don’t think it really has to. I was lucky enough to work with Viggo Mortensen last year in the summer and we walked all round Vienna and he was part of one of the biggest franchises in the world. I can’t really answer that until I’m confronted with it but so far it hasn’t been a problem.”.

http://www.film-news.co.uk/show-news.asp?H=Michael-Fassbender-says-his-role-in-X-Men:-First-Class-is-an-elaborate-James-Bond-audition&nItemID=5536

Michael Fassbender says his role in X-Men: First Class is an 'elaborate James Bond audition'

added: 4 Jun 2011 // by: newsdesk

The 34-year-old actor is currently promoting the action drama, where he portrays Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto.

The movie is set in 1963, and director Matthew Vaughn has previously spoken about the influence retro James Bond movies had on the picture.

Michael accepts there are nods to the iconic spy in his performance, and teased he’s hoping to star as the smooth agent one day.

"I just saw it as an opportunity to do a really elaborate James Bond audition," he laughed to MTV. "I just really exploited that fact really, and one always has to worry about the next job, that's the problem."

Michael went on to explain the process of developing his character with Matthew. He admits he was more focused on staying true to the original Marvel Comics which inspired the X-Men franchise than worrying about other movies though.

"In all seriousness, director] Matthew [Vaughn] did say to me that the fact that it was set in the '60s, and this character, Erik, he had envisioned him as a James Bond from the past, perhaps the Sean Connery-type mould," said Michael.

"I was like, 'That's interesting,' but it didn't really affect my portrayal. I just concentrated on what was in the comic books. The biography available in the comic books was so dense that I was spoiled for choice to go away and create this Machiavellian character."

http://www.bendbulletin.com/article/20110603/NEWS0107/106030330/

The new face of Magneto
Michael Fassbender takes his role seriously in ‘X-Men: First Class’
By Roger Moore / The Orlando Sentinel
Published: June 03. 2011 4:00AM PST

ORLANDO, Fla. — Michael Fassbender’s name seems to pop up most any time a new film project is announced. “Prometheus,” Ridley Scott’s prequel to “Alien”? Jim Jarmusch’s new vampire movie? Danny Boyle’s “Trance”?

A film industry hungry for a hunky, young leading man with action-hero potential is taking a hard look at Fassbender. He was Rochester in the recent “Jane Eyre,” a Roman soldier on the run in ancient Britain in last year’s “Centurion.” And this weekend, he is Erik Lehnsherr, the tormented Holocaust survivor who will become Magneto in “X-Men: First Class.”

At 34, born in Germany, raised in Ireland (thus the accent he shows off, out of character), the Drama Centre London-trained Fassbender has barely time to catch his breath between film jobs, meetings about film jobs and premieres.

“I haven’t had time to sit back and sort of take stock,” he says. “It is a dream come true for me. The way I got here, it took some time. Sometimes it takes a lot longer, sure. But I felt like I really took a journey to get to this point.”

The journey began in earnest with a role in HBO’s World War II series “Band of Brothers” (2001) and continued with lots of British TV work. Eventually, he would be plucked to join the ensemble of “Inglourious Basterds” (2009). But the role that made him was 2008’s “Hunger,” a little-seen but acclaimed drama about Irish Republican Army hunger strikers during the 1980s. The film was “a remarkable cinematic experience, driven powerfully by Michael Fassbender’s impressive performance as Bobby Sands,” the most famous of those men who starved themselves to death in British prisons, raved the London Daily Mirror.

“It’s been an incredible trip from ‘Hunger,’” Fassbender says of the film, for which he lost much of his body weight in order to be convincingly starved and emaciated. “’Hunger’ definitely changed my life, in terms of being recognized by filmmakers, since that was very much a filmmakers’ film.”

So everything afterward would have to be a breeze, right? Playing a comic-book villain, for instance?

But Magneto has “a whole lot of complexity to him,” Fassbender says. “Emotionally, he’s coming from a very damaged place. I like the ambivalence of it. I want the audience leaving the theater wondering, asking the questions themselves rather than being spoon-fed (what to think) like a lot of these super-villain characters.

“Holocaust survivor” is, Fassbender notes, just “the first part of his makeup. ... He tries to live an honest life even after the concentration camps, in the comic books. But the human race lets him down.

“So he’s left alone. Every personal relationship he has gets damaged or torn away from him.”

Fassbender might have tried to back-engineer the character, as he was played in the earlier “X-Men” films by the great Sir Ian McKellen. But director Matthew Vaughn (“Stardust,” “Kick-Ass”) wouldn’t hear of it.

“He said, ‘You know, there’s something about this character that reminds me of an early Bond, a Sean Connery Bond from the ’60s,’” Fassbender says. “Connery had this unusual accent and voice and Matthew heard similarities with my voice and we sort of went with that.”

Fassbender is not new to comic-book adaptations, having played a heavy in the disastrous “Jonah Hex” adaptation of last summer. He doesn’t concern himself with a film’s success, resolving only to take each part seriously: “Just because it’s a comic-book story or a fantasy, that doesn’t mean I approach it with any less seriousness.” And with “X-Men,” he had plenty to chew on.

“The great thing about ‘X-Men’ is that within the philosophy and story of the saga there are very real and relevant human issues — alienation, being ostracized from society for whatever reasons — ethnicity, religious beliefs or sexual orientation.”

And the setting for much of this prequel is the early 1960s, during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

“It’s a great manipulation, isn’t it? Dealing with a period in history that has a lot of mystery still surrounding it, a lot of frenzy around the world, the paranoia. ... There is room in there to play with that piece of history, which our scriptwriters have very cleverly done.”

http://www.showbizspy.com/article/233415/michael-fassbender-says-x-men-made-him-feel-like-an-idiot.html

Fassbender Says X-Men Made Him Feel Like an Idiot

Monday June 6, 2011

MICHAEL Fassbender admits dressing up as comic book character for X-Men: First Class made him feel “like a bit of an idiot”.

The 34-year-old German-born actor plays a young Magneto in the blockbuster movie meaning he spent much of his time running around with a helmet on pretending to bend metal with his mind.

“I honestly didn’t know what to do,” says Michael. “There was an element of me that felt like a bit of an idiot as a grown man trying to bend metal things with my hands.

“I was really happy when I watched the film. I think it worked okay.”

http://movies.ign.com/articles/117/1172884p1.html

Fassbender's X-Men Accent Explained
Exclusive: he First Class star discusses his accent choice for Erik Leshsherr/Magento.
UK, June 6, 2011
by Chris Tilly

Since X-Men: First Class hit last week, there's been much talk concerning Michael Fassbender's accent. Was he doing English? Was he doing Irish? Was he attempting a more non-descript European drawl?

Well when IGN caught up with him on-set last year, we asked him that very question concerning his characterisation of Erik Lehnsherr.

"I'm kind of using my own accent and taking out as much Irish-ness as I can," he explained. "People always say that I sound anything but Irish... most people say to me Canadian, or people have said Dutch, German, South African.

"But what do you do with the accent? Because he's not English and he didn't really have any sort of history in England. But I think he is well-educated... so I'm just trying to play a more neutral version of my own accent."

So there you have it - young Magneto was speaking in a not-quite-English, not-quite-Irish, not-quite-Fassbender accent. Mystery solved.

http://news.bostonherald.com/entertainment/movies/general/view/2011_0602fassbender_attracted_to_universal_themes_of_x-men/srvc=home&position=also

Michael Fassbender attracted to universal themes of ‘X-Men’
Stephen Schaefer By Stephen Schaefer / Movies
Friday, June 3, 2011 - Updated 1 week ago

Growing up in Ireland, German-born actor Michael Fassbender never read the “X-Men” comic books.

But once cast in “X-Men: First Class” to play the young Erik Lensherr, the angry mutant so vividly portrayed by Sir Ian McKellan in three X-Men movies, Fassbender, 34, discovered the immense popularity of the Marvel comics.

“What I found really surprising, actually, was to realize just how widespread that audience was,” he said last week at a press conference for “X-Men: First Class” at Manhattan’s Ritz-Carlton Central Park Hotel.

“Having gotten the job and speaking to various people, I found they’re everywhere. The waiter’s like, ‘I’m an “X-Men” fan; you better not mess it up.’ The themes involved are so universal that there are X-Mens, there are mutants. everywhere amongst us.”

This origins story tells how Fassbender’s Erik and James McAvoy’s Charles Xavier — (made famous as an adult by Patrick Stewart) — meet, become friends and ultimately lifelong enemies.

Erik becomes Magneto, whose mutant powers are a destructive gravitational field.

He sees humans as the enemy while Charles pleads for co-existence.

Fassbender says that debate is what makes the “X-Men” series so provocative.

“The whole concept of X-Men is a very sort of a mature idea, as opposed to superhero comics in general,” he said.

“That idea of alienation is a universal thing. And whether it be for religious beliefs, ethnicity or sexual orientation, everybody experiences it somewhat. So that obviously touches on a nerve that people can relate to.”

Even though Magneto kills people, Fassbender doesn’t see pure evil.

“Personally, as an audience member and as an actor, I much prefer to find ambiguity in that gray area.

“Nowadays, especially in big commercial films, it’s much too easy for the audience; they tend to get spoon-fed. It’s much more interesting for me if people leave the theater, start asking themselves questions and have to find their own moral compass about what these characters have been doing.

“And,” he added, “in terms of the justification for what he does, I’ve always said that Magneto is a Machiavellian character (whose motto is) ‘The end justifies the means.’ That really kind of sums him up best.”
-cinesteve@hotmail.com

http://globalgrind.com/entertainment/x-men-stars-share-helmets-get-drunk

X-Men Stars Like To Share Helmets & Get Drunk!
By GlobalGrind Staff June 1, 2011

"X-Men: First Class" may very well be the most anticipated movie of 2011. It is the fifth installment of the X-Men Marvel series and hits theater on Friday, June 3rd.

In "First Class," we will be taken back to the beginning and find out how the X-Men came to life. The Matthew Vaughn film is set in the '60s where Professor X played by James McAvoy and Magneto played by Michael Fassbender meet, become friends and eventually turn into enemies. This movie will definitely have you at the edge of your seat and will bring out your inner mutant.

GlobalGrind caught up with the stars of the film, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender and got the scoop about making the film, sharing helmets and the fuzzy feeling the movie leaves you with at the end.

Can you talk about taking these roles that were created previously? What your preparation was and whether you spoke with Patrick Stewart or Ian McKellen?

Michael Fassbender: Well obviously Sir Ian McKellen did a great job and I was aware the fans of the X-Men comic book were very pleased with what he did. So initially I thought to myself, should I study a young Ian McKellen and study his voice and his physicality. I spoke to Matthew, I think it was like our first or second meeting and he wasn’t so keen on the idea. He wanted me to use my own voice and take it from there, so we just wiped the slate clean on that idea and I really delved into the comic books. There was so much material there that was spoiled in terms of biography and putting together a complicated web around the character.

James McAvoy: I felt the same with Abraham sort of mimicking the voice and all that and we had a good laugh at that, but it didn’t stay an option too long. I’ve looked really closely at Sir Patrick’s performance which I really enjoyed, but I felt just to validate Nick in these movies you have to make the characters different, otherwise it’s just the same performance with a sexy suit. I tried to take the key points of his character and just flip them, you know not extremely, because he’s a good guy and I couldn’t make him a bad guy, but where he was sort of wise, I was unwise and where he’s chased, I was running and vice versa.

Were there any particular scenes that were specific to the '60s in this movie that you really enjoyed?

James McAvoy: I enjoyed the cerebral ... that thing that’s always in X-Men movies and it’s kind of like the Death Star of the X-Men and we have our own version of cerebral in this movie. Whereas in the other movies, it's very sleek and shiny and this looks like you got it in IKEA, this one it looks like it’s got lollipops sticking out of it. It’s one of the good things about the films, the design is kind of catchy and naïve. I don’t think we ever felt like we had to play it that much. It was kind of all around us.

What was your initial reaction when you knew you were doing this?

Michael Fassbender: I was intrigued.

James McAvoy: I was a little bit surprised, I didn’t see myself as sort of the Patrick Stewart, bald, Jean Luke Piccard professor. That was great. I read the script, the first 40 pages that existed at the time and I realized that we could take the character in a whole different direction and have a whole lot of fun with him and make him a little more silly and a lot bit more drunk and that was great.

It appears that you guys have a great rapport and you get along, with such a big cast, was it an instant connection?

James McAvoy: Yeah, me and Michael were sharing helmets and I got to know him on a very intimate level. Then our bond is broken and suddenly he’s not calling me anymore (Laughs). We did get along very well, which is good as well because one thing about the X-Men movies is there is always five thousand characters that you have to get to know and it can be a real task, but I think Mathew did a great job of tying in everyone’s story and I think part of that is due in fact to there is a rapport amongst everyone. That chemistry and connection translates on screen as well.

Michael: The support that was the one thing, everyone sort of came, it was tough, we were under pressure there wasn’t a lot of time to prepare things. We kind of did had to dive into things immediately. I got to say I was really impressed with the younger cast coming into something that is so high profile, starting off with maybe not so many films under the belt, but like a real openness and lack of an attitude or sort of an insecurity that can lead to bad behavior. There was obviously superb talent at the base of it, but just a real openness. I have to say I was really impressed by that.

This film left us in a very different place than the other three X-Men films. At the end when the credits were rolling, we thought, well Magneto’s really got a point here. This is the first film where it’s like he said we are never going to be accepted. Of course you project into the future and you say this battle is still going on.

Michael Fassbender: Yeah I agree with you man, his actions that’s the one thing, but his philosophy stands true, everything he says comes to fruition and you know this idea that the human race as we all know from what history teaches us, that we're an incredibly destructive race and whenever there is this sort of fear element for something unknown or different we tend to destroy it. So all those discussions that Eric and Charles have in the end, the human beings sort of prove Eric right.

James McAvoy: I think another thing in the other X-Men movies, quite often the forces of humanity are led by Machiavellian humans, also where in this movie I feel like the humans decide to take out all the mutants and it’s because they're scared. It’s a very human reaction, which makes them less bad guy, but also makes you go, he is right because they’re not even trying to be the bad guys and they’re still going to wipe us out. They're a huge threat, but they're just reacting. It makes it more real, I think.

http://wplj.com/Article.asp?id=2202420&spid=36851

Michael Fassbender Takes Magneto in Different Direction in X-Men: First Class

Michael Fassbender is one of the stars of the prequel X-Men: First Class, debuting Friday, June 3rd. He plays a younger incarnation of the villain Magneto, portrayed by Sir Ian McKellen in the first three X-Men films. Fassbender says X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn didn't want him to channel McKellen as they shot the movie. He says, "At one point when I was first offered the job I thought OK, shall I go and study the man in terms of his nuances, his voice and then I was talking to Matthew in the first meeting and he wasn't so keen on going down that route."

Fassbender feels he's a good fit for a superhero movie because as a child, he believed he had Superman-like powers. He says, "I would hear this little ringing noise in my ear at night. I remember when I was in lying in bed and I was like that's a calling for me to go to the garage and find, y'know, kryptonite or whatever. I had the Superman outfit and I wanted to take it to the swimming pool and practice my flying but my parents wouldn't really let me."

According to Us Weekly, Fassbender is dating one of his X-Men co-stars, Zoe Kravitz, who plays Angel.

http://www.birminghampost.net/life-leisure-birmingham-guide/birmingham-culture/film-news/2011/06/02/the-growing-power-of-an-acting-force-65233-28810370/

Interview: X-Men star Michael Fassbender

By Alison Jones
Jun 2 2011

Michael Fassbender knows how to make an impact in screen.

He burst, or should that be faded, onto the scene playing hunger striker Bobby Sands in the film Hunger.

He held his own against Brad Pitt and an Oscar-winning Christoph Waltz as the German speaking British film critic/commando Archie Hicox (a role based on Graham Greene) in Inglourious Basterds.

Now in X-Men: First Class he steps into the shoes of the peerless Sir Ian McKellen, playing the young Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto in this prequel to the X-Men movies.

Eager to put his own stamp on the part, Michael decided against copying the moves of the acting knight.

“When I got the job I thought about perhaps getting my hands on anything where Ian McKellen was a young man on screen and just studying the physicality and voice and whatnot.

“Then Matthew [Vaughn – the director] and I discussed it and that wasn’t the way he wanted to go.

“So I ditched that idea totally and just used the comic book material. There was so much there in the character’s biography I could just draw from that.”

He had a slightly more basic approach when is came to perfecting Erik’s extreme concentration when first using his power to manipulate metal through willpower.

“I just thought ‘how can I represent constipation through my hands?’. That was kind of my inspiration. Obviously that manifests itself in various physical attributes.

“I didn’t really know what to do. Erik at this point in his life is not really sure how to harness these powers. It is a bit haphazard and random. You feel like a bit of an idiot as a grown man trying to bend metal.”

Michael, 33, gives a complex performance in dual languages switching between American/English (although his native Irish brogue occasionally creeps through) and German (which as the son of a German father, he is fluent in).

The film offers a back story of how the telepathic Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik came to discover and develop their powers, and how they first became friends before finding themselves on the opposite side of ideological fence in terms of mutant/human relations.

“Charles is someone Erik greatly respects and likes from the beginning though he (Erik) is a very untrusting person.

“Hopefully the audience will feel that loss when the relationship fractures and eventually breaks.

“But there’s always going to be that respect between them, between great leaders and enemies who’ll sit down and have a cup of coffee and discuss things on their downtime.”

While Charles thinks humans and mutants can live harmoniously, Erik believes they will always be treated with suspicion. It is a view shared by Sebastian Shaw, who is hell-bent on mutant domination and is ready to start a nuclear war to achieve it.

“This conflict is what interests me as an actor and audience member,” says Michael.

“Unfortunately nowadays, especially with big commercial films, the audience is spoon-fed the entire experience and doesn’t have to do any work.

“I believe if you go to see a film you should have to invest something yourself so when you leave the cinema you are having those conversations, either with yourself if you are crazy, like me, or with friends afterwards.”

Cleverly, Matthew Vaughn and scriptwriter Jane Goldman have used real life events to bring greater depth to their otherwise fantastical story.

Eric finds his powers as his parents are dragged off to Auschwitz in the Holocaust, while the film’s 60s-setting invites parallels between the experiences of the mutants and the race struggles of that era.

There is also the matter of Shaw trying to tip the Cuban Missile Crisis into full scale war

“I think there is a mystery around that which is definitely there to be exploited,” says Michael. “I wasn’t around then but my parents were and there was a real sense of anxiety. People were building bunkers outside their houses and stocking up with three year’s worth of canned goods.

“Nobody really knows how close we actually got to nuclear war at that point, what happened behind the scenes.”

As an action film X-Men: First Class has drawn flattering comparisons with James Bond, largely thanks to meglomaniacal villain plotting to take over the world from a submarine kitted out like a cocktail bar.

As the emotionally tortured, vengeance-seeking anti-hero with a ruthless streak, Michael has already been tipped as the next actor to play the iconic spy.

“It is very flattering. Matthew had sort of mentioned that this invoked a lot of memories for him of those earlier Bond films, so I thought, okay, he wants the rugged sophistication that Connery had.

“They dressed me up in clothes that were pretty cool, bespoke suites that harked back to those early films.

“In terms of what I expect or hope for the future. I never try and plan anything

“I think Daniel Craig is doing a fantastic job and let’s just deal with X-Men at the moment and see how that does.”

http://www.influence-film.com/2011/06/x-men-interviews-michael-fassbender.html

X-Men Interviews: Michael Fassbender
Posted: June 8th, 2011 ˑ Filled under: Movie News ˑ

An interview with Michael Fassbender, X-Men: First Class
By Kate Atherton

A new Magneto?
“At the beginning, when I found out I’d got the job, I thought about studying Ian McKellen, getting my hands on anything I could where he was a young man on screen and just studying his physicality and voice and whatnot and then I sat down with Matthew and we discussed it and he decided that wasn’t the way he wanted to go. And so at that point I ditched that idea totally and then just used the comic book material, the source material that was available. I was spoilt, really, there’s so much there in the character’s biography that I could draw from there.”

Physicalising the power.
“I just tried how can I physically represent constipation through my hands. That was kind of my inspiration really. Obviously that manifests itself in various physical attributes. I didn’t really know what to do. There was an element of me that obviously that feels like a bit of an idiot as a grown man trying to bend things, metal things, with my hands. I wasn’t even sure if I should have physicalised it with my hands but the safety point was that Erik in his life is not really sure of how to harness these powers. And so it was a little bit haphazard and random. Of course, it’s only really through meeting Charles that he unleashes his full potential. I was really happy when I watched the film because I’d seen some of what Bill [Milner] had done with the young Erik, which is amazing. But I hadn’t seen him do any of the metal stuff and I was really happy to see in the film that I was echoing what he had started off. So it was very good. It worked out OK.”

The blurring between good and evil.
“That’s what interests me as an actor and as an audience member. When I go to the cinema nowadays especially with big commercial films, an audience is spoon fed through the entire experience and they don’t have to do any work. And I believe when you see a film you should have to invest something yourself and you should have to do a little bit of work as an audience member. When you leave the cinema or the theatre you should be having those conversations, with yourself if you’re crazy like me, or with friends afterwards. Should I be backing Erik?…. There should be an ambiguity. The grey areas, I think, are most interesting. I don’t like ‘here’s your villain, here’s your hero’. That just makes it too comfortable and easy for an audience.”

Alienation.
“I think that the idea of alienation for whatever reason is still very prevalent within our society. Most people deal with it at some point in their life unless they’re the golden child. I think that’s something that we all need to address; the fact that us as a race still remains very tribal and we haven’t moved away from that in hundreds and hundreds of years of experience of, it is quite interesting.”

The Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis.
“I wasn’t around in that period of time but my parents were and there was something very interesting going on in the world at that time where everybody was unsure. There was a real sense of anxiety. People were building bunkers outside their houses. They were stocking up with three years’ worth of canned goods and nobody really knows how close we actually got to nuclear war at that point. What happened behind the scenes? What actually was going on? I think there’s a mystery which is definitely there to be exploited.”

The next Bond?
“It’s very flattering, of course. Matthew [Vaughn] had kind of mentioned it in some of the earlier meetings and said it invoked a lot of memories for him from those early Bond films but for me in terms of approaching the character of Erik I didn’t really go down that route. They dressed me up in clothes that were pretty cool, bespoke suits, that harkend back to those early Bond films. But I really sort of approached it through the material that was available in the comic books. And in terms of what I expect or hope for the future, I never try and plan anything or never expect anything. I think Daniel’s doing a fantastic job and let’s just deal with this film at the moment and see how that does!”

Working with January Jones (Frost).
“To be honest with you, you try not to make her feel uncomfortable. It’s a difficult scenario for her. She’s dressed there in skimpy clothes and obviously there is a plethora of fans out there who get all excited at the prospect of it. So you’re there working with her as a professional. It wouldn’t do well if you brought that sort of giddiness in to the room.”

Fame.
“Hopefully it’s not going to change anything regarding my everyday life and I don’t think it really has to. I was lucky enough to work with Viggo Mortensen last year in the summer and we walked all round Vienna and he was part of one of the biggest franchises in the world. I can’t really answer that until I’m confronted with it but so far it hasn’t been a problem.”
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http://happygoss.blogspot.com/2011/06/michael-fassbender-x-men-made-me-idiot.html

Monday, 6 June 2011
Michael Fassbender 'X-Men made me an idiot'

Michael Fassbender admits dressing up as comic book character forX-Men: First Class made him feel “like a bit of an idiot”.

The 34-year-old German-born actor plays a young Magneto in the blockbuster movie meaning he spent much of his time running around with a helmet on pretending to bend metal with his mind.

“I honestly didn’t know what to do,” says Michael. “There was an element of me that felt like a bit of an idiot as a grown man trying to bend metal things with my hands.
“I was really happy when I watched the film. I think it worked okay.”

Posted by Rudeboy! at 07:03

http://newsmodo.net/82/film/xmen-class-director-refuses-ian-mckellen-study-michael-fassbender/

‘X-Men: First Class’ Director Refuses Ian McKellen Study for Michael Fassbender
Film Top News — 02 June 2011

Actor Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds, 300) says his upcoming film X-Men: First Class is not your typical shallow superhero movie. It’s deep. Don’t let the shape-shifting and telekinesis fool you.

“There are elements in it that are quite sophisticated,” says Fassbender. “It’s set in the ’60s, so the themes of racism and prejudice are quite fitting alongside the civil rights movement. And then of course you’ve got the decade’s style and music.”

Fassbender wanted to use Ian McKellen, who played Magneto in the original X-Men films, as source materiel for his younger version in the film.

“I was going to study him and do a younger version, but I spoke to [director] Michael Vaughn and he wasn’t keen on the idea,” says the 34-year-old. “So I started off fresh and just used the comic book source material. There’s so much going on. There’s much more than is needed to create a character.”

Along with Fassbender, X-Men: First Class stars James McAvoy, Kevin Bacon, January Jones and Jennifer Lawrence. The film smashes into theaters on June 3.

http://www.myretailheavenmagazine.com/10885/reviews/movies/michael-fassbender-told-to-base-magneto-on-connery.html

Michael Fassbender told to base Magneto on Connery
June 1st, 2011

Michael Fassbender was told his ‘X-Men: First Class’ character should be based on Sean Connery.

The 34-year-old actor – who plays Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto in the upcoming superhero movie – explained director Matthew Vaughn initially envisaged his alter-ego to be a “James Bond” type, but he tried not to let it cloud his portrayal of the character.

He said: “In all seriousness. Matthew did say to me that the fact that it was set in the ’60s, and this character, Erik, he had envisioned him as a James Bond from the past, perhaps the Sean Connery-type mold.

“I was like, ‘That’s interesting,’ but it didn’t really affect my portrayal. I just concentrated on what was in the comic books. The biography available in the comic books was so dense that I was spoiled for choice to go away and create this Machiavellian character.”

Despite not trying to directly mimic Sean Connery, Michael admitted he did see portraying the evil supervillain as the perfect opportunity to do a “really elaborate James Bond audition”.

He joked to MTV News: I just saw it as an opportunity to do a really elaborate James Bond audition. I just really exploited that fact really, and one always has to worry about the next job, that’s the problem.”

http://www.edzardt.co.za/michael-fassbender-looking-for-big-studio-movie/

Michael Fassbender Looking For Big Studio Movie
Posted on June 1, 2011 by

Michael Fassbender has revealed that he was looking to do a big studio movie when X-Men:First Class came along.

The actor takes over the role of Erik Lensherr aka Magento from Ian McKellan as X-Men: First Class takes the mutant story back to the sixties.

Fassbender made his name in Steve McQueen’s movie Hunger before going onto Inglourious Basterds but he admits that he was looking to take on a bigger project.

Speaking to NPR the actor said: “I was looking to do a studio film.

“What really intrigued me about this particular one was that you’re dealing with the villain, if you like, in the piece as somebody that’s very ambivalent and there’s a lot of complexity to him.

“And there is cause for his feelings and his actions. Whether or not you agree with them is another thing.”

Next up for Fassbender is a new adaptation of classic novel Jane Eyre – in which he will take on the role of Rochester.

He has already completed work on A Dangerous Method and Haywire and is currently filming Prometheus.

X-Men: First Class is out now.

http://abcnewsradioonline.com/entertainment-news/in-new-x-men-michael-fassbender-takes-magneto-in-different-d.html

In New 'X-Men,' Michael Fassbender Takes Magneto in Different Direction

ABC News Radio(LOS ANGELES) -- Michael Fassbender is one of the stars of the prequel X-Men: First Class, debuting Friday. He plays a younger incarnation of the villain Magneto, portrayed by Sir Ian McKellen in the first three X-Men films. Fassbender says X-Men: First Class director, Matthew Vaughn, didn't want him to channel McKellen as they shot the movie. He says, "At one point when I was first offered the job I thought OK, shall I go and study the man in terms of his nuances, his voice and then I was talking to Matthew in the first meeting and he wasn't so keen on going down that route."

Fassbender feels he's a good fit for a superhero movie because as a child, he believed he had Superman-like powers. He says, "I would hear this little ringing noise in my ear at night. I remember when I was in lying in bed and I was like that's a calling for me to go to the garage and find, y'know, kryptonite or whatever. I had the Superman outfit and I wanted to take it to the swimming pool and practice my flying but my parents wouldn't really let me."

According to Us Weekly, Fassbender is dating one of his X-Men co-stars, Zoe Kravitz, who plays Angel.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio
Thursday, June 2, 2011 at 2:19PM by Joshua Cohan

http://www.birminghampost.net/life-leisure-birmingham-guide/birmingham-culture/film-news/2011/06/02/interview-x-men-star-michael-fassbender-65233-28810370/

Interview: X-Men star Michael Fassbender

By Alison Jones
Jun 2 2011

Michael Fassbender knows how to make an impact in screen.

He burst, or should that be faded, onto the scene playing hunger striker Bobby Sands in the film Hunger.

He held his own against Brad Pitt and an Oscar-winning Christoph Waltz as the German speaking British film critic/commando Archie Hicox (a role based on Graham Greene) in Inglourious Basterds.

Now in X-Men: First Class he steps into the shoes of the peerless Sir Ian McKellen, playing the young Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto in this prequel to the X-Men movies.

Eager to put his own stamp on the part, Michael decided against copying the moves of the acting knight.

“When I got the job I thought about perhaps getting my hands on anything where Ian McKellen was a young man on screen and just studying the physicality and voice and whatnot.

“Then Matthew [Vaughn – the director] and I discussed it and that wasn’t the way he wanted to go.

“So I ditched that idea totally and just used the comic book material. There was so much there in the character’s biography I could just draw from that.”

He had a slightly more basic approach when is came to perfecting Erik’s extreme concentration when first using his power to manipulate metal through willpower.

“I just thought ‘how can I represent constipation through my hands?’. That was kind of my inspiration. Obviously that manifests itself in various physical attributes.

“I didn’t really know what to do. Erik at this point in his life is not really sure how to harness these powers. It is a bit haphazard and random. You feel like a bit of an idiot as a grown man trying to bend metal.”

Michael, 33, gives a complex performance in dual languages switching between American/English (although his native Irish brogue occasionally creeps through) and German (which as the son of a German father, he is fluent in).

The film offers a back story of how the telepathic Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik came to discover and develop their powers, and how they first became friends before finding themselves on the opposite side of ideological fence in terms of mutant/human relations.

“Charles is someone Erik greatly respects and likes from the beginning though he (Erik) is a very untrusting person.

“Hopefully the audience will feel that loss when the relationship fractures and eventually breaks.

“But there’s always going to be that respect between them, between great leaders and enemies who’ll sit down and have a cup of coffee and discuss things on their downtime.”

While Charles thinks humans and mutants can live harmoniously, Erik believes they will always be treated with suspicion. It is a view shared by Sebastian Shaw, who is hell-bent on mutant domination and is ready to start a nuclear war to achieve it.

“This conflict is what interests me as an actor and audience member,” says Michael.

“Unfortunately nowadays, especially with big commercial films, the audience is spoon-fed the entire experience and doesn’t have to do any work.

“I believe if you go to see a film you should have to invest something yourself so when you leave the cinema you are having those conversations, either with yourself if you are crazy, like me, or with friends afterwards.”

Cleverly, Matthew Vaughn and scriptwriter Jane Goldman have used real life events to bring greater depth to their otherwise fantastical story.

Eric finds his powers as his parents are dragged off to Auschwitz in the Holocaust, while the film’s 60s-setting invites parallels between the experiences of the mutants and the race struggles of that era.

There is also the matter of Shaw trying to tip the Cuban Missile Crisis into full scale war

“I think there is a mystery around that which is definitely there to be exploited,” says Michael. “I wasn’t around then but my parents were and there was a real sense of anxiety. People were building bunkers outside their houses and stocking up with three year’s worth of canned goods.

“Nobody really knows how close we actually got to nuclear war at that point, what happened behind the scenes.”

As an action film X-Men: First Class has drawn flattering comparisons with James Bond, largely thanks to meglomaniacal villain plotting to take over the world from a submarine kitted out like a cocktail bar.

As the emotionally tortured, vengeance-seeking anti-hero with a ruthless streak, Michael has already been tipped as the next actor to play the iconic spy.

“It is very flattering. Matthew had sort of mentioned that this invoked a lot of memories for him of those earlier Bond films, so I thought, okay, he wants the rugged sophistication that Connery had.

“They dressed me up in clothes that were pretty cool, bespoke suites that harked back to those early films.

“In terms of what I expect or hope for the future. I never try and plan anything

“I think Daniel Craig is doing a fantastic job and let’s just deal with X-Men at the moment and see how that does.”