Shame Interviews

http://crushable.com/entertainment/shame-star-michael-fassbender-defends-celebrity-sex-addicts-607/

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Shame Star Michael Fassbender Defends Celebrity Sex Addicts
13 hours ago by Natalie Zutter |

Sex addiction has become prevalent in pop culture in the past few years, though only in one narrow definition: Self-indulgent celebrities like Tiger Woods and David Duchovny who cheated on their wives because they could. But thanks to research for his new movie Shame, Michael Fassbender thinks he’s seeing a different side of sex addiction, one where it’s not just about powerful men cheating on their wives.

“I suppose, you know, like everyone else it seems to be kind of grey area, this idea of sexual addiction,” he told Bang Showbiz. “All of us were introduced to it through celebrity stories and I suppose the public perception is it’s sort of self-indulgence perhaps in that world.”

He’s right: We don’t feel sorry for Tiger or other offenders like Michael Douglas—especially when South Park‘s “Sexual Healing” episode lampooned that same self-indulgence. It is easy to assume that celebrities simply choose not to respect monogamy and hide behind the label.

But Michael Fassbender believes we’re looking at it the wrong way. Because instead of studying the celebrity cases on TMZ or E!, he spoke with average people who also suffered from sex addiction. And in some really method acting, he delved into the world of online porn, since his character Brandon can’t stop looking at the stuff even when he’s at work.

“People can stay inside for 72 hours on end watching it. They can’t have sex with their wives because they’re so obsessed with it,” he said. “What’s really interesting about it is that in the US alone, something like 24 million people claim to be sex addicts but the mental-health board hasn’t recognised it as an addiction.”

Part of what makes him believe that this isn’t just a celebrity trend is that the means to encourage these addictions are accessible to anyone: “It’s all too easy to go somewhere, to eat something, to drink something, to f&#! someone. It’s all so easily available.”

This movie looks so good.

http://www.contactmusic.com/news/fassbenders-relief-as-injured-mum-missed-shame-screening_1260428

Michael Fassbender - Fassbender's Relief As Injured Mum Missed Shame Screening
11 November 2011 16:06
Michael Fassbender

Picture: Michael Fassbender AFI Fest 2011 premiere of 'Shame' held at Grauman's Chinese Theatre Hollywood, California - 09....
Fassbender's Relief As Injured Mum Missed Shame Screening



Michael Fassbender was secretly pleased his mother missed out on attending a screening of his new movie Shame at the Venice Film Festival - because he was worried about her reaction to his nude scenes.

The X-Men: First Class star plays a sex addict in the upcoming picture, and won the annual European festival's top acting honour in September (11) for the role.

Fassbender had promised to take his mother to the event, but a back injury forced her to pull out of attending - and the actor was relieved.

He tells E! Online, "My mum was supposed to be there, but thank God, her back played up at the last minute. I think it was psychosomatic. Throughout the movie, I was thinking, thank God my mother's not here."

Opening up about the difficulties of tackling the raunchy part, Fassbender adds, "You know, it's always awkward getting naked and masturbating - well, simulating it at least - with a bunch of strangers in the room. But you gotta get over that and get on with the telling of the story.

"The scenes where there are sexual encounters with the characters are so important in terms of where he's at and what his mental state is. It's not about titillation and exploitation."

http://www.contactmusic.com/news/fassbender-angry-about-shame-rating_1263474

Fassbender Angry About Shame Rating



Michael Fassbender is baffled by the restrictive rating on his saucy new movie Shame in America, because he is convinced many gory horror films are given lower classifications.

Fassbender stars as a sex addict in the picture, alongside Carey Mulligan, who plays his self-harming sister, and censors in the U.S. branded the movie an Nc-17 - meaning no one under the age of 17 will be allowed to view the film.

The actor has now defended the movie's raunchy scenes, insisting they are far less shocking than the gory footage seen in many popular horrors.

He tells The Huffington Post, "(It's) a serious film that deserves to be treated as such. Most of us have sex, so I don't understand what we're trying to sweep under the carpet or repress or not take a look at it.

"Half of us have a penis and the other half have probably seen one, and so why should it be more normal to, like, chop people's heads off and shoot people? Does that mean that that's more acceptable or closer to us as human beings?"

Mulligan has also recently spoken of her anger at the classification, branding it "so odd".