Interview Michael Fassbender Dutch Elle, June 2012

hupsakeek

I did the best I could to translate the best parts of an interview with Michael for the Dutch Elle in June 2012

How have you experienced the past year, as brand new celebrity?
‘My carbon footprint is a lot bigger. I have spent much time in airplanes and hotel rooms. That’s it really: a lot of traveling, a lot of press and promotion, the last five months at a stretch.I could have make two films in that period, it’s a crazy idea that you work for five months and there’s nothing to see in the end. But I try to stay with both feet on the ground, and not to forget my priorities. I am an actor first, a storyteller and I must keep that in mind. That’s the most important, and that the rest of it is fluff.But promoting is part of the job, but I’ve to keep in mind that MAKING movies is what’s all about.’

Do you still have time for a private life?
“Last year, halfway through the filming of Shame, I thought: I believe I’m turning crazy, I need to do nothing. But then came the offer for Prometheus, and I could not refuse. I have taken two months off, I have make a road trip on the bike with my dad, hanging with friends, seeing family. Went karting, which is always a treat for myself. But at this moment I put all my free time in setting up a production company and that consumes energy. I try to get a couple of projects off the ground, so that means continuous meetings with writers. At this time next year I want to be on the set of one of those projects. So no, there remains little time to relax. “

Your career started a bit late.
“Hehehe, to say the least!”

And then you suddenly break through..
‘Yes, I got the chance to play Bobby Sands in Hunger.
As unemployed actor who mainly played in TV series, it’s the hardest to find someone who gives you the chance to play a leading role. That’s because you’re unkown to the lenders, they will say: who is this? And that has actually lasted until fairly recently, really, for Haywire director Steven Soderbergh have to fight to be allowed to cast me. Financiers have children and they watched Twilight, not Hunger. So the financiers have no idea who you are, they say “a critically Acclaimed performance that’s fine, but where’s the money, that film raise no money.” But Hunger opens a lot of doors because suddenly I came on the radar of other directors and filmmakers, who asked me to audition. “

You have already worked with some great directors, Tarantino, Scott, Cronenberg, Soderbergh …
‘All people with passion, all smart, some more street smart, others more academic smart, but all intelligent people. These are filmmakers who are curious about others, who want to explore human nature and they also retained something childlike. And they are hard workers.’


What is the most valuable thing you learned from them?
‘I think you must not hold on to a fixed idea, but that you must be flexible and open as possible. As an actor you have often something in your head: so and so I want to play, so then my opponent has to play it this or that way. But I have found out that if my opponent does something I do not expect, my performance is better. So it’s better to adapt instead of dig your heels in. Go with the flow.’

His ability to link testosterone to his intellect has given him the nickname the ‘British Brando’. New York Magazine endorses him among a group of actors, who include James Franco and Tom Hardy, who they call the “Brainy Bunch”. He has a lot of fans who call themselves “Fassinators”. The part-time bartender (his favorite cocktail is vodka-martini (‘easy to make, but also easy to f&#! up.”) Is now full-time movie star.

He can’t complain about the attention he is having now, hopefully the lenders of the film world will take notice!

There is a vampire movie from Jim Jarmusch on his schedule and a third film with director Steve McQueen. He still loves the heavy stuff, films for which he must jump into the deep end. “I am a thrillseeker. Someone who likes to feel that he’s alive. Recenty I’ve jumped out of an airplane, skydiving is great. The idea that some idiot once invented, come, let’s jump out of an airplane with a parachute - that’s insane? It’s the same feeling I get when I race, the sense of speed living on the edge: now you have it under control, but you could spinning out anytime, that’s addictive. It has to do with your fears and anxiety that you trying to face them instead of running away. “

That sounds a little what you do when you act.
“Yes, that’s right. You think you’re afraid of something until you do it. When I was unemployed I gave myself every week small assignments and challenges. So one challenge was diving from the high board of the pool in Walthamstow. I already jumped from it, but now I want to dive…. so I stood and stood there while gathering all my courage. I stood there for fifteen minutes and a let a guy in a speedo and with a shaved head - really a swimmer- go (three times)
Do you have some advice for me, I asked the fourth time and he said: “Just dive,” and hops, as he went, again and I felt even smaller than I already did.
And then there was also a group of children who climbed all the stairs and threw themselfs off the block like it was nothing. When one of them bounced over for the second he came to me: “Are you afraid?” Yes, I said. “Have you never done it before,” he asked. No, I said. And he said: “Listen, you dive for the first time and yes, it hurts, but not as bad as you think. “Okay, cool thanks. So I dive and he was right. My thighs hit flat on the water and were bright red and burned a little. And I thought, well, that was not so bad, let’s do it again, this is fun. That’s how it works with fear, your imagination is much worse than it actually is. You should always keep in your mind: what’s the worst that can happen to me? You fall on your face, you get up and try something else. Big deal. “