Michael Fassbender is embarrassed by his Magneto
Saturday, September 10, 2016 at 11:00AM 
by Murtada
Michael Fassbender gives good quote. Following a career retrospective tribute at Toronto this week, he was interviewed on stage by TIFF artistic director Cameron Bailey. Fassbender came on candid and ready to tell good stories. Here are excerpts from the conversation as reported by Vulture:
He reportedly cringed while watching a clip from X-Men:Days of Future Past (2014):
"I don’t actually like that performance there, to be honest. I just think it’s me shouting. It’s just like some dude shouting."
He based the android David in Ridley Scott's Prometheus (2012) on David Bowie and Greg Louganis:
"My mom was a fan of Greg Louganis and I just remember watching the Olympics thinking his walk was so funny and mesmerizing, the economy of movement."
He thought he was miscast as Steve Jobs (2015)
"He [Aaron Sorkin]wrote all that stuff! It was so dense! It was such a mountain, and I’m a slow learner, so when the script arrived for me and the opportunity came to play the part, I really thought, This is not me. This should be somebody else. It’s a miscast scenario.”
Co-star Liam Cunningham moved into his place to rehearse their long 23-minute interrogation scene in Hunger (2008)
We got up every morning, cooked porridge, and we started rehearsing. "We did it every day for 11 days. The goal was to do it ten to 15 times a day and then Steve [McQueen] would come in in the evening and watch us, give us some notes, next day same thing.
Fassbender is at TIFF with his latest Trespass Against Us, which is about a conflict within a clan of Irish outlaws. It’s the feature debut of music video director Adam Smith, co-stars Brendan Gleeson and has an original score by The Chemical Brothers.
What is your favorite Fassbender performance? And has he ever made you cringe?
Reader Comments (34)
My Favorite (and ONE of his best) is Prometheus.
I'm kind of curious about Malick's Weightless. I know it is stupid to expect a Malick film to be anything other than awful nowadays but damn that is a fine cast. A sexed up Portman (see the onset photos!), Fassbender, Mara, Gosling, Blanchett, Bale...etc.
At least his insticts were right about Steve Jobs.
SHAME
HE MAKES ME SWOON BABYYY
His performance in Shame was incredible, ditto to his role in 12 years a slave.
Favorite? That's tough given that he's often outstanding. Depending on the day my answer could be any one of his performances in Shame, Prometheus, or Frank. Today I'll say Prometheus.
He made me cringe in a performance almost everyone else loved - I thought he was far too over-the-top in 12 Years a Slave.
Favourite: Shame
Most Underrated: A Dangerous Method
1. Jane Eyre (sooo underrated)
2. Shane
3. Hunger
4. Fish Tank
5. 12 years a slave
Funnily enough, I've liked him in everything except his two Oscar nominated performances, 12 Years a Slave and Steve Jobs.
He's so overrated in my opinion. I'll never understand this place's and the critics hard ons for him.
Explain how he was miscast, idiot. Best performance of last year.
They're offering free eye and ear exams at the public health clinic to those in need.
Favorite performance: impossible to pick, but I will mention Jane Eyre and the underrated Angel
Cringeworthy: Jonah Hex?
Yes, Prometheus is his best work thus far...also loved him in Fish Tank and Jane Eyre.
I agree with ScottC that his 12 Years performance was OTT...in one scene, he made an odd choice to rest his arm on top of a female slave's head. It almost felt comedic and it didn't fit in with the tone of the film...I was surprised Steve McQueen left that in the final cut.
He was actually excellent in Steve Jobs. In a different year, a winner. I still think he's underappreciated and, with the right roles, will go on to be a Great.
@SoSue - the way he rested his arm on her head was akin to someone casually resting their arm on a wall, ledge, etc. He thinks so little of his slaves that he nonchalantly reduces them to objects. I didn't find that scene comedic at all; on the contrary, I thought it was one of the better scenes in explaining Epps psychology and character.
he made an odd choice to rest his arm on top of a female slave's head. It almost felt comedic and it didn't fit in with the tone of the film
The gesture illustrates slaves as human property. Treating his human property as furniture is meant to drive home the unbearable conditions of American slavery.
He's always great. Just a fantastic actor and ranks among the best of his generation. My favorite of his is Shame where I was completely captivated. We do NOT talk enough about that movie.
Probably my favourite movie actor working today.
My pick as his best work so far would be "Fish Tank". Funnily enough the only false note I've ever got from him was the to-camera breakdown moment in "Shame", but I know I'm in the minority with that.
Fish Tank: his sexiest. And probably best.
Other favorite, at the opposite end: Prometheus
I was also quite impressed by him in Steve Jobs. I agree he was miscast, but in the end I found him completely riveting & convincing. (This is sort of left field, but it reminded me of my reaction to Winona Ryder in 1994's Little Women; when she was cast, I thought it was the worst idea ever, and then loved her in the movie. Like Fassy, she made the character her own.)
MDA and 3rtful...I get your points, but the gesture felt more in tune with Django than 12 Years.
Definitely neither OTT nor comedic (in the traditional sense anyway) in 12 Years a Slave. A heinous character and one of his better creations, perfectly matched by Sarah Paulson.
It's probably 'cos he didn't look like him that he thought was bad,I couldn't get over that and agreed he had his moments but he appears in too many lousy films,if that's considered criticism.
He could make me do lots of things, but cringe is not one of them.
1. Shame
2. Steve Jobs
3. Jane Eyre
4. Fish Tank
5. Inglorious Basterds
No, he's never made me cringe although I think he can do so much better than be with Alicia Vikander.
OOoh...I forgot about Inglorious Basterds. The pub scene is perfection!
but the gesture felt more in tune with Django than 12 Years
Blame Quentin for tainting your viewing experience of Slave with his shit movie on the subject.
lylee - yeah Fish Tank is def his sexiest, never looked better. That's my fave performance as well.
I don't think he's ever made me cringe and I quite liked his performances in the X-men movies, particularly First Class. That was the first movie I saw him in and he was very charismatic.
1. Fish Tank
2. Hunger
3. Macbeth
4. A dangerous Method
5. Jane Eyre
6. Shame
7. Inglorious Basterds
Miscast in: Steve Jobs. And I dont like him in: 12 years a slave ... so over the top
I think he was miscast at Macbeth, or at least the direction did not do him well. The movie is visually beautiful, but both Fassbender and Cotillard were too whispery, at the expense of the beauty of the language, which is the best thing in any great Shakespearean performance. I had to put on subtitles, I was struggling so much with the line delivery.
In the minority, but I strongly dislike him in Steve Jobs, a movie I consider genuinely terrible, mostly due to Sorkin's script, which caters to all his worst tendencies.
His first attempt at Magneto was actually fine and his chemistry with McAvoy carries most of X-Men: First Class.
I actually like him a lot in 12YAS, Steve McQueen brings out some great moments out of him, but I totally get why some people would consider it over the top. Overall, his partnership with McQueen is inspired.
Prometheus is a mess of a movie, but he is great in it. Top 3 android performances of all time.
I love his scene in Inglorious Basterds, but to me Diane Kruger owns it. She's a delight in that movie. Same thing with A Dangerous Method. He's perfectly fine, so is Viggo, but that movie is all about whatever the hell was going on with Keira Knightley (I usually love her, but her acting is very bizarre in this particular movie).
Overall he is a very good actor with moments of utter brilliance. I just wish he will not follow the Marlon Brando/Joaquin Phoenix/Christian Bale road to insufferably self serious actor territory.
Miscast in jane eyre. Im suspecting it changes in light between but ive never completely believed michael fassbender being in love onscreen.
My favorite leading man in Hollywood this decade.
1. Hunger
2. Fish Tank
3. Shame
4. Prometheus
5. 12 Years a Slave
HM: Inglorious Bastards, Steve Jobs, A Dangerous Method, FRANK(big underrated Fassbender performance)
Truly one of the most overrated actors working today. Glad he's dating Alicia Vikander so they can keep their black hole of awful contained.
@SoSue
https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/14368637_1207966745941669_8019027066069084666_n.jpg?oh=e3f59551956ba8c61e9df5b88c79a6fe&oe=5840ECA5
@ /3rtful
James Mason in Mandingo, which I believe McQueen and Fassbender were referencing.