The Acting Style Of Michael Fassbender

Michael Fassbender in the past decade has risen to the height of popularity and critical acclaim. Fassbender persona comes across as an actor with a certain level of intelligence and maturity.

Spending the first half of the decade focusing on smaller more groundered writer/director work such as ‘Fish Tank’(Fish Tank, 2009) and ‘Hunger’ (Hunger, 2008), Fassbender gained a reputation as an actor with a high level of integrity. At this stage in his career if you went to see one of his films you would expect a certain level of complexity to the film and his performance, with a certain level of critical acclaim. ‘Once dubbed “Britain’s Brando”, he brings to every part an intensity of commitment that makes audiences feel they are not watching a performance, but spying on a man’s rawest private self.

This sense of intrusion is both electrifying and unsettling; it can feel almost indecent’(Aitkenhead, 2016,n. p). As he has progressed through the decade he has begun to spread into larger big budget films such as the Xmen (Xmen: First Class, 2011) and Alien (Prometheus, 2012) franchises while maintaining a certain level of integrity. Even if the film was not considered great, his performance would be often considered reason enough alone to see the film. A lot of what people think about Fassbender comes from his training and the directors he aligned with himself early in his career. Training at Drama Centre London, he received a small level of prestige from coming from a top level drama school famous for its supposed level of mental intensity. And then rising to prominence while working with directors such as Steve McQueen(Hunger, 2008) and Andrea Arnold(Fish Tank, 2009), you understand why he would gain the reputation as an actor who works hard on intelligent projects. A lot also comes from where he chooses to be interviewed. Regularly being interviewed by The guardian(Aitkenhead, 2016,n. p) and GQ Magazine (Chris Heath, 2018).

These are sources with a certain level of integrity with the public and his quotes within them often paint him as a thoughtful and meticulous actor. Fassbender has revealed a certain level of information about his personal life but often refuses to go into much depth. “I’m so guarded. I feel a little uncomfortable. I’m not going to say”(Aitkenhead, 2016,n. p). Himself and his team want to keep this air of the unknown about him. ‘There are a lot of very intelligent actors out there, I would say. I just think maybe what comes across as unintelligent is, we end up talking about ourselves an awful lot’(Aitkenhead, 2016,n. p). It’s hard to pin Fassbender down to any one genre as he often moves between them regularly, such as Sci-Fi (Prometheus, 2012), Superhero (X men: First Class, 2011) and Western (Slow west, 2015). This is to a certain extent the expacation when it comes to his films in the last couple years of his career. You expect him to make large and exciting choices in terms of characters he plays and the films he choose to star in. In fact if we were to summarise the pattern Fassbender takes, he usually associates himself with writer and Directors with a high level of creative control and who in the past have gain their own level of respect. We can see this in films such as Quentin tarantino’s ‘Inglourious Basterds’ (Inglourious Basterds, 2009) and ‘Haywire’ (Haywire, 2011) by Steven Soderbergh. ‘The main things I base my choices on are the director and the script. I boil it down to those two simple things’(Cleland, 2018,n. p). Fassbender has partnered himself with many creatives forces across many different genres. Before you even seem him in the film you assume the film is going to be original.

If we look across Fassbender’s films it’s clear we are looking at an actor who trying to constantly challenge what people expect from him and do things that excite him but may prove less so to a wider audience. Starting his career as a grounded and intenstence british actor in projects of prestige such as ‘Hunger’ (Hunger, 2008) and ‘Inglourious Basterds’ (Inglourious Basterds, 2009). He then began to widen his scope into more mainstream blockbusters such as in the ‘Xmen’ (Xmen: First Class, 2011) and the ‘Alien’ Films (Prometheus, 2012). However keeping up the level of critical acclaim in his work. We expect him to do a good job with a big range. ‘Whether it was more that Hunger sparked something within Fassbender, or whether it simply alerted the film world that here was an actor who could do so much more than had yet been asked of him, after that one role everything seemed different. He could be equally entrancing as a weak-willed charmer in a low-budget British domestic drama (in the very fine Fish Tank) or as an iconic comic-book character in a blockbuster (in X-Men: First Class)’ (Chris Heath, 2018) Littered through this times are the more straightforward dramatic type films such as ‘Jane Eyre’ (Jane Eyre, 2011) and ‘A Dangerous method’ (A Dangerous Method, 2012).

However we also have films that were more complex challenges that pushed against dominant and expected ideas. Such as in ‘Shame’ (Shame, 2011) where Fassbender has many scene of full frontal nudity and portrays a sex addict. Challenging an audience ideas of male nudity on screen and uncomfortable subject matter that is glossed over and rarely talked about. We can often expect his films to challenge us. He has in recent years even moved away from this image of a typical leading man/ Dramatic actor such as in the film ‘Frank’ (Frank, 2014). You almost never see his face and portrays a character that is not super easy to empathise with. You expectation of not knowing what to expect to a certain level has become the expectation for Fassbender. To a certain extend many or the roles Fassbender plays align with are what audience considered to be hard or good acting. The assumption is what we are about to watch will will a character of intense growth or challenges.

There will be scene were his performance will be larger and the ‘acting’ will be easier to see. ‘If one had to find a common thread in his diverse résumé, it would be through strands of physical and emotional extremes’(Galchen, 2018). To this extent a lot of the time we go into a Fassbender film knowing that it will have a lot of awards buzz surrounding it. He has been nominated twice for an oscar and his acting is often what mainstream audiences would considered as good acting. This doesn't take away from his choices, it just means that our expectation of what we will see in a Fassbender performance is often clear.