by Jim Maloney
AND THE WINNER IS…
On 11 January 2009 Michael attended the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, where he saw Steve McQueen win Best First Feature for Hunger. There was more personal success, though, at the London Film Critics Circle Awards, held at the Grosvenor House Hotel on 4 February, where Michael won British Actor of the Year in an impressive category that listed Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley, Michael Sheen and Dev Patel. Steve McQueen won the Breakthrough British Film-maker award.
The annual whirlwind of awards ceremonies saw Michael at the BAFTAs on 8 February, where he was nominated in the Rising Star category but lost out to Noel Clarke. Hunger also lost to Man on Wire for Outstanding British Film, but Steve picked up the Special Achievement award for his first feature film. Six days later Michael was back in Ireland for the IFTAs at the Burlington Hotel, Dublin.
Michael had been dividing his time between his home in Hackney, east London, hotels around the world and Leasi Andrews’ house in Bel Air, Los Angeles. While in LA, his pilates teacher reintroduced him to his boyhood pastime of archery and he frequented the Rancho Park Archery Range on Motor Avenue with her, her husband and Leasi. Another favourite LA pastime was browsing at Book Soup, a bookshop on Sunset Boulevard. He particularly enjoyed reading one of his favourite authors, Hunter S. Thompson, whose journalistic style appealed to him. But it wasn’t all living the Hollywood dream. Michael had to get his hands dirty one day when there was a problem with the plumbing and, in his words, he spent a couple of days ‘literally mopping up shit’ before it was fixed.
Whenever asked about his love life by journalists, the usually talkative Michael politely declined to furnish any details. But Leasi accompanied him to the IFTAs, where she met his family and friends and watched him being honoured by his homeland on a victorious night. Hunger had been nominated in eight categories and swept the board with six awards, including Best Film, Best Actor for Michael, Best Supporting Actor for Liam Cunningham, Original Score, Production Design and Sound. In addition, Michael received the Rising Star award and was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor in television for The Devil’s Whore.
Michael expressed his delight and relief that all the hard work involved in playing Bobby Sands and the concern over the sensitive nature of the story had ultimately paid off, given the international acclaim that Hunger had received. ‘There were times when I questioned what I was doing to myself but the people involved in the film, who were so passionate and talented, kept me strong,’ he said. ‘Now for the film to have received so many awards and nods from our peers in the industry makes all the effort worthwhile. I’m just so glad that it has done so well and has got the recognition that I believe it truly deserved.
‘I guess that no matter what else happens in my career from here on I can always say I had this amazingly successful night and this fantastic film where I can say, “I did that, I achieved something great.”’
He later joked to reporters that he was surprised to win the Rising Star award. ‘I’ve been doing this for over ten years so I wonder why I’m still getting Rising Star awards, but it’s great to get it in Ireland, which is where I consider home.’
Hunger was overlooked for the Oscars but Michael won a consolation Best Actor at the Kermode Awards in London on 17 February. Hosted by the BBC film critic, Mark Kermode, the light-hearted event rewards those who have been overlooked by the Oscars and Michael turned up cheerfully to accept his honour.
During the filming of Inglourious Basterds, Michael had signed up for the lead role in director Neil Marshall’s new movie, Centurion. The story centred on the historical event where the elite Ninth Roman legion disappeared without trace after entering Scotland to do battle with the Picts. On the way back from Berlin, after filming of Basterds had wrapped, Michael got talking to an amateur historian and told him about the project. But he was taken aback by the man’s succinct reply. ‘He said, “Yeah, that’s bullshit. They were nowhere near Scotland,”’ Michael told The Times. ‘But it didn’t put me off!’
Michael was cast as the centurion Quintus Dias who, during the Roman conquest of Britain in the second century, led a group of soldiers on a raid of a Pictish camp to rescue a captured general, played by Michael’s 300 colleague, Dominic West. But when the son of the Pictish leader is murdered during the raid, the Romans find themselves hunted by a seemingly unstoppable group of the Picts’ most vicious and skilled warriors, led by a beautiful and deadly tracker (Quantum Of Solace actress Olga Kurylenko) and hell-bent on revenge.
By now Michael was used to changing his body shape to play a role – be it losing weight or bulking up – and he took to the gym once more to play a very muscular-looking Quintus. ‘I’m lucky I take after my mum’s side of the family and have a really fast metabolism,’ he has said. ‘When I do get into the gym whenever possible, I tend to do boxing training. Jump rope, focus mitts, heavy bag, push-ups, reps, high intensity.’
Filming took place in the Highlands of Scotland in February 2009 in freezing temperatures with snow, ice, wind and rain. The very first day of shooting turned out to be the biggest trial for the cast and they wondered what they had let themselves in for. They had to make their way to a peak near Inverness using specially adapted Norwegian Army snowmobiles to transport them in sub-zero temperatures, with the actors wearing authentic thin Roman tunics and only overcoats for extra protection against the elements. Once there they had to tramp through two feet of snow with bare arms and legs as the cameras rolled. ‘It was pretty cold but you knew what you were getting on screen was going to look pretty impressive,’ said Michael.
Fortunately for the cast, Neil Marshall works very fast so they didn’t need to do many takes. ‘There wasn’t too much acting to do on the part of the actors,’ he said. ‘They got up there in their Roman outfits. They’ve got bare arms and they were absolutely freezing. So they were genuinely clinging close to keep warm. When they’re shivering on screen, it’s real. I wanted that.’
Among the health and safety notes handed out to the crew was a telling sentence which read, ‘Actors are subject to risk of cold-water shock, hypothermia, water inhalation and drowning.’ The temperature dropped to minus 18ºC that day and Noel Clarke, who played a centurion, got frostbite. In one scene, Michael is on the run from the Picts with a handful of his soldiers, played by David Morrissey, Dimitri Leonidas and his Hunger colleague, Liam Cunningham. They drift down an icy river before hauling themselves ashore. At the end of a day’s filming their favourite warming meal was a hot curry.
Despite the ordeal, Michael enjoyed shooting another action adventure, which required a lot of running, riding, sword fights and litres of blood as killings and decapitations abound. But he had to be dissuaded from undertaking one of the boldest stunts in the movie – jumping from a high-sided gorge into the deep, rushing water. Neil Marshall was full of admiration for Michael. ‘He is absolutely dedicated,’ he recalled. ‘He’s up for anything, whether it’s jumping into an icy, cold river or getting on a horse and riding at high speed. I’m sure if I’d said yes he would have jumped off the cliff into the river but somebody had to hold him back and say, “No, no, no – let’s not get carried away here!”’
Michael liked the pace of the film and Neil’s no-nonsense approach. ‘Neil is one of those directors who really enjoys what he’s doing,’ he told the Independent. ‘There’s no fuss. It’s bang, bang, bang. He moves at a pace and he’s happy to be on set every day. He loves shooting entertaining films.’
The part of Quintus intrigued Michael. ‘We know that Quintus’s father was a famous gladiator who won his freedom in the Coliseum. I thought that was quite interesting – somebody who lives in the shadow of his father and feels like he’s got a lot to prove. As the film progresses, he’s thrown into a position of command. I thought it was quite interesting to play with his doubts and the journey of the man – how he actually steps up to the plate and takes command. We know at the beginning he’s very much for the ethos of Rome; he totally believes in it
. But as the film moves on he becomes disillusioned with the Roman Empire.’
The movie received mixed reviews, although even the better ones generally thought the characters were one-dimensional or, at worst, unbelievable. ‘Rousing if slightly predictable,’ said Variety. ‘An entertaining if uneven historical drama that starts stronger than it finishes,’ griped Total Film. ‘Energetic, relentless and tipping towards monotony,’ commented the Guardian. ‘A gritty, brutal chase movie that’s more about swords (and spears, and axes) than sandals – although it could have done with a lot more character-meat on those bones,’ complained Empire.
At least Michael received some kinder words. ‘The fearless, credible Fassbender deserves better than this,’ insisted Time Out, and the Financial Times was impressed by his performance. ‘He shines. There is a nice seriousness to Fassbender – he looks utterly humourless – and has the remove and weird separateness of a young William Hurt.’
Meanwhile, the Wuthering Heights project had failed to get off the ground. A new director, Peter Webber, took over the project in May 2009, casting Gemma Arterton and Ed Westwick in the lead roles, but this version, too, failed to achieve lift-off. Angela Arnold eventually took over in January 2010, using Kaya Scodelario and James Howson as her Heathcliff and Cathy.
So, in June 2009, Michael – having enjoyed his romp as a Roundhead in The Devil’s Whore – chose to fulfil another boyhood dream by appearing in a Western. Jonah Hex is a DC Comics character created by John Albano and Tony DeZuniga, and first appeared in All-Star Western magazine in 1972. A violent, facially scarred bounty hunter, he roams the American western frontier in the 19th century, having battled alcoholism and dealing with his mother turning to prostitution.
In the movie version, Jonah is a Confederate cavalryman during the Civil War. He is ordered by his commanding officer, General Quentin Turnbull, to burn down a hospital but Jonah refuses and is forced to kill his best friend, Turnbull’s son Jeb. After the war, a vengeful Turnbull and his right-hand man, Burke – a psychotic who takes pleasure in torture and killing – tie Jonah up and force him to watch as his house is burned down with his wife and son inside. Turnbull then brands Jonah’s face with his initials, QT, and leaves him to die. He escapes and turns to bounty hunting but when a sheriff refuses to pay him for bringing in four dead outlaws and plans to kill him instead, Jonah shoots him and his deputies and takes the money owed him. Meanwhile, a very much alive Turnbull is planning a terrorist attack for 4 July during the celebration of the American centennial. The US Army makes a deal with Jonah to track down and kill Turnbull in exchange for his freedom.
Filming of Jonah Hex began in Louisiana in April 2009 with Josh Brolin in the title role, Megan Fox playing his love interest – a gun-wielding prostitute called Lilah – John Malkovich as Turnbull and Michael as Burke – a bowler-hatted, tattooed Irishman. ‘It was a trip, really, because it was a Western in one sense and then a comic book in another and we just sort of went all out and had as much fun with it as we could, and didn’t get stuck in any genre,’ Michael told an audience at Comic Con in San Diego, California, in July 2009. ‘It’s all boys with toys and cowboy costumes – a dream come true.’
Michael took his inspiration from A Clockwork Orange when it came to wearing the bowler. He couldn’t quite figure out the character of Burke until he went to the costume designer and found a bowler hat, which he tried on. ‘Once I put the bowler hat on, I channelled Burke through that,’ he said. ‘Burke is Irish but he’s ended up in America so I always thought he was running away from something in his past. He’s an opportunist. He’s a mercenary first and foremost. His weapon of choice is a Bowie knife and he likes to kill fresh prostitutes. That’s where he gets his kicks.’
Michael also referenced some of the crazed personality of Frank Gorshin’s portrayal of The Riddler in the 1960s Batman TV series. Initially he was asked to wear a lurid green three-piece suit but he baulked at the outfit and asked them to tone down the green or he would be a laughing stock back home in Ireland! It was eventually muted into a muddy green/brown suit and grey shirt.
The film, directed by Jimmy Hayward, was a huge flop – shunned by movie-goers and panned by critics. The San Francisco Chronicle was succinct – ‘A plot would have been nice.’ The Washington Post thought the short running time was long enough – ‘Jonah Hex may not be the longest 81 minutes you ever spend, but it might well be the most tedious.’ And the Boston Herald compared it unfavourably with an earlier film Michael had been in – ‘It’s the latest in a long, stinking line of graphic novels adapted to the screen in the wake of the huge, surprise success of Zack Snyder’s far superior 2006 effort 300.’
The movie fared no better in Britain. ‘Almost everything is wrong with it,’ said the Daily Mail. ‘Every character is a stereotype, from the macho, scarred bounty hunter who’s lost his family and now goes round killin’ people to a couple of cackling villains (John Malkovich and Michael Fassbender).’ The Guardian dismissed it as ‘simply wretched, borderline-nonsensical comic-book fantasy’. To the Observer it was ‘a loud, coarse, overblown adaptation of a comic book, a choppy, sub-Leone affair in which the longest sustained sequence is the rolling of the final credits’.
No one, it seemed, was holding back on their attacks. The Daily Mirror highlighted its box-office failure: ‘Having already bombed big-time in the US, our search for the biggest turkey of 2010 ends right here.’ ‘It’s a loud and subtle-as-a-sledgehammer assault on the senses, though, at 81 minutes, mercifully short,’ said the Daily Telegraph. And Empire magazine called it, ‘an object lesson in how not to adapt a comic book. A crushing disappointment’. Ouch.
Michael had taken time out during the filming of Jonah Hex to attend the Cannes Film Festival in May. This event was doubly exciting for him because two of his movies were being presented there for competition – Fish Tank and Inglourious Basterds. Michael took his parents with him and his father was intrigued to hear his son talking German in the film. ‘It’s funny to see and hear Michael speaking German with the English accent,’ Josef told Killarney newspaper, the Kingdom.
Like his son, Josef found Quentin Tarantino to be a fascinating man. ‘It was so funny. We were sitting in Cannes, in the hotel lobby having a drink, and Quentin Tarantino come over and says, “Do you mind if I sit here?”’ he recalled. ‘I said to myself, “Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Tarantino asked if he can sit with us!” But he is a very interesting man. The knowledge the man has – like a computer – and any film you mention he has seen it. What impressed me was his knowledge of Germany. Things that only Germans would know, he knows. He’s a man who does his homework well.’
Josef also remarked on his son’s choice of roles and his good fortune in having worked with such top film-makers. ‘He likes to do different things, to be on the edge, I think. He has been very lucky to work with creative directors. Andrea, I know, likes plays with characters and things like that. Steve McQueen is more visual effect. Then he was with Tom Hanks in Band of Brothers. He picked some good ones.’
Both films were short-listed for the main award, the prestigious Palme d’Or, but the prize eventually went to The White Ribbon, a film shot in black and white about unexplained violent events in a remote German village in 1913. But Fish Tank was a joint winner of the Prix du Jury award, which Andrea had won in 2006 for Red Road, and Christoph Waltz won Best Actor for Inglourious Basterds for Landa – the role that Michael had wanted!
Quentin was asked by the world’s press why his movie’s title had such an unusual spelling but he refused to explain. ‘Here’s the thing. It’s not a typo,’ he said. ‘I’m never going to explain it. When I do an artistic flourish like that, to describe it would be to invalidate the whole process.’
On its commercial release Inglourious Basterds received mixed reviews. The New York Times called it, ‘Simply another testament to his movie love. The problem is that by making the star attraction of his latest film a most delightful Nazi, one whose smooth talk is as lovingl
y presented as his murderous violence, Mr Tarantino has polluted that love.’ The Los Angeles Times felt it over-long and rambling – ‘A film that loses its way in the thickets of alternative history and manages to be violent without the start-to-finish energy that violence on screen usually guarantees.’
There was a similar view in Britain from the Daily Telegraph – ‘Tension is evoked, but never mounts. Intrigue is created but never sustained.’ The Daily Mail agreed but with a more critical edge – ‘His warfest is a gore-fest. Yes, it shows off his strengths – clever, suspense-filled dialogue and directorial flair. But it also shows off his weaknesses – long-windedness, a juvenile desire to shock, and unappetising elements of sadism, racism and transatlantic triumphalism.’ The British tabloid press proved more receptive. The People described it as ‘thoroughly enjoyable and a real return to form for Tarantino’ and the Sunday Mirror hailed it as ‘a bloody, all-guns-blazing romp’.
Rolling Stone magazine, while acknowledging that the movie would be divisive, found it ultimately irresistible – ‘Will Basterds polarise audiences? That’s a given. But for anyone professing true movie love, there’s no resisting it.’
By this stage of his career, Michael had managed to leave far behind his initial image as ‘the man from the Guinness commercial’ in Ireland. Now he was invited to hold an acting master class at the Galway Film Fleadh in June, which took place on 11 July. As part of the Fleadh’s tribute to him, Hunger was screened there. A couple of days later he flew out to Italy to enjoy the revels of the Ischia Global Film & Music Festival before attending Comic Con 2009 in San Diego, California.
If the critics had had their doubts about Inglourious Basterds, there was nothing equivocal about their reception of Fish Tank when it opened in September. It won rave reviews. ‘A neo-kitchen sink drama, Fish Tank immediately ranks her [Andrea Arnold] among the greats of social realism, right up there with Tony Richardson, Ken Loach and perhaps even John Osborne,’ said the Daily Mirror, which called it ‘the best British film of the year’. The Daily Telegraph, too, was full of praise – ‘Well observed and certainly qualifies as one of the most distinctive British releases of 2009.’ And Empire magazine said it was, ‘a vivid portrayal of life at society’s margins with a compelling turn from newcomer Jarvis’.