by Jim Maloney
In the end Michael focused on one particular man for his portrayal of Brandon. ‘I was very grateful that somebody was open enough and brave enough to give me an insight into it. Then it was a matter of treating it with the utmost respect and not hiding behind certain characters or caricatures of any sort. I tried to keep it as close to me as possible so that it was relevant to me, just as it could be to any regular guy on the street.’
Brandon has problems with intimacy because he doesn’t feel in control of such things. This makes him lonely and destructive. He’s a complex character and one that Michael, as an actor, enjoyed trying to understand. ‘Most men think about sex a lot. We know that. But for someone like Brandon it is a compulsion. That’s where the shame comes in: you’re no longer in control of your choices.’
The only woman Brandon finds attractive but cannot treat in his predatory, love-’em-and-leave-’em way is his work colleague Marianne (Nicole Beharie). The two go on a date where she teases him about his lack of commitment in relationships, the longest of which has lasted just four months. Later, to Brandon’s shock, he is unable to sexually perform with her in bed.
In an interview with the Irish Independent, he opened up a little about his own personal life. ‘I could relate to certain elements of Brandon. A lot of guy friends I’ve spoken to since then have said the same thing. But what has really struck me is how grateful I am to have a healthy relationship with sex and my own sexual life. I like intimacy, whereas Brandon flinches at the notion. There’s no gratification in his sexual acts. It’s just a compulsion, with no nourishment or pleasure.’
The shoot on X-Men: First Class ran a little over schedule, cutting into Michael’s precious preparation time. This was always very intense and comprehensive and he felt that he particularly needed it for a complex man like Brandon in Shame. An interview with Dazed & Confused magazine gave some insight into his technique. ‘When dealing with any fictional character I write a biography,’ he explained. ‘That’s simply to give me a confidence within the character and what he’s going through in the here and now. That’s one of the first things I do: What did his parents do? What was he like in school? What does he have for breakfast? Whatever the questions are. Those are the kind of things that goes into the preparation.
‘I spent a lot of time with the script, reading and re-reading it. So through that I get to understand the rhythms of the text and the rhythms of the character, the physical life of the character. You just try to find it in yourself. But most of it, though, is down to me working with the script, working with the dialogue and understanding the character. All these things start to seep into your enamel. That’s the system I do with every job.’
In another interview, he compared his approach to that of a sportsman getting to the top of his profession through constant practice. ‘Look, there are no secrets to anything in life. Tiger Woods is Tiger Woods because he practised that fucking swing a hundred times a day. Why should acting be any different? It’s just boring repetition and, through that, I find things start to break down and you start to find the nuances, all the interesting little details.’
But his X-Men commitment meant that his time was limited. They had just five weeks to film it and so he busily immersed himself in the script, doing his usual re-reading during filming and learning more about the character and his inner demons as he went along.
Michael also took time out in between finishing X-Men: First Class and focusing on Shame to attend a special tribute to the British producer Jeremy Thomas, arranged by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences at the Curzon Theatre in London on 25 November. Jeremy, whose father Ralph had directed the Doctor… series of comedies and whose uncle Gerald the Carry On movies, had won an Oscar in 1988 for The Last Emperor, the first of his many collaborations with Bernardo Bertolucci.
Tom Conti, who had starred in Jeremy’s 1983 production Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, hosted the evening of spoken tributes, film clips, video messages and conversation covering Jeremy’s 40-year career. Michael introduced the first footage from A Dangerous Method, for which Jeremy had acted as producer.
Michael also managed to squeeze in three days of filming on John Maclean’s second short movie, Pitch Black Heist, which saw him team up again with Liam Cunningham as two crooks who try to break into an office safe. But the presence of a light-activated alarm system means they have to do it in darkness. Despite John having a bigger budget this time, it was still made for less than £30,000 and the blacked-out screen used for the final part of the 13-minute film was a canny cost-saving ploy. Most of the short was filmed at the house of a friend and the dialogue was recorded later. The rest of it, featuring the two thieves discussing the robbery in a pub, was shot at The Dolphin in Hackney, near where Michael lives.
Despite being intrigued by the subject matter of Shame and excited by the prospect of working with Steve again, Michael was not looking forward to baring all on screen. ‘I was self-conscious, for sure, but it was something I had to get over very quickly,’ he said. ‘Those scenes are really where you get an insight into the guy’s psyche. When you see him naked, it’s in more ways than one. So by concentrating on that you get over the fact that you’re stark bollock naked. It’s not that big a deal anyway. A proportion of us in the human race have penises and another proportion of them have seen them, whether they be mothers, girlfriends or partners or whatever, so I don’t know why it’s so unusual to show that in a movie.’
Further, he reasoned, women had been stripping off in movies for years and it was about time the tables were turned. ‘For women it must be refreshing to not always have to see women parading around naked while the guy always has his pants on.’
Michael also argued that there was far less of a commotion about violence in film than sex and nudity, saying that it seems to be more the norm to have a gun in your hand and shooting somebody. He was more concerned about the welfare of the actresses with whom he shared the sex scenes than his own anxieties. ‘You try to make sure that your partner in the scene is comfortable. I’d say, “Let’s go for it now and it’ll be over soon.” It sounds terrible, like a really bad chat-up line!’ he said with a laugh.
Carey Mulligan thought Michael had been brave to take on the role. ‘A lot of actors, especially when they are as talented and good looking as Michael, only want parts where they are shown in a good light,’ she told the Irish Examiner. ‘If I learned anything working with Michael, it’s that he’s utterly fearless.’
Michael returned the compliment to Carey. ‘She was very easy to work with because she was brave, throwing herself into the mix. When you’re working with Steve it can be quite a frightening experience but also very exciting and educational because there are no safety rails and nowhere to hide.’
Carey admitted to being nervous working with Michael because she admired him so much as an actor. ‘It was quite scary because I’ve watched him and looked up to him for years and so it was like working with one of my idols. But he’s great. He makes you feel so comfortable and he’s very supportive.’
Interestingly, they decided not to socialise outside of filming because the characters they were playing were at loggerheads with each other and the two actors felt it would help their work if they didn’t become too friendly.
Working with Steve may be a ‘frightening experience’ (in Michael’s words) but it was always exhilarating and the bond between the two men was becoming ever stronger. Both wanted to work with each other more than anything else and there was a very real mutual respect. ‘I really consider Steve to be a genius. I know that’s a word that gets bandied around but when I met him, I knew it was a life-changing moment for me,’ said Michael. ‘He’s a great leader. He inspires people. When we were making Hunger, he worked with such passion. I could see it so clearly on people’s faces, the joy of coming to work every day. In New York, shooting Shame, I saw the same thing again. People want to do their very best for him. They don’t want to let him down.’
Michael
also appreciated Steve’s humility and no-nonsense approach to life. Despite the fact that Michael knew nothing about the art world, he said that Steve never made him feel inadequate or stupid. ‘There’s something very old-school mannerly about him. I’ve really found my teacher in Steve and hopefully he’s found an apprentice in me,’ he told the Hollywood Reporter.
One of those ‘frightening experiences’ occurred early on in the shoot when after a particularly intense scene Michael commented, ‘Yeah, that’s pretty good for a first take. You know, not bad.’
Steve looked at him and said, ‘Let’s have a chat.’ They then went into a separate room where Steve told him, ‘Some actor geezer just came into the room here. That wasn’t Michael Fassbender. I know what you’re doing but you’ve got to find something different.’
‘I was like, “Oh, shit,”’ Michael recalled. ‘So I went back to the drawing board and tried to pare things down and just make them honest.’
During a break in filming he told Total Film magazine, ‘I’m spending a lot of time with the character and getting to know him. So throughout the day I’ll think, “What would Brandon do in this scenario?” It’s about trying to understand and relate to him, as opposed to judging. That would be a mistake.’
The restaurant scene is perhaps the only charming one in the movie, showing the awkwardness, the pauses and flirtation of a first date. Initially there were pages of dialogue for the actors but, when they were ready to shoot it, Steve suggested that they improvise much of the dialogue to make it seem more realistic. When Brandon and Marianne are walking back after their date, he asks her which era she would most like to live in. When it’s his turn to answer, Michael expresses his own private fantasy that he has always wanted to be a musician in the 1960s.
The bedroom scene was actually shot before the one in the restaurant. Nicole had been dreading it and was very relieved by how supportive and understanding Michael was. ‘I just tried to pretend there wasn’t a camera in the room,’ she said. ‘Michael is so engaged and so much fun to work with. I know I couldn’t have gotten through that scene without him. He is a total gentleman.’
Michael had always hoped to find a director as in tune with his ideas as Steve and considered himself extremely fortunate to have done so. For his part, Steve, a big, imposing man, with a rather stern default expression, talked about Michael as he might a lover in some newspaper interviews. ‘With Michael I’ve actually met someone with whom I have some kind of link,’ he told The Times. ‘It’s odd. Strange. And I never saw it coming. It was never a thing for which I strived. But when you find someone, it’s like falling in love. You want to keep it. And I think myself and Michael are very pleased that we’ve found each other in that way.’
His praise for Michael’s acting ability knew no bounds and he put him firmly up there with the all-time greats – and Michael’s heroes. ‘There is no one like Michael out there right now. And there hasn’t been, for me, since Marlon Brando. There’s a fragility and femininity to him, but also a masculinity that can translate. You’re not in awe of him. You’re part of him. He pulls you in. And that’s what you want from an actor. You want people to look at him and see themselves.’
During a break in filming to promote Jane Eyre, Michael modestly brushed aside a journalist from the Irish Voice Reporter who mentioned his impressive list of film credits. ‘Oh, Jesus, it’s all luck and timing,’ he said. ‘I think you have to be aware of when your opportunities are coming. When Hunger came my way I just knew I had to get that one right. I was being given a chance to get my foot in the door. I think being aware of that and seizing it when it’s there helped. That feeling of timing is really important in this business, definitely. Having business awareness is important too.’
When he wasn’t flying around the world making and promoting movies, Michael was now happily settled in the East End of London. Although he had enjoyed the weather and creativity of Los Angeles, he found the necessity of driving everywhere rather than walking odd. He preferred the buzz of New York – one of his favourite cities – where he could walk the streets and enjoy the sights and sounds. This was the type of thing he loved doing in London.
In an interview with the fan website, fassinatingfassbender.com, he told how he likes to keep upbeat and talk to and smile at people he sees throughout the day. ‘That interaction with people, and getting on the tube in the morning and buying your ticket… If you have a little conversation with the person who is giving you the ticket, smile and ask how their day is going, that sort of perks them up a little. And that exchange makes me feel good then to start my day off, you know. I think it’s likewise for most people, you know that interaction, it keeps us going.’
When he was making it in the business, it had been New York that symbolised the dream of being an actor. He told the French magazine Obsession that his acting method had come from the books and writings of Stanislavski and Lee Strasberg, the whole school of the Actors Studio. But as he couldn’t afford to live in New York he had settled in London instead. But that, too, had proved very expensive and he’d had to keep finding cheaper accommodation. Now that he was in much better financial shape he was rediscovering the joys of living in London compared to car-bound LA or the frenetic pace of New York. ‘It’s a place where you can take your time. I need to walk the streets and see the seasons change and not have endless sunshine.’
He expanded on the subject to Radio Times magazine: ‘I love London. I love its diversity, the wonderful mix of people. I love the fact that I can afford to take the tube without worrying about it. I keep an eye on the money I make because it’s important for me to make sure that I don’t go back to counting every 50p. If you can survive in London, you can survive anywhere.’
Now, after an intense five weeks of filming on Shame, he was looking to relax. He had enjoyed the experience of playing Brandon but it had left him drained. It had been the toughest job of his life, he admitted, and from someone who had starved himself to play a hunger protester, that was no lightweight remark. ‘I enjoyed being honest with myself making the film and exploring those things that society has deemed to be shameful,’ he said. ‘I don’t have the answers to a lot of the moral questions but it’s important to pose them.’
However, he was quick to disperse any notions of him being the kind of actor who believed in suffering for his art. ‘I don’t want to be one of those actors who’s sitting there saying, “This is such hard work,” when obviously there’s a lot of people out there doing proper hard graft,’ he told the Sunday Independent. ‘But the fact of the matter is that this was the fifth film of six films I did over a twenty-month period and they were all back-to-back so I was jumping from one personality to the next. By the time I got to Shame, I was kind of tired.’
Having made 5 films in just 12 months – Haywire, Jane Eyre, A Dangerous Method, X-Men: First Class and Shame – he had been looking forward to an extended rest. It had been a hectic period, diving from one project to the next and creatively exhilarating. But now it was time to sit back, take stock and enjoy some downtime. That was the plan. But then, to paraphrase one of his heroes, Marlon Brando in The Godfather, he was made an offer that he couldn’t refuse.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
SPACED OUT
Sir Ridley Scott, whose directorial credits include Blade Runner, Thelma and Louise, Black Rain and Gladiator, had contacted Michael during the filming of Shame to say that he would like him in his latest movie, Prometheus. Despite feeling jaded after a run of back-to-back movies, Michael knew he couldn’t turn down the chance to work with such an acclaimed director. He would do one more film and then take a break.
It was to be another blockbuster movie, and rumoured to be a prequel to Scott’s 1979 sci-fi classic, Alien. The story follows the crew of the spaceship Prometheus in the year 2085, as they explore an advanced alien civilisation to uncover the origins of humanity. Michael was to play a lifelike human android named David, the latest creation of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation,
headed by Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce). Swedish actress Noomi Rapace was to play archaeologist and scientist Elizabeth Shaw after Scott had been impressed by her performance as Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.
Charlize Theron was cast as Meredith Vickers, Weyland’s company rep on the spaceship, captained by Janek (Idris Elba). The other crew were Logan Marshall-Green (best known for his TV roles in 24 and The O.C. and the movies Devil and Brooklyn’s Finest) as hot-headed scientist Charlie Holloway, Rafe Spall (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead) as botanist Milburn and Sean Harris (Brighton Rock, Harry Brown) as geologist Fifield.
Michael was fascinated by David, by his multiple functions as butler, housekeeper and maintenance man aboard the spaceship, and by the way the crew treated him. Because he is not human he routinely fails to get any respect and his superior intellect and advanced physicality gives rise to some contempt. This brought in the intriguing notion of how David would feel about the crew over time. Is he capable of emotions? What if he started to develop human personality traits? For two and a half years the crew are in cryostatis – a sleeping state – so David matures differently over that period of time. What does he do to amuse himself?
News of Prometheus caused a big stir among fans of Alien. Ridley was determined to keep details of the script from being leaked, so secrecy was paramount. The cast had to sign clauses forbidding disclosure of story details and their first reading of the script was under supervision in Ridley’s production office.