Name: Michael Fassbender Breaks Down His Career, from 'Inglourious Basterds' to 'X-Men' | Vanity Fair
Uploaded: 2026-01-29T09:03:06.000Z
Duration: 17 min 39 s
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To-infinitive

When we got to Days of Future Past, Ian McKellen was going to be in the same movie as me.

Gerund

So I called him up and I was like, how do you feel about doing my accent, Ian?

Past simple

Hi, I'm Michael Fassbender, and this is the timeline of my career.

I got the name right, didn't I, Christiansen?

I just had figured out that I wasn't going to be a lead guitarist in a heavy metal band because it just wasn't good enough.

In my third year, I've had recurring dreams where I've gone back to drama school to finish the last six months, which shows that there's some sort of, like, psychological effect that that's had on me.

O', Keefe, you're sitting on your bayonet there.

When I got cast in Band of Brothers, I was working nights in a warehouse.

It was more physical job than I had planned, but

I realized that I was just so tired during the day because I was doing night shift.

So it was like, start at, like, 8 o' clock at night, finish at 7 in the.

And I just didn't have the energy to go to auditions.

But I felt like I really didn't want to go to them because I was just so tired.

And then I thought, wait a sec, something's got to change here.

And then I got an audition for Pearl harbor and Band of Brothers.

I think within, like, two weeks, I auditioned for both those jobs.

I did a good audition for Pearl harbor, but they cast Ben Affleck.

It was like a sweet response that was good for my confidence.

And then the other one was Band of Brothers.

The first day of Band of Brothers, I remember actually going to boot camp.

We all got together in Hatfield, where they had shot Saving Private Ryan.

We all met up there, and we got into all our army gear, and

then we got in a bus and we headed off to boot camp for 10 days.

So I have really clear memories of that first day.

Our ancestors built this wall using ancient stones from the bosom of Greece herself.

And with a little Spartan help, your Persian scouts supplied the mortar for 300.

I think we trained for 10 weeks before we stepped in front of a camera.

And because the film is so physical, I think I have Maybe four lines in the movie, maybe.

So it's very much physically based character performance.

But, yeah, I just enjoyed the fact that I was, you know, getting in shape and getting paid.

I'm clear of all the repercussions, but I will act, and

When I first met Steve McQueen, I thought the meeting went really well and he hated me.

I remember I got the script for Hunger, and

I was thinking, oh, you know, my mom's from Northern Ireland.

I was very conscious about doing something that would show respect to everybody that comes from there.

And so I went in to meet Steve and I was just immediately taken by him.

He was just an original mind and an original person.

I knew I was gonna learn a lot working with him.

And I left the meeting and I was thinking, great.

And he was like, I don't wanna see that guy again.

The casting director was like, no, I really think this is the guy.

At least call him back to do an audition, at least.

So he called me back, I did the audition, and that was it.

From that day on, we became fast friends and really close.

It's a subtextual film criticism study of the work of German director GW Pabst.

I remember when I first saw Pulp Fiction, I was just like, what is this?

It was so new, and he was such an influence on me starting out as an actor.

He's just an encyclopedia when it comes to anything that's been on screen.

And he is so passionate, and every character that he's written, he knows and loves.

So you better know and put in, you know, the attention, the detail to everything, because he has done it.

You know, even that thing of like, three, you know, that detail.

I realized my dad's German, so he always counts first with the thumb, and

And I was like, that detail is, like, classic, you know, Quentin Tarantino, to pick up on that detail, to put it in his film and to make it such a monumental moment in that scene in the tavern.

Lets just say I'm Frankenstein's monster.

What really drew me to that story First Class.

And the character was this idea of an outsider and what it feels like to be an outsider and to feel like you don't belong.

And that, for me, was an interesting core to work from for the character and to find the justifications in what his actions were, which, again, were pretty monumental.

The lengths that he was willing to go to and what the motivation of that was.

If you're in there, I'd like you to know that I agree with every word you said.

When we did X Men First Class, I talked to Matthew Vaughn about the accent.

You know, should I go in the direction of McKellen?

He's like, your accent so weird and funny.

And then when we got to Days of Future Past, Ian McKellen was going to be in the same movie as me.

So I called him up, and I was like, how do you feel about doing my accent, Ian?

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Michael Fassbender Breaks Down His Career, from 'Inglourious Basterds' to 'X-Men' | Vanity Fair

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