Michael Fassbender

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#4,111
Here is a story from the night from a fan:
The day Michael Fassbender hugged me

I first met Michael Fassbender (who, if it hasn’t been obvious enough, it’s not only my favourite actor but also someone I like to - jokingly ;) - refer to as ‘my future husband’) at the A Dangerous Method London premiere last October. I took a small poster that said ‘You transfix me quite’ (my favourite quote from Jane Eyre). He thought it was very funny and that’s why I ended up talking to him for longer than normal. I asked to take a picture with him but he said that unfortunately there wasn’t time, so then I lost my dignity and said “Can I get a hug, a handshake, anything?!”. Fassy, being the sweet gentleman he is, smiled and reached for my hand, held it for a bit, winked and carried on. But as he signed autographs for two other people he kept turning back and smiling for a picture my friend was taking, without either of us even realising it at the time. :)

So basically, it was perfect and I knew no other meeting would be perfect enough.

But hello, BAFTA Awards.

After a night in the FREEZING streets (I never felt so cold in my entire life), we got a pretty awesome spot in the red carpet. But it was SO crowded that I started worrying I wouldn’t even see him. And then, there he was, waiting to be interviewed, across the carpet from me. So I started yelling “MICHAEL!” and as soon as he turned, showed him my poster - the same one as before (‘You transfix me quite’). He smiled and winked at me. I assumed that was it, and was happy.

And then, some 15 minutes later, I see Fassy walking in my direction. Not coming back to sign autographs (he hadn’t signed any before), but walking straight to me. He just stopped in front of me and smiled (as I freaked out, of course). He signed my book while I probably said some nonsense and then I added: “Can I hug you?” and he just said “Of course”, and went for it. And I just stood there hugging Fassy in complete disbelief that it was happening. Then I told him he had made my entire year and he was so sweet, just smiling and saying that he really appreciated it. Then I asked to take a picture and again he said ‘of course’ (no talk of not having time whatsoever!) and I just put my arm around his shoulder and he did the same and the picture is so perfect and I cannot believe it really happened.

Only after all that (ah, I also mentioned that this was the best birthday present ever as my birthday was on Friday and he wished me a late Happy Birthday) did he start giving other people autographs - with my pen. After a few he was told to leave and asked around ‘Whose is this again?’ and I joked ‘Mine, your crazy fan’s!’ and he just smiled and said ‘No, not at all!’.

So yeah. Michael Fassbender is perfect, in case anyone had any doubts. And I’m the happiest girl in the world today. I can’t believe he did all that. And with that perfect shark smile of his.
 
#4,113
Ejm1059 said:
Here is a story from the night from a fan:
The day Michael Fassbender hugged me

I first met Michael Fassbender (who, if it hasn’t been obvious enough, it’s not only my favourite actor but also someone I like to - jokingly ;) - refer to as ‘my future husband’) at the A Dangerous Method London premiere last October. I took a small poster that said ‘You transfix me quite’ (my favourite quote from Jane Eyre). He thought it was very funny and that’s why I ended up talking to him for longer than normal. I asked to take a picture with him but he said that unfortunately there wasn’t time, so then I lost my dignity and said “Can I get a hug, a handshake, anything?!”. Fassy, being the sweet gentleman he is, smiled and reached for my hand, held it for a bit, winked and carried on. But as he signed autographs for two other people he kept turning back and smiling for a picture my friend was taking, without either of us even realising it at the time. :)

So basically, it was perfect and I knew no other meeting would be perfect enough.

But hello, BAFTA Awards.

After a night in the FREEZING streets (I never felt so cold in my entire life), we got a pretty awesome spot in the red carpet. But it was SO crowded that I started worrying I wouldn’t even see him. And then, there he was, waiting to be interviewed, across the carpet from me. So I started yelling “MICHAEL!” and as soon as he turned, showed him my poster - the same one as before (‘You transfix me quite’). He smiled and winked at me. I assumed that was it, and was happy.

And then, some 15 minutes later, I see Fassy walking in my direction. Not coming back to sign autographs (he hadn’t signed any before), but walking straight to me. He just stopped in front of me and smiled (as I freaked out, of course). He signed my book while I probably said some nonsense and then I added: “Can I hug you?” and he just said “Of course”, and went for it. And I just stood there hugging Fassy in complete disbelief that it was happening. Then I told him he had made my entire year and he was so sweet, just smiling and saying that he really appreciated it. Then I asked to take a picture and again he said ‘of course’ (no talk of not having time whatsoever!) and I just put my arm around his shoulder and he did the same and the picture is so perfect and I cannot believe it really happened.

Only after all that (ah, I also mentioned that this was the best birthday present ever as my birthday was on Friday and he wished me a late Happy Birthday) did he start giving other people autographs - with my pen. After a few he was told to leave and asked around ‘Whose is this again?’ and I joked ‘Mine, your crazy fan’s!’ and he just smiled and said ‘No, not at all!’.

So yeah. Michael Fassbender is perfect, in case anyone had any doubts. And I’m the happiest girl in the world today. I can’t believe he did all that. And with that perfect shark smile of his.
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That's a sweet story. :smile1: I'm happy for her. Ah, you just gotta love the man.
 
#4,116
Michael Fassbender on fame, money and falling asleep in Holby

From extra to Hollywood tough guy - the Bafta nominee and Shame star talks about his rise to stardom

It’s a decade since Michael Fassbender launched his career with a string of relatively small parts on television. He remembers with a smile, for instance, when he inadvertently nodded off while filming a guest spot for Holby City.

“Band of Brothers was my first TV gig and then I did Hearts and Bones and then Holby City,” he recalls. “I played a guy who had his spleen taken out. I remember it clearly because I fell asleep on the operating table.

“The trouble was they were filming the scene over and over again and focusing on all the doctors operating on me and I was lying there with my eyes closed and I just drifted off. I woke to hear someone whispering, ‘He’s fallen asleep.’ ”

These days, he’d probably welcome the chance to grab 40 winks. Fassbender is not only one of the hardest-working actors in Hollywood today – he’s barely paused for breath after making six films back to back – he’s also universally regarded as one of the boldest and the best. Blockbuster- making studios are bombarding him with scripts and the German-born, Irish-raised, 34-year-old is now firmly established on the A-list.

Shame

He’s up for the best actor award at the Baftas for his haunting performance as a sex addict in Shame, competing against Hollywood stalwarts: Gary Oldman (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Brad Pitt (Moneyball), George Clooney (The Descendants) and Jean Dujardin (The Artist). It’s a brilliant portrayal of addiction and Fassbender, playing an Irishman living in New York hooked on joyless sexual encounters and internet porn, as well as his co-star Carey Mulligan, who plays his equally damaged sister, are both excellent.

Fassbender admits that when British director Steve McQueen first approached him about Shame he was daunted but not, perhaps, in the way that we might expect. It wasn’t the nudity (and Fassbender definitely does get naked) that made him nervous but the challenge of doing the role justice, he says.

“The sex scenes aren’t exploitative or gratuitous; they are there for a reason, they are there to show this guy’s inner life. He’s at war with himself and he doesn’t like himself and he is doing very damaging things to himself and yet he is trying to find some level of real intimacy, but he just can’t deal with it.

“I knew that I wanted him to go to places that were ugly and sort of display that ugliness within the character but I had the confidence, from the way he was written, that an audience would feel for him. And if it had been a different director, I would have been a lot more wary because some of the scenes are pretty graphic, but I totally trusted Steve.”

Student

He’s clearly travelled a long way since arriving in London, a wide-eyed 19-year-old fresh from his home town of Killarney in Kerry, to study at the Drama Centre and ending up working in a bar at Victoria Station to make ends meet.

“Yes, for £3.29 an hour,” he laughs. “I’d do an 11-hour shift on a Saturday and an 11-to-4 on a Sunday and by the end of it I was knackered. And they had me on emergency tax as well, so at the end of the week I was seeing something like £15. It was a real struggle for the first three years and to be honest, I don’t know how I did it.”
It’s given him a sharp appreciation of both the city he now calls home (“I love London, I love its diversity, the wonderful mix of people”) and the value of a hard-earned pay packet. Even if these days they are a lot fatter.

“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.”

Fassbender left college with a burning desire to get on, but like a host of other young hopefuls he struggled and, at times, went back to bar work to pay the rent. Hollywood, if he ever dared dream, was a long, long way away.

“But you know, my self-belief system was always pretty good. It wasn’t ‘I’m amazing, it’s a travesty I’m not getting more opportunities.’ It was just that I felt I was good enough to be working and that keeps you focused.

“But if the demons did creep in a little bit, I’d been working in the catering trade quite a lot and I kind of supposed I could have gone down that avenue if acting didn’t work out.”

Career

He didn’t need to, of course. In 2008 Steve McQueen cast him as Bobby Sands in Hunger, playing the Irish ********** who died on a hunger strike in the Maze Prison near Belfast in 1981. It changed his career almost overnight.
He went on a strict 600 calories a day diet and lost 2 stone 9lbs for the role. Such radical weight loss must have been troubling for his parents?

“Yes, they did worry,” he says. “But they know me and they know that if I decide to do some- thing, I’m going to do it and they were very supportive. Luckily they weren’t around me when I was at my skinniest. And you get kind of grumpy when you aren’t eating, so it was easier for me not to have anyone around.”

He is very close to his parents – his mother, Adele, who is Irish, and Josef, his German father, who ran a restaurant together. Recently, he set off on a motorbike road trip with his dad, driving across Europe to the Venice Film Festival where Fassbender had two films showing.

“We’d talked about doing it years ago and then I thought, ‘Right, now’s the time.’ So I said to Dad, ‘Do you fancy it?’ And we did about 5,000 miles. Hats off to him, he’s as tough as nails.

“But you know, my mum, bless her, was a bit worried. And I was worried for him and he was worried for me. Both of us nearly came to an end on different occasions.

“At one point I was sandwiched between two speeding cars and I could feel the rush of wind as one missed me by a whisker. Another time he nudged out onto a road and looked right but the car was coming from the left and again it was inches away. But thank God, it was all fine.”

Mainstream

Off screen, then, and on, he is a man who likes to take risks. And while he has chosen more mainstream roles – X-Men: First Class, the recently released thriller Haywire and Ridley Scott’s science-fiction film Prometheus, out in June – he is clearly drawn to edgier fare, playing the brooding Rochester in Jane Eyre and psychiatrist Carl Jung opposite Viggo Mortensen’s Sigmund Freud in A Dangerous Method (in cinemas 10 February).

Given some of the roles he’s played, you might expect a bit of a tortured soul. But in person he’s down to earth, likeable and friendly. He’s single and prefers not to discuss his love life, but apart from that he chats easily and laughs frequently.

He may have been caught napping on the job – just that once – but Fassbender cannot be accused of taking his eye off the prize... and at the Baftas he may well get his hands on one.

The British Academy Film Awards are on Sunday at 9:00pm on BBC1 and BBC1 HD

This is an edited version of an article in the issue of Radio Times magazine published 7 February 2012
 
#4,117
I've been lurking in this thread for a while and wanted to say hi. I'm a romance writer...glommed onto Michael to stimulate my own creative process, and now I've become hooked on him as a fan. I've lurked at a few places but I like the tone of this place best so I hope to stick around.

I'm also in Atlanta and wondering if Twelve Years a Slave will be filmed here...possible Michael-stalking opportunities. :graucho::D
 
#4,119
I am fascinated by Benedict right now. He and Michael are the same age, but it seems that Cumberbatch really wants kids at this point right now while Michael seems to be in no rush.

When playing Sherlock Holmes, Benedict Cumberbatch is like a shaken-up Bollinger bottle of emotion. When he steps out of costume, it's as if he has suddenly been uncorked.

"What has been your biggest disappointment?" the actor was asked in an innocuous Q&A in a weekend supplement. "Not being a dad by the age of 32," he responded. "What do you consider your greatest achievement?" "I wish I could say children," he said.

Maybe its just me, but I love when men admit to wanting kids. Benedict just broke up with his long time sweetheart so hopefully, he will find someone who will make him happy.
 
#4,120
Ejm1059 said:
I am fascinated by Benedict right now. He and Michael are the same age, but it seems that Cumberbatch really wants kids at this point right now while Michael seems to be in no rush.
When playing Sherlock Holmes, Benedict Cumberbatch is like a shaken-up Bollinger bottle of emotion. When he steps out of costume, it's as if he has suddenly been uncorked.
"What has been your biggest disappointment?" the actor was asked in an innocuous Q&A in a weekend supplement. "Not being a dad by the age of 32," he responded. "What do you consider your greatest achievement?" "I wish I could say children," he said.

Maybe its just me, but I love when men admit to wanting kids. Benedict just broke up with his long time sweetheart so hopefully, he will find someone who will make him happy.
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Me too.

He seems so nice & sweet. I am sure he'll be a great dad.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/article-23858710-benedict-cumberbatchs-my-london.do


"What would you save from a fire?

My girlfriend, Olivia Poulet, and her parents' dog Mitch if she was there, too."

"Where did you last go on holiday?

I had a few days' break from filming Third Star in Pembrokeshire which I spent with my girlfriend. Last Christmas I went skiing in Kandersteg in Switzerland with my girlfriend's brother and his hilarious baby twins. We also went to a wedding in Croatia. We made a holiday of it and visited a beautiful little island called Korcula."



Ben is obviously a better DH material , even if Michael is very sexy.
Like that he used to talk about his ex a lot and talks about kids.


;)
 
#4,121
But Michael is honest, so the women know what to expect. That's good too.

It's wise of him to date younger women right now , as probably they don't want to get married and have kids now. Not young actresses at least.

As Michael said he wants kids in the future so a woman who does't want kids at all would not be a good match either.


That's why Nicole would be good for him, she seems like an intelligent young lady and serious actress.
Old enough to be a woman , not a girl , but young enough to not to be in hurry with the family thing.

Then of course Michael dates whoever he likes.

;)
 
#4,125
Gemini Chica said:
Well, that's that, then.

I hope Artica got some good luck tonight! Can't wait to find out how things went for her. Hopefully she got to meet Michael again. :smile1:
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My BAFTA experience was lots of fun, but sans Fassbender. The only famous Ginger I saw this weekend was Prince Harry when he left BAFTA on Friday and that guy is super fast when it comes to jumping in a car. Jeez!

Yesterday morning my colleagues and I went quickly on stage and I noticed that they had changed the seating area and that Michael had been moved to stage right. I believe his seat was on the 4th or 5th row. I was also surprised to see that Brad Pitt was sat one row behind Daniel Radcliffe and Penelope Cruz. WTF?

During the recording I was mostly backstage so the only people I saw where the winners and the presenters of those awards. When Pitch Black Heist won best short I screamed YES!! and I slapped the guy sitting next to me on the shoulder. He must have thought I was completely mental.

As the evening went by it was becoming quite apparent that The Artist was taking over the BAFTAS. It's an amazing film, but there were lots of other great (British) films out there as well. They could have devided the awards a bit better.

To my huge surprise Dujardin ran off with the BAFTA, something I didn't expect at all. I had thought that only Oldman would have been able to beat Michael. Guess I was wrong and I wasn't the only one. People backstage were a bit shocked that Dujardin was the winner instead of ‘The Bender’ as some chaps called him. I nearly bumped into Jean on my way to the main stage, and I couldn't help but think that it should have been Michael.

As soon as I walked on stage I tried to find Fassy in the crowd. I couldn't find him. I did see Ian Canning and Emile Sherman, but no sign of Michael or Steve. I looked over to the other side and I saw Pitt and Clooney chatting together, but no Fassy. Perhaps he and Steve had left early or they were chatting to people in the back.

As the winners were asked to come back on stage for the winners group shot, I felt a little disappointed that some handsome French guy was standing where a hot German-Irish guy should have been standing. But then Film God aka Martin Scorsese gave a smile and I that made my night.

I have some crappy pics taken backstage if anyone wants to see them. No pics of Pitt or Scorsese, because I couldn't take pics on stage.

Oh and let me repeat: Michael Fassbender is NOT short! The same cannot be said for Daniel Radcliff. I nearly backed into him on stage during rehearsals. He was wearing brogues with 1inch soles and he was still tiny and very skinny.
 
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