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An Interview with Michael Fassbender By Jack Jones As the door swings open, all that can be seen is a shadowy figure hunched over a coffee table, sipping what seems to be a much-desired remedy of black coffee. There is little to suggest that this particular figure is in fact one of the most in demand actors in the world at the moment and someone who is quickly becoming one of the most astonishing screen presences for a generation. Michael Fassbender is extremely welcoming and laid back, but it is immediately clear that the demands of “20 months� of hard filming and press commitments have taken their toll. A pair of very noticeably tired eyes tell the story of his commitment to the films he makes, but his enthusiasm to talk about his second film with director Steve McQueen is unwavering. And as sex-addicted Brandon in Shame he’s never been as impressive or compelling.
It is noticeable, even after the first shoot is an indication of his almost masochistic relationship with the few introductory and polite questions, that Fassbender is an roles he takes on. actor who is intensely involved in In Shame it seems that there are the roles he plays “It seemed to no engths to which and utterly dedicated Fassbender won’t go to be in the to researching everyensure he holds up, as -thing he can in order media, but he puts it, “my end to prepare himself. of the bargain”. Gruelnobody was “Intense” is also someling though it may be, tackling it ” Fassbender is driven to thing of a buzz-word for the Irish-German actor, and “investigate” and in Brandon he when it comes to shedding light has found a character that is sufferon his experience of playing ing from a very “real disorder”. “Of Brandon in an astonishingly recent times nobody was dealing honest and bleak depiction of with it (sex addiction) Fassbender addiction, the extent to which explains. “It seemed to be in the he admits to have “lived with the media, in and around people’s character” for the duration of the consciousness, but nobody was
tackling it. So for me, when I say it was an ‘obvious’ thing to approach, to look at and to investigate, it’s becuase it is real, it is happening and a large number of people claim to be suffering from it”. It is immediately clear that this is an actor who is willing to tackle, even search out perhaps, roles and subjects on order get under what is really going on within our own societies. And his dedication to pulling back the vaneer of socalled ‘civilised’ humanity in films such as Shame, not forgetting his previous work with Steve McQueen in Hunger, reveals so much of
what we don’t want to see, but in the end much of what we should. As a character Brandon on the outside appears very normal, Shame though quickly introduces his routine of sexual activity that he must indulge in on a daily basis. Confident on the exterior, Fassbender reveals the inner turmoil of Brandon as “somebody who doesn’t hold himself in very high esteem and in fact doesn’t like himself very much.”. Nothing of Brandon’s routine is fueled by gratification, but rather necessity. All the more enforcing the tragic
“It is real, it is happening”
plight of someone suffering from this particular addiction. A problem for Fassbender is that sex addiction is not “officially recognised as a disorder or an addiction.”. He admits that when first researching for the film he asked himself “what is it really, is it real?”. But when he finally met sufferers of sex-addiction he became aware of the full extent of the damage that the disorder causes. An experience he describes that left him realising that it is “really real very quickly. And you see how many lives are devastated by it. For me, there’s no question that it is a real disorder and is one that should be taken very seriously.”. When questioned on the possible rise in sex addiction as a result of readily available pornography via the internet, Fassbender is extremely educated on the matter. “Case studies” that he had looked revealed some of the extreme nature in which sex addicts exist. Examples included men who had locked themselves away for “72 hours” in pursuit of prolonged periods of sexual activity. The key for Fassbender was that addiction is something that is defined by where “a pattern of behaviour is developed and that pattern of behaviour is becoming a very damaging cycle.”.
Though Brandon has established his own cycle, the arrival of his eccentric and extrovert sister Sissy, brilliant played by Carey Mulligan, throws his entire life into flux. The “balance is tipped”, ultimately sending Brandon into a maelstrom of more lurid and desperate encounters. In fact, the strained and at times explosive relationship between Brandon and Sissy is the one glimpse into any sort of cause that may have made Brandon the way he is. Shame never fully reveals anything, prefering to be notably ambiguous, and is all the more realistic as a result. Fassbender is convinced of the importance of ambiguity on this film, “With this story you don’t want to have a paragraph of dialogue where Sissy and Brandon expositionally explaining where they come from because that’s not the way it really happens in life. This is a slice of somebody’s life. That life continues after the film is finished and has been rolling before we arrive.”. Eloquent, intelligent and always fascinating, there is no hyperbole in hailing Fassbender as one of the great actors of modern cinema. He is truly extraordinary in Shame and believe me when I say, there’s plenty more where this came from.