Quotes from Michael Fassbender


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Why does a three-year-old, and it's usually boys, want to drive the tractor or have machinery and be in control of it? I don't know. Why wouldn't you ask to boil a kettle or something? Maybe you would, I dunno.


I take my work seriously but I can't take myself too seriously. I'm in such a crazy privileged position.


It's more interesting isn't it, if I've got a hedonistic dark side?


The arts are very alive in Ireland, so that had its influence on me. But I consider myself European, really.


As an audience member, those studio films are fun. I like an adventure tale, and I also like to go see something that has more of a social pulse. I like to keep learning and trying new things. And if the scripts are good, it doesn't really matter.


Magneto has a whole lot of complexity to him. Emotionally, he's coming from a very damaged place. I like the ambivalence of it. I want the audience leaving the theater wondering, asking the questions themselves rather than being spoon-fed like a lot of these super-villain characters.


Scratch the surface of what's socially normal. I suppose in some way all of us have something we display to the public and things we feel too ashamed of or uncomfortable with to reveal to other people.


There's no point thinking, 'Well, my life's certainly worked out, I've got all the answers.' It would be wrong for me to say that I don't get seduced by certain things. That things don't become tempting.


We feel a lot of pressure about looking silly or appearing weak, whatever that means, or being a failure. You have to keep in your head: what's the worst that can happen?


Everything I put my name to and take part in, I want to be good. That's not saying it will always happen. But I want to make bold choices.


You know, it's amazing. I don't even have a car, would you believe it? I had a motorbike and it got stolen last year. So I've got to buy another one of those, I suppose. I can treat myself to that.


I came to Los Angeles and did auditions for television. I made a terrible mess of most of them and I was quite intimidated. I felt very embarrassed and went back to London. I got British television jobs intermittently between the ages of 23 and 27, but it was very patchy.


I'm fairly competitive.


I've always been more inclined to go out to work than carry on with academic studies.


We did a lot of that in drama school: intellectualising and maybe justifying your position. 'I am a thinking actor and I have thought this through' - well, just do it. I much prefer the doing aspect.


'Hunger' definitely changed my life, in terms of being recognized by filmmakers, since that was very much a filmmakers' film.


I always approach film as a fan.


There's no point in swanning through and being cool as a breeze in every scene. It's not really that interesting. Even if you're a superhero.


People are complicated. Our behavior towards one another is strange. So I like opportunities to investigate that.


I'm always interested in trying to investigate different personalities. I want to keep myself guessing and keep the fear element alive, so that I don't get too comfortable.