Throughout his film career, Irish actor Michael Fassbender has been unafraid to take risks, tackling a wide variety of unusual roles, from an almost-human robot and a IRA freedom fighter to a legendary psychiatrist and a musician wearing a papier-mâche head. It’s a filmography that would daunt some actors and inspire still others, and for Fassbender, it’s a film career that has only really just begun.
Along the way, Fassbender has been able to be a part of an enviable mix of breakthrough independent films, searing personal dramas, and even a few franchise moneymakers. Most importantly, he has collaborated with such premier filmmakers as Ridley Scott, Danny Boyle and Quentin Tarantino, with perhaps the most significant relationship in his career being with with filmmaker Steve McQueen, whose three-film collaboration with Fassbender (“Hunger,” “Shame” and “12 Years a Slave”) have raised the bar for each man to new artistic heights.
With his recent films with Taika Waititi and David Fincher, Fassbender’s winning streak is not yet at an end. So in celebration, let’s raise a glass to the two-time Oscar nominee by counting down and ranking his 14 best performances on screen.
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14. NEXT GOAL WINS (2023)
Image Credit: Photo by Hilary Bronwyn Gayle. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. Director: Taika Waititi Writers: Taika Waititi, Iain Morris. Starring Michael Fassbender, Oscar Kightley, Kaimana, David Fane, Will Arnett, Elisabeth Moss, Rhys Darby.
In Taika Waititi’s sports comedy, Fassbender offers a grounded counterpoint to the wacky goings-on in Waititi’s take on the true story. Hotheaded Dutch-American soccer coach Thomas Rongen (Fassbender) is given a choice — getting fired or turning the historically inept American Samoa soccer team into an elite squad. While he is given moments of surprising physical comedy, Fassbender calls upon his dramatic chops in Rongen’s scenes with his ex-wife Gail (Elisabeth Moss) and particularly with his star player, faʻafafine center back Jaiyah (non-binary actor Kaimana). The film’s tonal shift may not always work, but Fassbender delivers a solid performance throughout.
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13. 300 (2007)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Ent. Director: Zack Snyder.
Writers: Zack Snyder, Kurt Johnstad, Michael B. Gordon.
Starring Gerard Butler, David Wenham, Lena Headey, Dominic West, Michael Fassbender, Rodrigo Santoro.
Fassbender’s feature film debut in Zack Snyder’s fantasy war epic “300” certainly was a memorable one. As the fearsome Spartan warrior Stelios with his chiseled features and Fabio-like hair, Fassbender certainly made audiences sit up and pay attention to his every move. But those who came for his washboard abs quickly stayed for Fassbender’s skills, not only physical strength in his fearsome warrior mode but also, more importantly, his growth as a character as Stelios considers that his fight for Sparta may end in his “perfect death.” In “300,” Fassbender was able to offer audiences just a hint of the distinguished career that was to come.
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12. FRANK (2014)
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Director: Lenny Abrahamson.
Writers: Jon Ronson, Peter Straughan.
Starring Domhnall Gleeson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Scoot McNairy, Michael Fassbender, Carla Azar, François Civil.
Even as he was becoming a major movie star, Fassbender never forgot his indie roots, as evidenced by his starring role in “Room” director Lenny Abrahamson’s quirky comedy “Frank” as a the leader of a pop group who decides to wear a giant papier-mâché head in order to cover his face, perplexing band newcomer Jon (Domhnall Gleeson). That Fassbender would agree to obscure his expressive facial features with a mask throughout an entire film shows courage enough, but to create a relatable, empathetic character from beneath the head is a testament to his many acting skills.
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11. X-MEN series
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Whenever many successful film franchises cast younger versions of beloved characters, they often choose young actors with few prior credits so as to maintain the illusion. So when Fassbender was asked to play the young Magneto in a series of four “X-Men” prequels, however, the big question was whether audiences would buy the guy from “Inglorious Basterds” as a young Ian McKellen. Did they ever. Not only did Fassbender build the character of Erik Lehnsherr from the ground up in his transformation into Magneto, but he wisely included just enough of that McKellen twinkle in the eye to link the older and younger versions of the character.
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10. JANE EYRE (2011)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features Director: Cary Fukunaga.
Writer: Moira Buffini, based on the novel by Charlotte Brontë.
Starring Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender, Jamie Bell, Judi Dench, Sally Hawkins.
Though Edward Rochester, the romantic lead in the Charlotte Brontë novel “Jane Eyre,” is described in the novel as being short and ugly, the tall dashing Fassbender casts looks aside in Cary Fukunaga’s film version to focus on the character’s inner turmoil. Though men are automatically considered superior beings to women in the mid-1840s, Fassbender’s Rochester finds to his shock that his love interest, the spirited Jane, is every bit his intellectual equal. The unusual romance at the core of the story has to be believable onscreen for the film to work, but luckily Fassbender and his co-star Mia Wasikowska provide chemistry to spare.
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9. PROMETHEUS (2012)
Image Credit: Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox Director: Ridley Scott.
Writers: Jon Spaihts, Damon Lindelof.
Starring Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Guy Pearce, Logan Marshall-Green.
For the sci-fi horror epic “Prometheus,” director Ridley Scott offered Fassbender the unusual opportunity to play David, a robot on board a space ship that begins to develop human attributes of its own. Playing a robot onscreen can often be a trap for actors as their non-human characters can often come off as, well, robotic. Fassbender avoids that pitfall, however, by playing up by David’s growing human qualities, while at the same time including a number of quirks (speech patterns, physical manners of walking) that suggest that David is still not quite human. It’s a well thought-out performance that pays off in big ways by the film’s climax.
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8. A DANGEROUS METHOD (2011)
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Director: David Cronenberg.
Writer: Christopher Hampton.
Starring Keira Knightley, Michael Fassbender, Viggo Mortensen, Vincent Cassel.
As legendary psychiatrist Carl Jung, Fassbender triumphed in a dramatic battle of wits with his rival Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) in David Cronenberg’s historical drama “A Dangerous Method.” Based on a play by the film’s screenwriter Christopher Hampton, the film posits Freud and Jung having opposing theories on the case of Sabrina Spielrein (Keira Knightley), a patient suffering from hysteria whom Jung takes on as his lover. While Knightley received praise for her performance, most critics agreed that the meat of the film was the mano-a-mano intellectual battle that Fassbender and Mortensen took on with such relish.
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7. THE KILLER (2023)
Image Credit: Netflix Director: David Fincher. Writer: Andrew Kevin Walker. Starring Michael Fassbender, Tilda Swinton, Charles Parnell, Arliss Howard, Kerry O’Malley.
As an actor, Fassbender has been known for years to have a stoic presence in his films, quiet yet commanding, so it makes perfect sense that David Fincher cast him as a solitary but deadly assassin in “The Killer.” But Fassbender contributes something new here that really makes his unnamed character click: a mordant sense of dark humor. Throughout the film’s first act when Fassbender’s killer is methodically setting up to erase his next victim, his voiceover narration reveals his bleakly funny approach to his work, followed by the biggest joke of all — after all that preparation, he misses. It’s a wonderfully droll piece of acting by Fassbender.
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6. FISH TANK (2009)
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Writer/Director: Andrea Arnold.
Starring Katie Jarvis, Michael Fassbender, Kierston Wareing, Rebecca Griffiths, Harry Treadway.
Following up his breakthrough 2008 film “Hunger,” Fassbender scored a second indie triumph with Andrea Arnold’s “Fish Tank,” a BAFTA-winning coming of age drama. Mia (Katie Jarvis), is just trying to survive her teen years with her abusive mother when Mom’s new boyfriend Connor (Fassbender) comes into their lives and shows a particular kindness to Mia that stirs longings inside her 15 year-old body. Fassbender received wide critical praise for his performance, wisely playing Connor not as a creep or a predator at first but as a man who soon recognizes that his liaison with the young teen will only lead to trouble and heartbreak. Beautiful work.
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5. INGLORIOUS BASTERDS (2009)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Francois Duhamel Writer/Director: Quentin Tarentino.
Starring Brad Pitt, Mélanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Eli Roth, Michael Fassbender, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, B.J. Novak.
Fassbender won his first Screen Actors Guild Award as a member of the large ensemble of Quentin Tarantino’s war drama for his work as Lt. Archie Hicox, a British commander who helps the Allied team led by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt). The role of Hicox, a former film critic who fancies himself an expert on German cinema, came naturally to Fassbender who himself was born in Germany and learned German as his first language. His Hicox is not a man without an ego, and when Fassbender at times uses just a hint of condescension in his line readings, it adds an unexpectedly delightful element to the war film.
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4. HUNGER (2008)
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Director: Steve McQueen.
Writers: Enda Walsh, Steve McQueen.
Starring Michael Fassbender, Liam Cunningham, Liam McMahon, Brian Milligan.
Talk about dedication to a role. Fassbender weighed a slender 170 pounds when he as cast as legendary IRA leader Bobby Sands who earned worldwide attention when he began a famed hunger strike while in prison. When you see Fassbender’s emaciated frame during the final scenes of Steve McQueen’s feature film debut, there is a shock that lends an authenticity to the performance that goes beyond the standard notion of good acting. “Hunger,” the first of three collaborations between the filmmaker and the actor, set the artistic bar high for the pair, a level of excellence they managed to exceed in their subsequent films.
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3. 12 YEARS A SLAVE (2013)
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Director: Steve McQueen.
Writer: John Ridley.
Starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong’o, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Sarah Paulson, Alfre Woodard, Brad Pitt.
Fassbender’s third collaboration with Steve McQueen proved to be the charm, resulting in a Best Picture win for “12 Years a Slave” and a Best Director nomination for McQueen. For Fassbender, his nuanced performance as Edwin Epps, a ruthless and sadistic slave owner, brought him his first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Though Epps’ cruelty, designed under the cloak of religion, is clearly on display, the actor manages to find glimmers of humanity within him, allowing us in to see the man whom Epps might once have been. Fassbender also earned nominations for the Critics Choice, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards.
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2. STEVE JOBS (2015)
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Director: Danny Boyle.
Writer: Aaron Sorkin.
Starring Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels, Katherine Waterston, Michael Stuhlbarg, Sarah Snook.
After the 2011 publication of author Walter Isaacson’s definitive biography of Apple founder Steve Jobs, the big question around Hollywood was just who would play Jobs in the movie. The choice of Fassbender for the role was initially a surprising one, but once audiences experienced his compellingly intense take on the tech mogul, for those two hours, he simply became Steve Jobs. For his performance as Jobs, Fassbender earned received his second Oscar nomination and was also nominated for Best Actor for the Critics Choice, Golden Globe and the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
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1. SHAME (2011)
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Director: Steve McQueen.
Writers: Steve McQueen, Abi Morgan.
Starring Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan, James Badge Dale, Nicole Beharie.
Fassbender took an huge professional gamble by starring in “Shame,” his second collaboration with director Steve McQueen. It was not that working again with McQueen was a risk, but the sexual explicitness called for in the film’s script went far beyond any that asked of any major movie star. Not only did Fassbender embrace the film’s daring content, but he used his character Brandon’s sex addiction to dig deep into the psyche of those who suffer this tragic compulsion. For his performance as Brandon, Fassbender was named Best Actor at the 2011 Venice Film Festival and earned nominations for the BAFTA and Golden Globe Awards.
