Michael Fassbender, what are you?
This is a question I have been asking myself ever since I saw Michael Fassbender playing Mr. Rochester in yet another screen adaptation of the classic novel Jane Eyre.
Having read this work by Charlotte Bronte several times as a teenager (highly recommended by my cousin, for whom it was the ultimate love story), I recall the time when I saw this Fukunaga version of the movie in 2011, I was starting to notice and becoming quite reluctant to the unnecessary drama in Jane Eyre or Anna Karenina kind of victim-perpetrator-victimised “love” relationships. Therefore, I was dragged by a friend — another Jane Eyre fan — to the movies to see it. But guess what? I fell head over heels in love with Michael’s version of Edward Rochester, feeling total compassion for that poor thing Jane for not being able to clear her vibration enough to avoid another control freak managing her life. And this time, until death do them part. Ouch!
Let’s be honest: If Mr. Rochester really was charming just like Fassbender is in this movie, who would not fall for him?
Questions after questions started popping up in my head: Who is this guy? How is that I have never heard of him before? Where does he come from? What other movies has he played in? Why is he so good, intense, complex, thrilling, nurturing, inspiring, authentic, incredibly talented… and the list goes on?
Right then my Fassbender mania and evangelisation of those unfortunate still unaware of his incredible talent started.
Few years have passed since then and now I think I have watched enough of his movies, collected impressions and observed my feelings while I admire his genius to be able to at least guess why Michael Fassbender is such an amazing actor.
He is an alien — Ridley Scott loves aliens, he also loves working with Michael Fassbender, so Michael probably is an alien. Kidding aside, I do believe that if one day the secret about aliens among us gets unveiled, one of the VIP aliens will be him. Another suspect I have in Hollywood is Jennifer Lawrence.
He is a quantum jumper — According to the laws of quantum physics, there are infinite versions of each of us in alternate universes. It seems that Michael travels back and forth without time space constrictions whatsoever meeting those other versions of himself and channels all the necessary information, feelings, sensations and expressions to bring his screen characters to life. Just to illustrate: while preparing for and during playing Macbeth, he repeatedly visited and had long talks and exchange with the tyrant Macbeth version of himself.
He sold his soul to the devil — In exchange of his incredible talent, devil took Michael’s soul. This is an old, faded story to explain phenomena of this kind, but still, it could be a possible explanation.
He is boring — The cliché story Michael tells in interviews is, that he participated in this play at high school or whatever and got interested in acting ever since. My version of the story goes, that the real catalyst for him to become so brilliant and versatile at adopting many different personalities has been kind of a survival strategy in his life, because he as an individual is not interesting enough. Then, at some point in life, he realised that he could make this his profession.
Well, Michael…Just in case you want to prove me wrong on this last one or tell me the really real story, I would probably accept your invite for a dinner.
