The Spark

Maybe It’s His Devilish Grin. Or His Rugged Handsomeness. Or His Ability to Humanize Some of the Darkest Characters Ever Committed to Film. Michael Fassbender Has a Gift That Makes Great Directors Want to Line Up for Him. But What Happens to the Life of a Private Man When He Always Has to Reveal Himself?

- Amanda Petrusich

FISHING WAS HIS IDEA.

To browse through Michael Fassbender’s press clippings is to witness a man intent on transforming a burdensome professional obligation—parsing the ecstasies and devastations of his life for the benefit of strangers who write for magazines—into something fun and, on occasion, thrilling. He once coaxed a reporter into skeet-shooting in New Jersey. He went race-car driving in Montreal with another. Today, on an overcast autumn morning in Toronto, he wanted to be Captain Ahab.

Such activity planning doesn’t stem from an aversion to discussing his craft. As far as theatrical pedigrees go, Fassbender’s is unimpeachable—he’s been nominated for two Academy Awards, he’s played both Macbeth and Steve Jobs, and now he gracefully hops between challenging independent films and tent pole franchises like X- Men—and he is happy to pull back the curtain on his process. No, he goes on wild adventures to avoid talking about his offscreen life. It’s as if he’s flummoxed by the notion that there might be something compelling about it. During our time together, Fassbender would prove unquestionably polite, even kind, but also thoroughly uninterested in turning his personal life into a public narrative.