Over the past two years, Michael Fassbender has gone from indie darling to mainstream movie star. And with his fantastic performance as an android named David in Ridley Scott's Prometheus, he's cementing his status as one of the best actors working today. Trust me, after you see the film, you'll also be raving about this performance.Yesterday, I got to participate in a group interview with Fassbender in London. During the extended interview he talked about how he got involved with Prometheus, if he based his performance on the androids from Alien and Aliens, how he prepared for the role, his relationship with Peter Wayland, the viral marketing, Prometheus sequels, future projects like Twelve Years a Slave and the X-Men: First Class sequel (which just got a release date of July 14, 2014), and a lot more. Hit the jump to either read or listen to the interview.Warning: Spoilers are discussed in the following interview. You might want to read or listen to the interview after you've seen the movie. As usual, I'm offering you two ways to get the interview: you can either click here for the audio, or the transcript is below. Another warning, I've edited out a big spoiler in the transcript. If you listen to the audio you'll still hear it. You've been warned.--Question: So are you enjoying that you can at least talk about the film a little bit?Michael Fassbender: No, I much prefer it when I donât have to say anything. (Laughs) It makes my job much easier. Yeah, I havenât seen it yet. You guys have seen it and I havenât seen it. I see it tomorrow with them at the premiere, so you can tell me. (Laughs)Youâre pretty good in it.Fassbender: Thanks, man. It was fun. It was a lot of fun. What do you want to know?Actually regarding your character named âDavid,â youâve got âAshâ in Alien and âBishopâ in Aliens. But you are an earlier model of android. Did you reference their performance at all?Fassbender: No. I donât know why. Sometimes you do, like when I was going Jane Eyre I watched as many of the Rochesters as I could get my hands on, but for this I made a decision not to watch the Alien movies. I watched Blade Runner and I looked at the replicants. Well I looked at Sean Young. There was something in her character, a quality there that I kind of liked for David, this longing for something or some sort of a soul at play there, a sort of vacancy also, a sort vacant element. I donât know exactly what, I just knew there was a quality there that I liked and then Hal from 2001 and then I sort of walked in with The Servant and Dirk Bogarde and that and then Lawrence Of Arabia, Peter OâTooleâs character of Lawrence and The Man Who Fell To Earth, David Bowie. So those were the kind of ingredients and then Greg Louganis, the diver, so that was sort of the mixture.There was also some contempt in David a little bit, like he has a little bit of contempt for the person who made him. He has that line about how âeveryone wants to see their parents dieâ¦â Iâm not sure what the line is, but do you feel you played David as if he had emotions?Fassbender: I played him exactly like you said with the idea of an earlier model and what it was with the earlier versions were that they were very human and âOh my god, they are robots,â this idea there, whereas this one the reveal is very early, so I wanted to make him in the external very robotic and then yes, inside have human traits and personality trait, so youâre like âWait a second, is he being sarcastic there?â or âIs he being for real?â So you are always asking that question with the character. So itâs like as the character develops as well physically, I donât know if it shows, but like at the beginning heâs a very neutral physicality, by the end I was leaning on my hip when we are leaving the space ship to go down on that last mission. Itâs little things like that. So thatâs an attitude. If I sit there and look at you like that, itâs something very different from that or this. Little things like that I was trying to bleed through, so even then youâre thinking as the audience or the people on board âWait a second. Is something happening here? Was he pretending to be more robotic than he was?â So heâs a big question mark. Itâs like âIs that a revenge attack on Loganâs character? Or is it for informationâs sake?âYou were talking about the physicality. Thereâs a really distinct physicality between you and Charlize and Iâm wondering if you guys talked about it at all openly or is that something that just organically happened?Fassbender: I just came on set doing the David walk on the first day and we didnât discuss any of that. In fact there wasnât much discussion other than a little bit at the beginning when we all met up and then once we were on set it was like people bringing their work to the floor and Ridley throwing in some ideas and mixing it about, but no that was never discussed.Davidâs demeanor and delivery are so very specific and itâs also very different from your own personality. All of the other actors were saying that you joking a lot on set between takes and you were changing. How was it to go in and out of David? Are you just able to get in and out of it that easily?Fassbender: I kind of like to do that with other characters as well. I have a tendency to have that energy on set. Thereâs something about that where I think if you keep it relaxed or go into it relaxed then things will happen as opposed to trying to preempt them. I donât try to go âThis is what Iâm going to try to do with the character in this scene.â I allow things to appear as opposed to place them and doing that I find helps going in and out like that. Sometimes if I stick in a character too much I feel like I might start to get blinkered, because Iâm making my decisions too definite. I donât know what David is going to do next. âHow do I know?â Thereâs a thousand ways to do something.Charlize was saying you were showing her stuff from your computer to make her laugh. What were the sort of things you would show her?Fassbender: Check out âReporter goes ghetto in 30 seconds.â[Everyone Laughs]I feel like I could have watched an entire movie of David killing time while everyone else was hyper-sleeping. How did you approach those scenes and what David was actually doing in those moments?Fassbender: Again like you say, heâs up there two and a half years and everyone is in cryostasis and there was that question like âWhat do we do?â and that idea of Ridley wanted him to have blonde hair. That was his look and so I said, âWouldnât it be kind of interesting if he was highlighting his hair once?â (Laughs) Thatâs how cool Ridley is. Ridley was like âLetâs do it.â I didnât think it would end up in the movie, but apparently itâs in there. Things like that. I thought âIs there a vanity to this guy?â Again, itâs a very human trait and then I thought to myself âThereâs a childlike element to him as well,â because heâs had to amuse himself, because nobody has been awake and even when they do wake up they donât really⦠thereâs a certain contempt towards him. Itâs sort of like he is an outsider and heâs a robot and so I thought, âAs a child as well, everything is fascinating. Everything is information for him,â so itâs like the childlike thing, so when he watches humans behave together itâs information. Then I had a yo-yo and I was playing around with that idea. We didnât use it, but just the various things he would get up to on board the ship. So again, when everybody wakes up itâs his ship and everybody is roaming around and itâs like he keeps everything cleanBut enjoyment, itâs a human emotion, but he is able to enjoy those things he is doing?Fassbender: Yeah, I think again pride. He takes pride in what he does, but thatâs a human thing, isnât it? I thought it was always the idea of human beings have programmed him and they have designed him in a certain way that he will be able to react to certain human behavior. So itâs possible that that programming starts to bleed and form its own personality trait. So that was the thing, but never to make it an open ended âYes, thatâs what he is doing.â Itâs kind of in and out.Iâm curious, with this character⦠Obviously if your film is successful they have talked about possibly making a trilogy, you character being an android could show up in many different forms. When you signed on for this did you sign for a multi-picture deal? Also, how did it feel, because you obviously have the X-Men thing going where youâre signed to multiple pictures, is it weird for you to be tied where you could be bouncing from franchise to franchise?Fassbender: I donât know what the contract says on this one. I think probably it is the case, because with these sort of things they usually will cover that anyway. Letâs see what happens. Iâm pretty excited⦠It looks like with X-Men we are going to be starting up next year I think, so Iâm excited by the prospect of that and the ideas that have been floating around on that court and to get back together with that team again. So you know itâs just about another job, really. Itâs just another film isnât it? Just a continuation of that last one. You go on to one and then when thatâs done they have to make it available for you to be ready for the next one, so thatâs the only thing. It just means going on to the next film when itâs ready to go.One of the interesting things about David and we talked about it earlier, he seems very inquisitive and curious, but some of the things he ends up dong can be seen as evil. Itâs hard to talk about it, but Iâm curious. Do you look at it as heâs just curious or being told to do things? What was your take on why he does some of the things he does later on?Fassbender: The driving force is itâs the information that heâs got to gather and sometimes you need guinea pigs in the science laboratory and thatâs the way he looks at it. Itâs collateral damage and then maybe thereâs other little elements to it that he can enjoy that go with it, but he definitely very focused on an objective, you know?Itâs just very interesting to me to tell a robot âtry harder.â You canât tell your computer to âtry harder.â You canât tell a piece of machinery to âtry harder,â they just do what they do. I just thought that was a really interesting directive.Fassbender: Yeah, but she is human.Of course.Fassbender: But he knows that that for a human being is⦠that that will get to her. âYouâve got to try harder.â âIâm trying my best.â âBest isnât good enough.â So itâs like harder for him is achievable, it just means âI need to do something else in order to get the information from this,â where as we go âShit, how do I do it? Iâm working so hard on it.â He will just find another way to get there and so âharderâ doesnât even exist as you say. It just means âDo it another way.âIf you met David, what would you ask him?Fassbender: âDoes he like to dance?â [Everyone Laughs]How early on were you preparing for this role? When did you get the part? When were you filming? Were you breaking down the script really early on or are you the type of person that likes to wait until much closer to filming to really just dive head first into it?Fassbender: No, I didnât have time mate. I mean I was still in Shame, we were in New York, so I knew I was going to be coming off Shame and then flew back here and I had three weeks I think, maybe four, before we were on set and we were going. So I went straight into it and then its like catch up and try to make the most that you can in that time. I just went from one after the other.For those three or four weeks were you working on it all day? Are you the type of person that does that? Who are you bouncing the ideas off of?Fassbender: Well youâve got to go in and do makeup tests. Youâve got to try all the costume tests, so you go on out to do that and then yeah, sure any free time youâve got Iâm at home working on the script reading and rereading. Then at the same time Iâm thinking about the look, thinking about the physicality, and putting the pieces back together. Thatâs not a lot of time, three or four weeks, for me. I like to have the whole thing ready on day one, so then I take it piece by piece after that. So yeah, the prep is important for me, yeah.Thereâs a lot thatâs hinted about your relationship to Charlizeâs character and your relationship to Weyland, but itâs never really said. I was wondering what you could tell us about those relationships.Fassbender: Well itâs complicated. I think Weyland is obviously that high achieving alpha male and what was cool about the Davids is there are hundreds of Davids, thousands of Davids. They are mass produced and he is obviously very proud of his creation, but I think thatâs because he is proud of himself. Itâs all about Weyland. He is the creator, you know? So when he goes âThe son that I never had,â itâs not because he has affection for David, itâs that he has such affection for himself and self-affirmation that he created this. I think itâs the classic thing of perhaps a neglected daughter or a neglected child; she is desperately vying to get âdaddyâsâ attention.A lot of the other actors were talking about being fans of Alien and being excited to be able to work with Ridley on this movie for that reason. Did you have that same kind of feeling? Did you feel the legacy of that original movie and what he did?Fassbender: Sure. Absolutely yeah, youâre very much aware of that and that it is Ridley and that it is this world and there is that pressure, but thatâs good. That gives you a healthy amount of fear and then like I said I try to get all of the preparation squared away and then on set really try to have fun. I knew that I wanted to have fun with this character and that I didnât want⦠I really wanted to enjoy it and Ridley and I seemed to click immediately in terms of what was going on with the character and the freedom to try things out with him and to find the humor in there. I said to him, âThis guy is funny, right?â He was like âYes. Great. Letâs go for it.â So yeah, that was the main thing, to really enjoy him.Did they explain to you about the viral⦠The viral has been a big hit and you did them back when you were shooting the movie. Did they explain to you what they were going to be used for and stuff like that?Fassbender: Yeah and you know I think itâs the future of advertising a movie. I think itâs brilliant to actually have other pieces of this trailer which could be in the movie or at least flesh out the movie, itâs part of the same philosophy of the movie, without showing any of the movie. I love that. I get to such an extent with trailers where I have to close my eyes, because I donât want to see trailers, you know? I love to go into a movie and have no idea whatâs going to happen in it. I remember when I went in to see City Of God and I had no idea what it was. I came to an audition a week early. I came in and was like âIâm here for the auditionâ and they were like âNo, itâs next Wednesdayâ and it was raining outside and I went in to the Curzon and I went in and I just sat down. I was blown away. So to have that thing for me is when I experience a film at its best, you know? Whatâs it been like for you in the last year or two going from really cool gig to really cool gig? Whatâs this process been like for you? Whatâs the next year looking like in terms of what you are looking to do? What are you doing?Fassbender: Itâs been nuts, you know? The last year has been its own thing, because everything is coming out and I havenât done any acting work since July. Itâs just been press and promotion, but I knew the years before, like 2010 and 2011 I was like âIâm really lucky.â I was working with the top people, so that was the absolute pinnacle of the dream when I started. You just want to be a working actor to begin with, so to be working at that level you realize that you are extremely lucky and itâs a one-percentile thing. So you pinch yourself a lot and then you just try to make sure that I donât get lazy and I donât get comfortable and trying to keep the work levels at a certain standard, thatâs it. So next year Iâve been doing a lot of work with writers and trying to set up my own production company, DMC. We already did a short film, Pitch Black Heist and now Iâm working on features, so thatâs the next challenge, to get that realized to its full potential.You have X-Men obviously in January or February, but are you filming anything before that?Fassbender: Iâm going on to 12 Years A Slave with Steve [McQueen] in New Orleans right after here. Well Iâve got to go to Los Angeles and New York for more promotion and then out there with two weeks of prep and then I go into it.Did you say you havenât done any actual acting since July?Fassbender: Yeah.How antsy does that make you?Fassbender: It felt good. I needed to stop. I needed to get some perspective. I had done six films back to back in 20 months, so it was like âOkay, take a breakâ and then the promotion thing kicked in and then I really wanted to make DMC, my production company, really work as opposed to just an idea and youâve got to put a lot of time into that. So I really did focus energies in that, working with writers, finding the writers, and so now I go back to acting again, plus my friends are like âWe are fucking sick of you and we see your face everywhere,â so I was like âOkay, I wonât do anything for a while.â[Everyone laughs]Fassbender: Cheers.For more on Prometheus, here's 4 Clips and Almost 5 Minutes of Behind-the-Scenes Footage and my other interviews from London:
- Ridley Scott Talks Prometheus, Viral Advertising, Tripoli, the Blade Runner Sequel, Prometheus Sequels, More
- Guy Pearce Talks Making Prometheus, Viral Marketing, Working for Ridley Scott, and Briefly Mentions Iron Man 3
- Charlize Theron Talks Prometheus and Mad Max; Says Filming Begins Mid-July and "Thereâs Some Badass Violence in It"
And here's a few more recent articles:
- New Featurette for Prometheus Focuses on the Ship
- Two New Featurettes for Prometheus Focus on 3D and Logan Marshall-Green
- Noomi Rapace Contacts Peter Weyland in New Viral Video for Prometheus
- New Featurette for Prometheus Focuses on Charlize Theronâs Character
- Damon Lindelof Talks Turning an Alien Prequel into Prometheus , the Viral Campaign, Revealing Too Much in Trailers and More
- New Spoilery TV Spot for Prometheus