Interview With A Basterd: Michael Fassbender

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Atomic Popcorn: So, can we talk about working with Tarantino and stepping into a project like this?

Fassbender: Well, I suppose it’s sort of [pause] first thing’s that it was very surreal for me, and because the first thing I did when I was starting to get into the business was when I was 18 and me and my friends got together and did a stage version of Reservoir Dogs in a local nightclub. Well, in Ireland, it’s called disco, really. So that was my first steps in getting into a career, so to actually work with him was a dream come true. And once I sort of got beyond that, it’s just fascinating to watch the man work, cause he really does work in his unique sort of way. And also the fact that he’s just so knowledge able in film, you know? He does his craft by absorbing all this information from the last …well… when cinema began, like a hundred years of seeing international film knowledge like I’ve never come across, incredible encyclopedia, and he’s just a dream to work with. He gives you a lot of information outside of what’s written, we all know his written work is pretty exceptional, and his reference points are very precise and original also, like I got “Well, this this guy is like young George Sanders, so all you have to do is listen to the man, and he gives you all the ammunition you need,” so I watched all the George Sanders films I could get my hands on, and…

Atomic Popcorn: Did you read his suicide note?

Fassbender: That’s weird isn’t it? I always thought of that, like he said “I was bored of life.” It was kind of weird; it was always in the back of my head watching.

Atomic Popcorn: Can you touch upon the casting process, and how you first met him?

Fassbender: Yeah, I can. It was pretty interesting because I was really sort of trying to get Christoph Waltz’s part [Landa] so I was really after that part, and I was doing this thing called Fishtank at the time, and my agent pretty much terrorized Quentin to see me, and they were, like, “Landa, Landa” and Quentin [said] “let’s look at Hicox as well. So I put all my eggs in one basket, ’cause I was working on this other job, so I came home and did five hours on Landa, and got French lessons [laughs], and did about 27 hours work on this Landa character. And then, I flew out to Berlin and got into this room and we chatted for a while and he said, “Okay, well let’s look at Hicox”, and I said “can we look at Landa also?” and he said “I cast my Landa Tuesday” and I said “Oh, really?” and he said “Look, anyone who gets cast as Heathcliff is not f-ing German enough to play Landa!” [laughs], so I said “Fair enough”. And we sort of read the Hicox part pretty much cold, and I thought I made a real balls of everything afterwards, and I remember I was terribly depressed, and a week later they called me up and offered me the job.

Atomic Popcorn: This role requires that you learn not only different languages, but even little nuances that native speakers can pick up on, you talked about taking language lessons, but how is that whole process, was it difficult to pick up all the little nuances?

Fassbender: Well, no, everything that’s said – that I say is verbatim, that’s all written, what I wanted to try and do is I wanted to try and get that feeling of a 1930’s, 1940’s movie star, and that is like why Hicox speaks in such a sort of, it’s not a sort of British type, and it’s very much part of that era, and also the physicality of the character, people move differently, and the props that they had were different props in terms of just, like, …cigarette cases, just that world and trying to come up with as much of that as I could, and Hicox is a film critic, so I thought it would be kind of interesting if he sort of, you know, he’s obviously in love with Bridget Hammersmark, and he would like to be an actor, so I just sort of tried to embody all that in order to help me bring some sort of physicality to all that.

Atomic Popcorn: You have such a fabulous scene in the basement and I’m just wondering. Like. I know you guys -

Fassbender: I got my testicles blown off….

(Laughter)

Fassbender: Through my [backside]. There were actually exit holes on both cheeks.

Atomic Popcorn: Very dramatic, but how involved was Quentin in the rehearsal process, and what was it like working in the scene, and how did it challenge you?

Fassbender: Well, we took about two weeks to film that scene. We rehearsed; the thing is, I think Quentin is like, very much into to sort of getting everything prepped before we arrive on the day, and anything can happen on the day. …say we rehearsed something and we do it a certain way, that doesn’t mean that we’re stuck, and we play it so many different ways and everyone knows where they are on the page, and beyond, so when you arrive on the day then you’re free to play, you’re really sort of allowed to react and go along with what the other actors are doing, and try to keep it fresh and play with it. He’s just so precise, and he just wants you to get things the way he definitely sees them, just the point where he will give you a line reading to get that rhythm right. But then once all of that is covered… and Eli was talking about this last night which sort of reminded me, once you done that, he gets what he wants, you can do what you want. And he’ll allow you to try something offbeat or do your own thing, or bring a different taste and color, and it’s really a sort of fun and free experience when you’re filming – but that’s because there has been a lot of prep.

Atomic Popcorn: How did working on this particular film change your attitude or philosophy of acting, or how do you do it?

Fassbender: I don’t really know, It’s um… I guess it just sort of changed my philosophy, well, not changed, but it’s sort of always nice to watch somebody in their world doing exceptional work, it’s just sort of recognizing a good director. And maybe one day I’ll try and do it, and in terms of acting I work sort of similar, I do a lot of the prep work. I was in Berlin for five weeks before we started filming, and the project before that I was there for five weeks before, and the project before that… the one thing he definitely did do was introduce me to the sophistication of these films made in the 1930’s, 1940’s like… Pandora’s Box and G.W. Paps films and that. I always thought that I was a bit arrogant, that this day and age was the age of sophisticated filmmaking, but these films were dark and socially challenging, and really sort of on the edge. So, definitely got that from him.

Atomic Popcorn: So after a day’s wrap, did Quentin ever get the cast together to watch one of his movie selections?

Fassbender: Yeah, every Thursday was movie night. You’d watch the movie and Quentin would introduce the movie and tell you what he liked about the movie and bits of trivia about the movie, and everyone would watch it. It was like the whole crew and that includes the catering staff, and just everybody that was involved in the production… all these people that are there to work with this man.

Atomic Popcorn: I was wondering if you got an anecdote of a movie that impressed you that he showed the crew.

Fassbender: Well, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, I think that’s his favorite film, I’m not really sure.

Atomic Popcorn: It’s one of his three favorites.

Fassbender: Oh, right, okay. (Laughter) Yeah, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, which I guess he pointed out as well. I’m not a massive fan of Eli Wallach but in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, he doesn’t have a foot wrong, it’s just an amazing performance, but totally steeped in reality. His face is just always expressing something to the point where you’re like “Jeez take it easy, little bit less, Buddy”, but it’s amazing the whole way through the film, even the way he puts water over the lips of Clint Eastwood ’cause he’s been stuck in the desert for so long. It’s just such a physically dedicated performance by him, it’s pretty amazing. I did manage to catch Quentin out on a piece of trivia actually. Which was the name of Crockett’s pet crocodile in “Miami Vice”.

Atomic Popcorn: Elvis?

Fassbender: Yeah! Nice! [Laughs]. I think the other question was Magnum P.I’s Dobermans.

Atomic Popcorn: Deuce and Apollo

Fassbender: Yeah, nice. Excellent. [Laughs].

Atomic Popcorn: Mike Meyers seems like the most unlikely person to be in a Tarantino movie….

Fassbender: What? How can you say that after the people he’s cast? [Laughs].

Atomic Popcorn: Yes, but still, I was surprised. So I was wondering what your opinion was and what was it like working with Mike Meyers?

Fassbender: I guess because he’s play this sort of, you know, General. I mean, I knew I was trying to do sort of this comic turn with Hicox. So, you’re going up againt Mike Meyers, he’s, like, a legend…

Atomic Popcorn: He’s Austin Powers!

Fassbender: Yeah! Exactly, so I thought he was just gonna wipe the floor with me, and hopefully I’m not gonna sort of crumble. But when I arrived, we just hit it off really, really well. We just went back an forth all day sharing little anecdotes and stories. We were making little jokes, I was just doing fast show sketches, which is a program on British TV. He knew about it, and he just stayed in his accent all day. And he’s just very generous and a lot of fun, and of course, we had Rod Taylor in there as well, and he’s just this obvious sort of giant. I just picked his brains and asked to tell me some stories, and he’s just a generous, beautiful human being, so I was very lucky.

Atomic Popcorn: Did he tell you any good stories?

Fassbender: Yeah, but I can’t tell you. [laughs]

Atomic Popcorn: You have a lot of projects coming up and I was just wondering if you wanted to talk about what’s coming up next for you and what you’re excited to see.

Fassbender: I just finished working on this film Jonah Hex.

Atomic Popcorn: Which Josh Brolin said at Comic Con that you’re absolutely amazing in.

Fassbender: I know, I was very pleased. He’s just one of those special sort of people in the industry that’s sort of… just very supportive, you know? John Malkovich as well, he’s pretty amazing, and Jimmy Hayward at the front of it, and of course Megan Fox. So, again I guess that was sort of… I kind of developed this character and really kind of pushed it, I’ll see how far I pushed it. I was John Malkovich’s right-hand man, and I had this idea about the character, and he’s this kind of psychotic who gets his kicks in perverted ways. But I didn’t want to make it obvious, like you’ve seen it before. But I didn’t know where to go with it, and then I went to wardrobe and Michael Wilkinson, whom I’ve worked with before on 300, had this three-piece suit pulled out for me that was very green, and I’m playing this Irish guy, and I said “Look man, you gotta take the green down, I can’t go back home to Ireland, they’ll kill me.” [Laughs] So it was faded down, then I was going through hats and I picked up a bowler hat, and I put it on and looked in the mirror, and I thought “Oh, this looks just like A Clockwork Orange”. So, I thought I could go along that vein having Clockwork Orange meets Frank Gorshin’s 1970’s Riddler with a Carrey accent. And then the guys at prosthetics …developed this tattoo thing which started here [points to jaw], and goes all the way down the torso and my arm. So really, it’s like the people around you doing these things doing all the work for you if you’re just open to it and it became a really fun character, actually.

Atomic Popcorn: Are you involved on the action side of that movie, are you doing a lot of stunt work in it?

Fassbender: I tried to do as much of that as they let me. Again, I do enjoy having this sort of physical role, and it’s just good fun really. Just running around, and jumping about the place. So I did quite a bit of it, yeah. We got together with the stunt guys and they were just fantastic. They watched both Josh and [my] fighting styles, they took us down to the dojo and saw what way we moved and whatnot. So then from there, they developed the fight between us, which was great, so it’s like Jonah’s this slugger and if he hits you once, you’re in big trouble, and my guy is dancing around, working inside a pocket, and his weapon of choice is a knife, so it was really cool. They sort of developed this fight, and brought us down there, worked through it and did pretty much most of it.

Atomic Popcorn: Being of German descent, what was it like being in a movie that changes history as much as it did?

Fassbender: I remember reading it at the time, and was like [expression of shock, laughs]. I was like, you know, I thought it was pretty cool, that’s what I love about it, that it’s not going to be restrained by the confines of history. We’ve seen this topic matter done so many times. I was like “World War II, here we go again”, and then it’s like, maybe the film to end World War II films, and I loved the fact that he’s going with French people speaking French, German people speaking German, and I always thought that was weird seeing in movies German people speaking English in German accents. It just bursts the bubble of illusion immediately. So, it’s just great.

Atomic Popcorn: Were there any surprises watching the final product?

Fassbender: Yeah, I have to be honest with you, I can’t wait to see it again, because I was overwhelmed by the whole, you know, being in Cannes, it was like Eli again, where it felt like a second film where the Basterds were infiltrating the premiere of Cannes, it was such a mad trip. I definitely want to see it again, but I got so many elements from seeing it I suppose, that I didn’t realize how it was almost separate films, like the opening scene, which I thought, was a film unto itself. I was just blown away by the whole event, really.

Atomic Popcorn: Thank you so much.

Fassbender: Thank you.