Michael Fassbender Quotes

You use words like ‘introvert’ and ‘extrovert,’ various traits of a personality. A lot of that stuff, we used in drama school, and that was kind of interesting, to realize my teachers sort of ripped off a lot of Jung. And how much of it is part of our society now, these phrases, introvert and extrovert, where it actually came from.

You know, it’s amazing. I don’t even have a car, would you believe it? I had a motorbike andit got stolen last year. So I’ve got to buy another one of those, I suppose. I can treat myself to that.

Why not provoke some thought and get people talking about things? I like characters that are flawed because we all are. When people break up in a script, you think, Oh, right, there must be tears shed here. But maybe the fact of the matter is that they’re both laughing.

Why does a three-year-old, and it’s usually boys, want to drive the tractor or have machinery and be in control of it? I don’t know. Why wouldn’t you ask to boil a kettle or something? Maybe you would, I dunno.

When I was four, I just wanted to drive, I collected toy cars. Where does that sort of thing come from? In hindsight you go, ‘Oh, liked it because of this.’ Maybe it’s just the wheel.

What I find really interesting is to try and mix it up, to push myself and try different things. I don’t want to stay in my comfort zone. I want to take risks and keep myself scared.

We feel a lot of pressure about looking silly or appearing weak, whatever that means, or being a failure. You have to keep in your head: what’s the worst that can happen?

We did a lot of that in drama school: intellectualising and maybe justifying your position. ‘I am a thinking actor and I have thought this through’ – well, just do it. I much prefer the doing aspect.

There’s so much going on in the world. There’s so much information being thrown at us – so many things are being sold to us, and we’re being told how we should appear and how to be more successful, blah, blah, blah. How does that manifest itself? In the pressures, the stress, this need to escape.

There’s no point thinking, ‘Well, my life’s certainly worked out, I’ve got all the answers.’ It would be wrong for me to say that I don’t get seduced by certain things. That things don’t become tempting.

There’s no point in swanning through and being cool as a breeze in every scene. It’s not really that interesting. Even if you’re a superhero.

The arts are very alive in Ireland, so that had its influence on me. But I consider myself European, really.

Scratch the surface of what’s socially normal. I suppose in some way all of us have something we display to the public and things we feel too ashamed of or uncomfortable with to reveal to other people.

People are complicated. Our behavior towards one another is strange. So I like opportunities to investigate that.

Nobody wants to hear Metallica at lunchtime.

I’m always interested in trying to investigate different personalities. I want to keep myself guessing and keep the fear element alive, so that I don’t get too comfortable.

My goal was for acting to become my main income. I would say to myself, ‘I’m good enough.’ That became my mantra.

Magneto has a whole lot of complexity to him. Emotionally, he’s coming from a very damaged place. I like the ambivalence of it. I want the audience leaving the theater wondering, asking the questions themselves rather than being spoon-fed like a lot of these super-villain characters.

It’s more interesting isn’t it, if I’ve got a hedonistic dark side?