Lake Ohau

Wahrscheinlich ist dies das dichteste, was ich jemals an MF dran sein werde. Den gestrigen Drehort habe ich gesehen, aber leider haben wir erst einige hundert Meter weiter mit dem Bus gehalten (für einen kurzen Fotostopp). Ich konnte nur noch das Schild "Film Crew" am Lake Pukaki aufnehmen. Denn bis ich die Zelte und Wohnwagen als das registriert hatte, was sie waren, waren wir schon dran vorbei.
Man kann eben nicht alles haben.  Aber es bleibt das"beinahe".
Vielleicht sitzt er ja beim Rückflug neben mir...

Top Gear - Series 18 Episode 4 - Audio Transcript

A Star in a Reasonible Priced Car

[Starting around 28:50]
Jeremy Clarkson (Show Host): Anyway it’s now time to put a star in a reasonably-priced car. Now, my guest tonight has appeared in Inglourious Basterds, Shame, X-Men, Haywire, in fact, pretty well every film that’s come out in the last six months. He is half-German and half-Irish, so, ladies and gentlemen, please say, “top of the morgen”, to Michael Fassbender.
[Applause, cheering. Michael Fassbender enters and shakes hand with Jeremy Clarkson]

Welcome Michael Fassbender

JC: How are you? Have a seat. Have a seat.[More applause and cheering] Now, in the olden days, and I know children watching won’t believe this; it was possible to go to the cinema and see a film that didn’t have Michael Fassbender in it. [Michael laughs] But I mean, obviously, you first came to my attention, at least, in Inglourious Basterds...

MF: Ja.
JC: ...with you... [Shows three fingers, relating how Germans or British sign the number three] Does everyone actually do that to you in the street?
MF: [repeats the same two signs] Yeah, exactly, and it still takes me, “What’s he doing?”
JC: “I’ve done 18 films since then!” But Shame is the one people are talking about. Now, you had to do, let’s be honestly, a full frontal nude scene. Was it hard?
MF: No.
[Audience laughs]
JC: I mean, this is an impressive sausage. [More laughter]
MF [embarrassed laughing]: I don’t know what I can say to that now! Yes!
JC: So, can you say to your mum, “Would you like to see my new movie?”
MF: Ja, exactly, ja. She was actually going to come and see it in Venice and I said to my mum, I was like “Sure, come over and we all will watch it together.” You know, enough months had passed for me to think it wouldn’t be that bad. Luckily, you know, her back played, up. She’s sort of got a bad lower back, you know, and whether that was psychosomatic or not, I don’t know. But, thankfully, she didn’t make it, so, because the first thing my dad said, because he was behind me, he leaned over my shoulder and was like, [lowers his voice] “Thank God your mother isn’t here.” [laughter in the audience]

"Thank God your mother isn't here."

JC: What has been interesting; since I have been doing this show what ten years and I think in all of that time, only three or four or my friends have ever said: “Can I have tickets for the show?” In this week, when people discovered you were coming on, I’ve had to get a minibus, and they’re all girls. “Can we come and look at his...”
MF:” ...Lap Time”. [laughter from the audience]
JC: Yes, Exactly. So any way, you have just done Shame, obviously, where you spend the entire time naked. And now you are in a film where you get to spank Keira Knightley.
MF [answers in a serious tone]: Yes. [laughter from the audience]
JC: That’s what’s Dangerous Method?
MF: Dangerous Method.
JC: And what’s that all about?
MF: It’s, ehm, it’s sort of focuses around Freud and Jung, and one of their sort of mutual patients, Sabina Spielrein, played by Keira, and ehm basically, that sort of relationship, the sort of the meetings of minds between Freud and Jung, and then the sort of, you know, the fracturing of that relationship, and she is kind of in the centre of it all.
JC: I think we have got a clip of the trailer, we can have look at it now, let’s have a look.

[31:49 Trailer for A Dangerous Method starts on a TV screen, both watch it. 32:17]

[audience cheers]
JC: I’ll have some of that. I like a bit of psychoanalysis. Ehm – when you were reading the script for that and you got to the bit where you spank Keira Knightley, [MF: Yeah] how much more did you read before you rang your agent to say,” yeah I’ll do it”? [laughter]
MF: It wasn’t in the script. I sort of insisted. “Then I’ll do it!”
JC: But you began, I think I am right in saying, on Holby City. And then you were in a Guinness advert.
MF: Ja.
JC: Which must have been, well I mean, that’s really perfect for you.
MF: Well, yeah, I mean, you know I actually said to them, “Is there anyway you could give me a Guinness credit card, “with sort of a white line along the top, “which meant I could have free Guinness for the rest of my life in the whole world?”

"Could you give me Guinness credit card?"

JC: And, yes, did you get it?
MF: Negative. [laughter in the audience]
JC: That’s annoying.
MF: Yeah, I know, it was.
JC: Because you are not wholly Irish. You are...
MF: ...half-German.
JC: Half-German, [MF: Ja] half-Irish. [MF: Ja.] That’s quite an odd combination. Like, “This must be done absolutely perfectly... tomorrow.” [MF laughs] It is that a slightly different...
MF: Yeah, One part of me wants to sort of, you know, be very efficient and then the other side is a little bit reckless.
JC: And you’re a Formula 1 fan?
MF: Yes.
JC: So, is it Irvine or Schumacher?
MF: Schumacher.
JC: Schumacher?
MF: Ja.
JC: So the German side comes out?
MF: Yes, exactly.
JC: Still Schumacher or have you switched now to Vettel.
MF: You know, I am still, you know, I got to say, a Schumacher man. I mean, I’d still I like to see him, sort of you know, get the car that he wants underneath him and really, sort of you know... I don’t know if you know it’ll be possible to get up to Vettel’s level or you know....
JC: He has got it in him. He is seven time world champion. I am with you. I think he is just brilliant. [MF: I know...] Have you met him?
MF: I was really lucky to sort of get invited to Silverstone last year and he did come out of the Mercedes garage and I was running behind him [makes funny movements and audience laughs], like a stalker. And I was like, “Schumacher, Schumacher?” And he kept walking. I was like, “Michael!” he turned around. “I still think you’re the best”. And he was kind of looking at me with a bit of a smile and there was a lot of fear in his eyes. [laughter] So, I did get a chance.
JC: Did he do that...? [makes the signs with his three fingers]
MF: No, he didn’t know who the hell I was. [laughter]
JC: Now it’s interesting, obviously, you are a big Formula 1 fan. But as far as I can work out, you have only ever had one car?
MF: Yeah. It was a Peugeot 306 turbo diesel Spinnaker special edition. [laughter]
JC: What is this Spin..? Can you remember what it was? Was that just a local dealer putting “Spinnaker” on it and charging an extra 500 quid?
MF: That was pretty much it. I think it had different coloured seats.
JC: Wow! Has it gone now?
MF: Travelling in style. Ja, I crashed it. I totally did it in.
JC: And that’s that?
MF: Yeah. And I said to the guy when I was bringing the car up, “These damn Peugeots”. He was like, “Well, the fellow at the Peugeot said they’re not designed to go over flying the kerb at 50 miles an hour.” [laughter]

"They're not dessigned to go over flying the kerb."

JC: So, what do you get around on then if your Peugeot has been crashed?
MF: I ehm I use motorcycle. I had a – [JC pulls a face] I know - I knew you would be happy about this! – I started with a Speed Triple, and then I got the GS 1200 BMW Adventure.
JC: May’s got one of those.
MF: Ja. It’s an amazing piece of equipment. It’s a – you know – for the weight of it, when it is moving, it is so well-balanced.
JC: Are you allowed to ride bikes if you are involved in films all the time? Cos I would say, “No, you can’t. They’re too dangerous.”
MF: Sometimes. I drove the Speed Triple I drove it out to Berlin for Inglourious Basterds. They were like, “So we have the ticket... you know for Michael to fly over.” And it was, “No, no he will make his own way there.” And they were like, “OK.” And I turned up on the bike, and they went, “What the...(BLEEP)! So, I couldn’t ride when I was filming that.
JC: No, I just wouldn’t allow anybody I knew and liked to ride a motorcycle. That’s why I encourage May and Hammond to ride theirs as much as possible. [laughter]. So obviously you came here to do your lap. How was The Stig out there?
MF: Ja. He is amazing. I think you know he was probably getting a little bit fed up with me because you know he’s giving me the information and I’m not sort of putting it to use.
JC: He’s jealous, because your helmet is now more famous than his. [laughter] I’m talking about the one he wears in X-Men, that Magneto helmet.
MF: Yeah, yeah.
JC: Before you arrived, we had a bit of a problem. We’ve got some footage here of the preparation, which we never had to do before. [TV screen shows people removing ice with shovels]. This is the second to last corner and it was just sheet ice. So we sent our boys out there to go and try to get rid of most of it for you. [MF: Ja] And it didn’t really help.

"And it was just sheet ice."

MF: Well, I mean, I can’t really blame the ice, to be honest.
JC: Who’d like to see the lap?
Audience: Yeah.
JC: Here we go. Let’s have a look

[36:53 they watch the pictures from the on-board camera while MF was driving.]

JC: It looks dry. Was it slippery?
MF in the car: Sweating!
MF: It was only really that second-to-last corner where the ice was really playing. A few times, there was a bit too much squealing, it was like a pig. [car squeals around the corner]
JC: That’s good. Keeping that tidy, very tidy, actually through there.
MF in the car: This is always a tricky one.
JC: Little bit wide. [when MF turns a curve to wide]
MF: Yeah, way wide on that.
JC: A little bit. Not too bad.
MF in the car sings unintelligibly. [laughter in the audience]
JC: And Hammerhead. How are we going to cope through?
MF: I cut that a bit by the looks of it. I say nothing. Wide again, is it.
JC: I’d say that was all right. Actually. I reckon. Yeah, all looking smooth as hell.
MF in the car: Sweating like a cornered nun. [Laughter in the audience]

"Sweating like a cornered nun."

JC: Sweating like a cornered nun?! Where did you get that from? [the car drives over the grass] Yep, two wheels off. Ooh, you can’t cut that corner, can you? No, that’s tricky.
MF: I kept cutting that. That was a problem.
JC: And that was all right through Gambon. And there we are across the line!

[Film showing the lap stops at 38:00] 

[Applause and cheering]

JC: Where do you reckon?
MF: Ehm I said I’d be you know be happy with a one forty-five I suppose...
JC: A one forty-five?
MF: Somewhere around forty-five. But I don’t think that’s gonna happen now. [The camera shows signs with lap times from other celebrities who drove a lap around 1.45]
JC: Well, it was... That ice on the second to last corner...
MF: You let me down gently, I like it.
JC: Michael Fassbender, you did it in one... forty...two... [Audience: woo!] point eight. [Applause]

"You did it in 1.42,8"

[JC puts the sign with MF name and time on the wall with all the lap times. Best time Matt LeBlanc 1.42,1 and Rowan Atkinson 1.42,2 and above John Bishop 1.42,8]

That is the third fastest time we ever had!

JC: That is the third fastest time we ever had! [They shake hands] That’s all right! And that was with ice on the second-to-last-corner!
MF: Wow! I wasn’t expecting that at all.
JC: That was a fantastic time.
MF: Pretty happy with that, ja.
JC: I am thrilled you could come, today. Ladies and gentlemen, Michael Fassbender. [Applause and cheering]
MF: Thank you, thank you. [They shake hands again.]

[Ends at 39:15]

 I was on holiday and was able to watch a re-run of that show (plus they kept it for a week in the internet player). So I couldn't resist putting a transcript of that part here in my blog. Just for fun (and for keeps)

Playboy Interview Teaser

There is a teaser for the German edition of "Playboy":


Actor Michael Fassbender ("Shame") has no definite scam to address women. "And I flirt only when I'm drunk," said the 35-year-old to the magazine "Playboy" according to a preliminary report. He definitely knows how to enjoy life and wants have fun if he goes out. "But I don't go out on purpose to pick up women. However, should something arise, I'm not averse. Sex is a part of life," he added.

Fassbender, who has a German father and an Irish mother, stars in the sci-fi thriller "Prometheus" directed by Ridley Scott, from 9 August in the theatres.

Link to the German newsticker: http://www.welt.de/newsticker/news3/article108271894/Michael-Fassbender-flirtet-nur-betrunken.html






Schauspieler Michael Fassbender ("Shame") hat keine bestimmte Masche, um Frauen anzusprechen. "Und ich flirte auch nur, wenn ich betrunken bin", sagte der 35-Jährige dem Magazin "Playboy" laut Vorabbericht. Er wisse sein Leben durchaus zu genießen und wolle Spaß haben, wenn er ausgehe. "Aber ich ziehe nun wirklich nicht los, um gezielt Frauen aufzureißen. Sollte sich allerdings was ergeben, bin ich sicher nicht abgeneigt. Sex gehört doch zum Leben", fügte er hinzu.


Fassbender, der einen deutschen Vater und eine irische Mutter hat, ist ab dem 9. August im Science-Fiction-Thriller "Prometheus - Dunkle Zeichen" von Regisseur Ridley Scott im Kino zu sehen.

Ergänzung http://www.ad-hoc-news.de/michael-fassbender-flirtet-nur-betrunken--/de/News/23826344
Als Schauspieler braucht Fassbender immer wieder Bestätigung von den richtigen Leuten, da er nur so an "Selbstvertrauen und Kraft für neue Taten" gewinnt. "Ich gehe nämlich als Schauspieler gern Risiken ein, ich bin kein Bewohner der Komfortzone", erklärt der Deutsch-Ire, der ab dem 9. August neben Noomi Rapace und Charlize Theron in Ridley Scotts Sci-Fi-Thriller 'Prometheus - Dunkle Zeichen' zu sehen ist.

I like strong women

"Who is that?" JOY correspondent Frances Schoenberger asks casually, as a bearded man turns up in a crumpled jacket, while she is waiting in the "Claridge's", one of the finest hotels in London, for the interview with Michael Fassbender. "Nowadays, they let everyone in," jokes a colleague. But it is - surprise! - Hollywood's new rising star himself: He speaks with an Irish accent, seems very confident, absolutely "down to earth" and incredibly charming. His warm smile and his intense eyes one recognise immediately. Born in Heidelberg he looks with the beard not as good as without, but no doubt there is a special aura around him. No wonder that women fly on the 1.83 meters tall Aries man. But he does not seem to care much. He is obsessed with his work, a workaholic.

JOY: You've played yourself all the way up in a very short time. From August 9 you excel as a human robot in the science fiction blockbuster "Prometheus - dark signs" How has the success changed your life?

MICHAEL FASSBENDER: It depends on what goals you have in your life - and I still want the same thing: to learn; to work with people, who inspire me; to spend time with people I love, and be able to spent more time for go-kart driving (laughs). I'm 35. Ten years ago I would have been even more impressed by being famous. Today I do not care anymore. Fame is not necessarily what brings great joy. However, there was a great experience at the Grand Prix in Monaco when I stood alongside Michael Schumacher, as he climbed into his car. It was a childhood dream of mine, of which I have dreamed about 20 years.

Was acting also a dream of yours?
No, I always wanted to be a guitarist in a heavy metal band. The first instrument I learned, was a tin whistle, a flute played in Irish folk music. Originally, I wanted to play the violin, but it was too expensive for my parents. They encouraged me to the accordion, because we had one at home anyway. The instrument was huge, my head almost disappeared behind it. So I played a couple of years. As a teenager I started playing the guitar. It was an absolute key experience for me as one day Steven Hart, a good friend of mine, visited. During our joint practice in the garage, he played such a stunning solo, that I became aware that I should come up with something else.

You did not have enough talent for music and therefore wanted to be an actor?
(Laughs) Exactly. In school I was only mediocre. At first I thought, I'm going to be a lawyer. But I'm a slow reader, and with the thick file that would be difficult. Then it turned out that I'm also not suitable as an architect, because I had failed in technical drawing. When a former classmate, who was studying at the Irish Theatre School 'Gaiety School of Acting', staged a piece of my college, I joined in and suddenly I realized: That's exactly what I want!

How did your career come fully under way?
At 19 I moved from Ireland to London to go to drama school. I live there still. For years I've fought through all sorts of jobs like bartender. I just do not give up and believed in me. Then in 2007 came the breakthrough when the director Steve McQueen offered me the main role in the prison drama, "Hunger", although I was completely unknown.

This director has turned your life pretty much upside down, has he not?
Yes, Steve McQueen is a genius - I love him. Last year I shot with him the drama "Shame," in which I stripped to the buff. Our next project is the slave drama "Twelve Years A Slave", in which Brad Pitt also plays along. Unfortunately before every new movie I still have the fear of failure.

Do you have any philosophy of life?
Yes, treat others as you would like to be treated. Everyone wants to be accepted and loved. Probably it sounds kitschy, but we should all love more. Speaking of Love: What must a woman have for you? I like strong women like my girl friend Nicole. I like her confidence, she is an equal partner.

Your parents have been married for 38 years. How do you feel about marriage?
In my job, it's difficult to live a relationship, let alone to be married. And I'm a romanticist: to sit in the garden or a sunset at the beach is always nice if you experience it with another one.

You were born in Heidelberg. Do you speak German?
Unfortunately not. My parents, who speak both fluently German, wanted to teach me - in vain. My mother is Irish, my father is German. They met in London and moved together to Heidelberg. When I was two, we moved to Ireland. As long as my German grandparents were still alive, as a child I often spent the holiday with them. I like the city of Cologne, the bohemian atmosphere there is second to none!

Joy magazine (August 2012)

Michael Fassbender in Bunte

Copa di Volpi 2011

http://elizabethtoni.com/2011/09/michael-fassbender-steve-mcqueen-shame-world-premiere-arrivals-68th-venice-international-film-festival-plus-michael-meets-press-and-fans-after-his-coppa-volpi-for-best-actor-10th-sept.html

The Hottest Guy in Hollywood

The hottest guy in Hollywood, (everything revolts to translate the following part of the headline, because he never said so in this interview) Michael Fassbender, "Personally I find pornography is not so bad"

26.02.2012 Von DANIEL SCHIEFERDECKER

Yes, he actually looks incredibly good, this Michael Fassbender. But the man who is being labelled as "Hollywood's hottest import" - he is Irish with German roots - looks a little tired around the blue eyes. "It got late," he says. And lets follow a grin.

Bild am Sonntag: Where does your apparent exhaustion come from, Mr. Fassbender?

Michael Fassbender: Yesterday I was at a premiere party and danced extensively.

BamS: Some people believe men should not dance because it is unmanly.

MF: That can only come from the guys that have no sense of rhythm and do not know exactly what effect good dancers have on the females. The popular saying, a good dancer is also good in bed, isn't for nothing.

BamS: Are you a good dancer?

MF: You bet.

BamS: In your new film "Shame" you play a sex addict. What is more uncomfortable: to display sex in front of a running camera or to talk about it before a running tape recorder?

MF: I do not need to shed my clothes constantly in front of other people, so I prefer to talk about it. But for "Shame" the sex scenes were necessary because they reveal an important aspect of my film character Brandon. Brandon has no problem with routinely physicalness, but with intimacy. He hates himself. This is also apparent in the sex scenes.

BamS: The sex scenes in the film are acted. If director Steve McQueen had asked you for the sake of authenticity, really to sleep with the actors: Would you have done it?

MF: The trick is to create the perfect illusion. To really do it, I would not only have been extremely uncomfortable, but also artistically unsatisfying.

BamS: Would you say that the risk of sex addiction increases with the amount of possibilities?

MF: I think so. But that also depends on many other factors, such as your self-esteem. Sex addiction has nothing to do with the enjoyable savouring of pleasure and passion, but is an escape: from life, from love and from oneself. Steve McQueen has brought it to the point when he said, sex addiction has as much to do with lust as alcoholism with thirst.

BamS: The film is a parable about the destruction of lust by the permanent availability of sex. Do you share the view that the constant availability of sex diminishes its value?

MF: I do not think that with this the honest exchange of intimacies with your beloved partner looses its importance. But the over-sexualisation of the society makes us numb. If I wanted to see pornography when I was young, I had to ask for it with a red face in a sex shop. Today pornography is located only two Internet-clicks away, and that affects how we deal with it.

BamS: Do you find this trend good or bad?

MF: We don't want the film to judge, but reflect conditions. Personally I find pornography is not necessarily bad, but considering the fact that the sexual act in porn films is often portrayed hard and violent, one must be asking oneself, what influence this fact has on our children who come in contact with pornography for the first time on the Internet.

A scan of the original article you find here.

Michael Fassbender is Living Large

Michael Fassbender in BamS

It was plain luck I came across this article. My father bought the newspaper and I read it after him...

It was in a Sunday edition of one of Germany's largest tabloids. Unfortunately they chose one of the silliest headlines I ever came across (even for their standard).
Published 08.03.2012, BamS

Michael Fassbender - The Man Who Does Not Need Words

It seems as things are going slower with Alan Rickman at the moment Michael Fassbender's publicity is picking up speed.
There is a major article in a new French magazine (unfortunately they only sell the international version of the Nouvelle OBS at the airport - so a short trip to France seems to be necessary ;) ) and another cover story in the April edition of the German Arte magazine. (Poor French, they don’t sell a French version in France ;) ). The pictures in this article might not be as heart-stopping as in the new French magazine, but hey, as long as he makes it on the cover...



At the moment it seems a good time to see him in German TV as well. There are at least four different films
Tonight it's Fish Tank. Next Wednesday it's Hunger on Arte (If you get the French broadcasting you'll might be able to see it in English as they use 4 language channels) and a re-run about a week later.In Mid-April it's 300.
And last at the beginning of May it will be Inglorious Basterds (If you don't watch it because of Michael Fassbender, watch it because of Christoph Waltz. He received an Academy Award for his performance.)



Here are some scans of the Arte magazine to tempt you to buy it.
(And maybe I'll find the time to translate the text into English over the Easter holidays.)