Tag Archives: Michael Fassbender

When Celebrities Get Too Sensitive: Did Mindy Kaling & Michael Fassbender Overreact?

Posted on by

I recently read an interview with Mindy Kaling in Parade magazine. It was then made into a meme in Upworthy, which I then saw on Facebook (got that?) Well, let me get back to the point. I think Mindy Kaling is amazing. She has achieved so much and is funny and talented. Not for an Asian woman, nor one who is not supermodel thin, just as a woman.

mindy-kaling-quote-confidence-beauty-redefined

This is what she said, ‘“I always get asked, ‘Where do you get your confidence?’” she says. “I think people are well meaning, but it’s pretty insulting. Because what it means to me is, ‘You, Mindy Kaling, have all the trappings of a very marginalized person. You’re not skinny, you’re not white, you’re a woman. Why on earth would you feel like you’re worth anything?’”

I think Kaling is being super sensitive here. I am white, I am (relatively) skinny, a UK size 8/10 and you know what? People ask me where I get my confidence all the time. Because that is the thing about confidence, when people have the courage to go for their dreams and work hard, everyone else wants to know how to do it too. I get asked where I get my confidence in interviews, at parties, by friends and family, and as a writer, I also ask other people where they get their confidence, not because they are an ethnic minority or different in any way, but because it is a question people want to know the answer to. Hell, I always want to know the answer because even though I come across as confident, I have my off days.

So Mindy, I love you, I really do. You are gorgeous, funny, witty and super successful, but sometimes a question is just a question or like Freud said: A spade is just a spade.

Now for Michael Fassbender. Fassbender has been complaining about people talking about his penis. Apparently this would never happen to a woman. Really Michael? Are you kidding? People have been talking about Sharon Stone’s Basic Instinct vagina for decades. ‘It wouldn’t be acceptable it would be seen as sexual harassment, people saying [to an actress], “Your vagina …” You know?’ he complained.

I don’t know if you have seen Shame but I have. If you don’t want people to discuss your penis maybe don’t get it out in such graphic detail. And as for this not happening to woman; it happens to woman all the time. Screenshots are taken and put on porn sites, Seth MacFarlane’s ‘Boob Song’ happens at the Oscars (which didn’t upset me even if it upset many others, you can’t do nudity in a film and then get offended when people mention it) and in films such as Knocked Up, nudity by women is talked about openly. Even the Daily Mail and celebrity magazines take screenshots from both sexes and publicise it out of context. Which is why nudity in a film is never just of that film, it is now you, naked, all over the internet and media for the rest of time. It is not fortunate, or even moral, it just is.

 

Michael Fassbender and Domhnall Gleeson to star in Frank

Posted on by

Michael Fassbender (12 Years A Slave, Prometheus, Shame) and Domhnall Gleeson (True Grit, Harry Potter, Anna Karenina) are attached to star in Lenny Abrahamson’s next project Frank. Frank is written by Jon Ronson (The Men Who Stare at Goats) and Peter Straughan (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Men Who Stare At Goats) and has been developed by Film4 who will also co-finance the film with the Irish Film Board.

Frank is a comedy about a young wannabe musician, Jon (Gleeson), who discovers he’s bitten off more than he can chew when he joins an eccentric pop band led by the mysterious and enigmatic Frank (Fassbender).

The film is a co-production between Runaway Fridge and Element Pictures and will be produced by David Barron, Ed Guiney and Stevie Lee. Exec producers for Film4 are Tessa Ross and Katherine Butler and for Element Pictures, Andrew Lowe.

Protagonist Pictures are handling international sales. Abrahamson’s current film What Richard Did will premiere in Toronto 2012, and is also being handled by Protagonist Pictures.

Fassbender, who won Best Actor in Venice in 2011 for his performance in Steve McQueen’s Shame, is currently shooting Ridley Scott’s The Counselor alongside Brad Pitt and Cameron Diaz, while Domhnall Gleeson recently finished shooting Richard Curtis’ new comedy About Time, and was recently named as one of Variety’s ’10 Actors to Watch’.

Abrahamson’s past features include Garage, which won the CICAE Cinema Prize at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes 2007, and Adam & Paul which played at the Berlinale Panorama in 2004 and won Best Director award at the Irish Film and TV Awards.

Frank is scheduled to commence principal photography late 2012.

Caggie Dunlop On Spencer, Music and The Kardashians.

Posted on by

Caggie Dunlop and Catherine Balavage

I met Caggie Dunlop at the W Hotel for a VIP screening of the short film she is starring in for Impulse’s new fragrance ‘Loving Words’, which smells amazing and you can read about here. I had a brilliant, fun chat with Caggie. She is the kind of girl who you feel would make a brilliant friend: lovely, smart and talented. After the interview has finished Caggie says that our interview was the best of the evening. Shucks: thanks Caggie.

Catherine Balavage: You must be very proud of the film.

Caggie Dunlop: Yeah, I am really proud of it. I actually only saw it for the first time this evening just before everyone arrived so I was a bit nervous, but I really loved it. I thought it was great. I think it is a lovely story

Quite French

Very French. Well that’s the theme and my styling is very Brigitte Bardot. I think that really lends well to it.

What is your favourite film?

True Romance.

What are you wearing? You look Stunning.

Virgos Lounge. They are an online store which is kind of vintage inspired. They do really pretty little dresses. And this is from my clothing line. [points to necklace].

You are really branching out into different areas: you have a sex column for the Evening Standard, you have the clothing line, and the acting.

And music.

Yes, that is how we first saw you wasn’t it?

Yeah, I have a lot going on, but I am not doing the Evening Standard anymore. It was very fun doing it but I am not doing it anymore.

It was very Carrie Bradshaw

Yeah, and it was great and it was fun playing that role but I really think music is where I want to go.

What would you choose between singing and acting?

Everyone asks me this. It is like saying ‘choose between your mum and your dad’, but in terms of career I don’t know, but if you said to me: ‘you could never sing again’ I would have to choose that over acting because I love singing. It just makes me happy to sing on my own. It came about quite randomly. When I sang on the show that was the first time I had ever sang in public. I have had to decide what I really want to do.

How was the acting experience?

I went to drama school and I studied acting so for me it was kind of what I wanted to do, and then when Made in Chelsea came along I got side-tracked from the acting because that was what was available to me at that point in time. The acting world is quite a tricky one. You really have to work it out. I had a great opportunity on Made in Chelsea. The acting is definitely something I want to go back to.

What does your Tattoo mean?

Sanatana Jiva. It means the never-ending and the never beginning spirit, and this [points to tattoo, specifically to the ‘J’ bit] this was for a boy who I’m not seeing anymore! [No!] It’s fine, I’m not bothered. It’s a nice tattoo.

Are you seeing anyone now?

No. I am very very spinster single

Aw, you are too young to be a spinster.

I’m happy being single.

You have so much going on with your career….

Yeah, it’s kind of like I need to focus on that at the moment and I don’t have time to focus on a relationship unless I find someone who has a complete understanding about what I am doing.

What is your clothing line called?
ISWAI. [Spells it out] I.S.W.A.I.

How did you come up with the name?

It’s an acronym for ‘It Started With an Idea’. The idea of it is about starting something new and organic with new talent, so young designers who are at school or university are designing the clothes. They get involved and hen they design an idea that I give them.

It that your motto in life?

I think so, yeah. It’s a very good one. It’s a more business thing. Though maybe not in an ethical situation.

You were the first one to leave Made in Chelsea

Yes I was

You were the biggest star and the main focus. Do you think it was a good idea to leave?

Leaving? A lot of people would argue that ‘why would you leave something when you were the central character and it was at its height of popularity and you just walk away from it with no explanation’. For me I stopped believing in what the show was about. It was a very good opportunity but I always wanted to do different things. I am very grateful for what it gave me and what I gained from it. Now I can go and become my own person.

It really has an effect on your own life and that’s not necessarily a good thing.

A lot of people are leaving now. Hugo’s leaving.

Yeah, Hugo’s leaving. I don’t know how much longer it will last but I wasn’t enjoying it and my heart wasn’t in it anymore and if something doesn’t feel right you have to go with your gut.

Would you do anymore reality TV like Spencer is doing with The Bachelor?

I would never do anything like that show. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with Spencer doing it. We are very different people, but I actually value my privacy. That could be considered a ridiculous thing to say coming from a reality TV show. I would never close any doors but it’s not in my plan. If it was something more documentary, like my music, something like that.

Who is your favourite film director and if you could work with any director who would it be?

Woody Allen or Tarantino. I think that would be a pretty crazy experience.

Did you enjoy making the film?

Yeah, I enjoyed making the film. We had to do it in a day, and it was a full on day. It was raining really badly but morale was up.

Do you have any plans to go the Hollywood Route?

I haven’t been to LA yet. So I can’t really say whether I would end up there. Watch this space. Maybe in a few years time.

Do you think doing Made in Chelsea helped you learn how to be in front of a camera?

Yes, I mean I studied method acting so it was all about being private in public. With Made in Chelsea you are having very private moments with five cameras on you. It is more staggered than people imagine. If you know anything about filming you know that you can’t create those scenes just by us walking into a bar and following us. It is all quite organised. In that sense it was helpful but then reality TV doesn’t really help in acting. It’s probably more acceptable in America.

Do you watch any reality TV like Keeping Up With The Kardashians?

I do, I love the Kardashians. I am so excited. Has the new season started now?

I think so. I saw a poster.

I do love that and I like the American ones. I don’t really like the English ones.

What do you think of Kim dating Kanye West? Are they a good couple?

I think they are. It’s nice that they were friends for ages. They are the ultimate power couple.

They are.

I’m surprised but they seem really into each other.

What’s next for you?

I am realising an EP hopefully in September. So I am developing that at the moment, which is really exciting, because for once I am in the public eye for something that I am putting out. The music is taking centre stage at the moment, but I would love to do some short films on the side and slowly developing that on the side.

Grabbing it with both hands.

Exactly, you only have one life.

What are your musical influences?

Ah, I listen to a lot of Matt Corby, who is this Australian singer who is very singer/songwriter: guitar and vocals, but also there is something quite challenging about his music, it’s really quite beautiful. I also love Jessie Ware. I have been listening to her a lot.

Do you still spend a lot of time in Chelsea?

Yeah. I was in Sloane Square today. I do spend a lot of time there, but because of what I am doing I am kind of all over. If I am gigging [ I could be in] Manchester or Shoreditch. I do love Chelsea.

Who is your favourite actor and actress?

Michael Fassbender in terms of actual ability. I think he is amazing. In terms of who I fancy: Ryan Gosling, but he is also a very good actor. He is a bit more mainstream. An actress…who was the girl who was in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

Noomi Rapace

Yeah, her. I watched that for the first time the other day and I was blown away by it.
She’s brilliant.

She is fantastic. She was in Prometheus too.

No! She’s not! I was watching an interview with her and she was talking about how Ridley Scott picked her, and she said something about the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I was thinking ‘why has he picked this random women? ‘

She’s brilliant.

Yeah, She’s fantastic.

Are you going to do anymore writing?

Not in that nature. I would like to write a poetry book which is half poetry, half what is was like growing up. I’ve written poetry since I could write so I have volumes of poetry. Poetry is such an under-rated thing.

How do you keep fit?

I am quite bad. I go through phases of being hard-core. There is a place on the Fulham Road that I have joined called Lomax. I go there and they kick your ass, but in a good way.

What beauty products do you like.
Loving Word by Impulse, Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream.

A Dangerous Method | Film Review

Posted on by

This film about the birth of psychoanalysis is a triumph. An intelligent and though-provoking film with wonderful performances by Michael Fassbender, Viggo Mortensen and Keira Knightley. Fassbender plays Jung when he was 29 and just married to a wealthy women called Emma. He was working at a hospital in Zurich in 1904 when he met Sabina Spielrein, an 18-year-old Russian Jew who is admitted in a deeply distressed condition.

Jung is attracted and fascinated by Sabina and after Freud sends him Otto Gross, (Vincent Cassel), as a patient, Jung comes under his influence and enters into an unprofessional relationship with Sabina. Gross was himself a psychiatrist in his 20s and suffered from dementia praecox (as schizophrenia was then known).

Jung cures Sabina with the “talking cure”, or psychoanalysis, then being used in Vienna by the 48-year-old Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen), a well-established but highly controversial figure.

Sigmund Freud thought of Carl Jung as his natural heir, but relationships between the two men became strained.

This film is a very good historical film from David Cronenberg. I believe this film is the best Cronenberg has ever made.

Freud sees himself as the father that Jung wishes to destroy. Jung believes that psychoanalysis may save the world.

As the film ends Jung tells Sabina about dreams of the apocalypse. This film ends just before the first world war so Jung was accurate about an apocalypse. The legacy of Freud and Jung is evident in the film. They still affect not only psychoanalysis but our everyday lives. Sabina becomes a celebrated psychologist in the Soviet Union, but, sadly, becomes an early victim of the holocaust along with her two daughters.

A Dangerous Method is available on DVD and Digital Download from June 25th.

Michael Fassbender on Being Poor and Oscars.

Posted on by

Michael Fassbender has done a fascinating interview with the Hollywood Reporter. You can read the full article at the link, but here are a few good quotes.

On how he survived years of struggle: “I would say to myself, I’m good enough. That became my mantra.”

ON GOING NUDE, MEETING SEX ADDICTS AND USING YOUTUBE TO HONE HIS CRAFT
Fassbender says what attracted him to the role of Brandon, a sex addict in the Fox Searchlight indie drama Shame– produced by See Saw Films and Alliance–was the chance to explore the desperate search for connection; playing a young Jung in A Dangerous Method allowed him to morph into a historical character. “I was a bit worried that I’d perhaps bitten off more than I could chew,” he says. “But 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.” Jeremy Thomas, a producer on Dangerous Method, says Fassbender who was director David Cronenberg’s first choice to play Jung read the script over and over again, even during production, something Thomas has never seen an actor do. “It’s one of his secret weapons,” he says. Fassbender says he’s grown deft at using YouTube to study accents (his own is Irish) or to watch a grainy interview with an elderly Jung. For Shame, he met with recovering sex addicts: “One man had the same intimacy issues that Brandon had, so it was very helpful to me, and I was very grateful that he opened up.” Additionally, he says there was no time to feel too self-conscious when shooting Shame, says Fassbender. It helped that director Steve McQueen kept the set intimate. “We moved very fast. We shot it in 25 days, so I kind of had to get over it and get on with it,” he says.

THE ACTOR ONCE LIVED WITH REJECTION, A HOLE IN HIS WINDOW
The son of two restaurant owners, Fassbender moved to London at 19 and attended the Drama Centre. “It took me a while to come to grips with how expensive London was. My parents helped me out, but we never had a lot of money,” he says. “So it was very sticky the first three or four years between paying drama school fees and surviving. The first place I lived was a studio I shared with a Brazilian girl. We weren’t seeing each other or anything, but I remember there was a big hole in the window and it was so cold in the winter.” Fassbender’s first acting role of note was in HBO’s Band of Brothers, which aired in 2001. He was confident it would lead to other offers. It didn’t. “I came to Los Angeles and did auditions for television. I made a terrible mess of most of them and I was quite intimidated,” he recalls. “I felt very embarrassed and went back to London. I got British television jobs intermittently between the ages of 23 and 27, but it was very patchy.” Between roles including a Guinness commercial (in which his character swims from Ireland to New York) and a one-off, Agatha Christie’s Poirot, he took odd jobs to survive, unloading trucks or bartending. He even did market research. “I had to call people who had filed complaints about the Royal Mail and see if they were happy with how their grievances were dealt with. Most of the time they weren’t,” he says. All along, he says, “My goal was for acting to become my main income. I would say to myself, ‘I’m good enough.’ That became my mantra.”

Prometheus | Film Review

Posted on by


This film is clearly a prequel, although Ridley Scott at one point denied it. Long awaited and much discussed, when the trailer was released a while back the internet went mad. The film is visually stunning and has brilliant performances by Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapace. Rapace plays a driven and intense scientist who’s longing for a child is used against her and twisted in a horrific way. Fassbender is an android made to look like a humanoid so he doesn’t scare the crew.

This film comes 33 years after the first Alien movie and has some elements of the previous movies; a crew on a ship called Prometheus with an android, a scene like the alien coming out of John Hurt but much more icky.

There has been some complaints that the film is slightly predictable, but what monster movie isn’t? It is a monster movie for god’s sake. Prometheus is beautifully made, well acted, thrilling and entertaining. Is also has excellent production design and incredible visual effects. It is an ambitious and impressive film. Definitely worth a watch.