MichaelFassbender Talks About the Steve Jobs Movie, His Own Broken iPhone, and 'SlowWest'
JORDAN ZAKARIN
Writer
May 2, 2015
It’s a bit shocking when Michael Fassbender displays abusted-up, partially shattered iPhone, and even more so when he casually offers that the smashed device is actually a relatively archaic, five-year-old iPhone4 — and a device the actor says he’s “stubbornly holding on to.” After all, the38-year-old Oscar-nominated Irish actor just inhabited the mind and turtleneck of Apple founder in the biopic Steve Jobs, one of the buzziest, high-profile films of the year.
“There’s a lot of things about technology that would probably shock you, about my adeptness about dealing with technology,”Fassbender joked in an interview with Yahoo Movies this week. “I’m the worstperson at it, so it was the perfect match for me to play him.”
In many ways, Fassbender, an avid motorcyclist who prefers to shun technology and ride out on long, exotic adventures, is morelike his cowboy-bounty hunter character in SlowWest. The directorial debut of John Maclean — former lead singer of the trippy, High Fidelity-endorsed pop-rockoutfit the Beta Band — the wry western debuted at Sundance, where it won the World Dramatic Competition (the film hits theaters on May 15, and is available now on DirecTV).
In SlowWest, Fassbender plays Silas, a gruff (and frequently funny) man of mystery who aids a young Scottish immigrant named Jay Cavendish (KodiSmit-McPhee) across the wide open Colorado territory as Cavendish searches forhis endangered girlfriend. The movie is an unorthodox mix of stark western scenery and quietly off-kilter comedy, an absurdist experiment dressed up as a John Wayne picture. Fassbender, who has perhaps the year’s busiest schedule,took time out to speak with Yahoo Movies about the film, Steve Jobs, the next X-Men adventure, and more.
Did you learn any cowboy skills while you were filming in New Zealand?
Ridinga horse — I learned how to do that a little bit better. It’s always kind oftough, to try and pass yourself off as someone who rides a horse every day. Andworking with horse people, you see how they ride. I’m not afraid of being onhorses and I have in the past for films or TV shows and as a kid, but it’s tough, to get it right… I’ve got a lot of respect for horse people that can doit correctly.
The term “horse people” sounds funny, like a half-man,half-horse.
It does. It’s usually “horseman,” but we’re living in politically correct times.And I’ve also worked with an amazing horse lady in South Africa, and she was incredible, so I’ve always thought there’s horsemen and horsewomen. So I say “horsepeople.”
JORDAN ZAKARIN
Writer
May 2, 2015
It’s a bit shocking when Michael Fassbender displays abusted-up, partially shattered iPhone, and even more so when he casually offers that the smashed device is actually a relatively archaic, five-year-old iPhone4 — and a device the actor says he’s “stubbornly holding on to.” After all, the38-year-old Oscar-nominated Irish actor just inhabited the mind and turtleneck of Apple founder in the biopic Steve Jobs, one of the buzziest, high-profile films of the year.
“There’s a lot of things about technology that would probably shock you, about my adeptness about dealing with technology,”Fassbender joked in an interview with Yahoo Movies this week. “I’m the worstperson at it, so it was the perfect match for me to play him.”
In many ways, Fassbender, an avid motorcyclist who prefers to shun technology and ride out on long, exotic adventures, is morelike his cowboy-bounty hunter character in SlowWest. The directorial debut of John Maclean — former lead singer of the trippy, High Fidelity-endorsed pop-rockoutfit the Beta Band — the wry western debuted at Sundance, where it won the World Dramatic Competition (the film hits theaters on May 15, and is available now on DirecTV).
In SlowWest, Fassbender plays Silas, a gruff (and frequently funny) man of mystery who aids a young Scottish immigrant named Jay Cavendish (KodiSmit-McPhee) across the wide open Colorado territory as Cavendish searches forhis endangered girlfriend. The movie is an unorthodox mix of stark western scenery and quietly off-kilter comedy, an absurdist experiment dressed up as a John Wayne picture. Fassbender, who has perhaps the year’s busiest schedule,took time out to speak with Yahoo Movies about the film, Steve Jobs, the next X-Men adventure, and more.
Did you learn any cowboy skills while you were filming in New Zealand?
Ridinga horse — I learned how to do that a little bit better. It’s always kind oftough, to try and pass yourself off as someone who rides a horse every day. Andworking with horse people, you see how they ride. I’m not afraid of being onhorses and I have in the past for films or TV shows and as a kid, but it’s tough, to get it right… I’ve got a lot of respect for horse people that can doit correctly.
The term “horse people” sounds funny, like a half-man,half-horse.
It does. It’s usually “horseman,” but we’re living in politically correct times.And I’ve also worked with an amazing horse lady in South Africa, and she was incredible, so I’ve always thought there’s horsemen and horsewomen. So I say “horsepeople.”
