Getty Images/Ian Gavan
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We all know Michael Fassbender is talented. And hot. He’s even featured on my “Celebrities I Wouldn’t Kick Out of Bed” list on my Tumblr — which is saying a lot, because I’m picky. And I don’t even swing that way.
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What we do know: He is best-known for playing Lieutenant Archie Hicox in 2009’s “Inglourious Basterds”; Magneto in 2011’s “X-Men: First Class” (2011); 2011’s “Shame” (for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Best Actor in a Drama award and made his penis famous), and now, the android David in the science fiction film “Prometheus.”
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But here are a few things we dug up that you may not know about Michael.


Getty Images/Stuart Wilson
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Michael was born in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany (now Germany) on April 2, 1977. He was raised a staunch Catholic and served as an altar boy, and is from German and Irish heritage. (Of his mixed heritage, he has said, “It’s totally schizophrenic isn’t it?” Irish and German is such an odd mix. It’s discipline and something else, isn’t it?”)
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The family moved to Ireland when Michael was a young boy.
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“We moved to Ireland when I was two and we settled in Killarney, Co Kerry,” he says. “Where we were living in Germany is very industrial and very grey and my parents wanted to have countryside around for my sister and I to grow up in.”
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Michael credits his obvious smarts and well-roundedness with the kind of education he got in Ireland.
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“I have to say the Irish education system is really top notch,” he says. “When I was in primary school in Ireland I learned about the battle of Thermopylae and 300 Spartans when I was six or seven years old. There was a real love of learning language and poetry and we were taught history and geography. It was very well rounded.”
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Like so many of his European contemporaries, Michael has a strong theater background. He attended the Drama Centre in London. He starred in a the play “Fairytales Fairytales 123″ in 1994, and a stage adaptation of Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs” (1995) which he also produced and directed. (He was only 18.) He went on to star in several other plays, including Anton Chekhov’s “Three Sisters” (1999) and “Allegiance” (2006).
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Michael also did some early commercial work, like this ad for SAS airlines in 1998 …
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… and this 2003 music video called “Blind Pilots” by the British Rock band “The Cooper Temple Clause.”
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But it was this 2004 ad for Guinness beer that had (mostly international) audiences take notice in Michael as not “just” a theater actor, but a bit of a sex symbol.
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Michael made his TV debut in Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg’s award-winning television miniseries “Band of Brothers” in 2001. He worked steadily in television until 2007, when he made his cinematic debut in “300.”
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But it was the 2008 indie flick “Hunger” — which was about the 1981 Irish hunger strike — that got him noticed as quite a serious actor. He won numerous awards around the world, many for Best Actor.
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“When Hunger came my way,” he says, looking back, “I just knew I had to get that one right. I was being given a chance to get my foot in the door. I think being aware of that and seizing it when it’s there helped.”
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Michael went on to star in several other independent films, including “Eden Lake” (2008) and “Fish Tank” (2009).
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But it was his role opposite Brad Pitt in “Inglourious Basterds” that really put him on the map. Michael had managed to merge “sex symbol” with serious actor.
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Inglourious Basterds/Universal Pictures
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And then, he became a superhero in “X-Men: First Class.” Though he was becoming more and more famous, Michael remained humble.
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“So you know it’s just about another job, really,” he said. “It’s just another film isn’t it? Just a continuation of that last one. You go on to one and then when that’s done they have to make it available for you to be ready for the next one, so that’s the only thing. It just means going on to the next film when it’s ready to go.”
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X-Men: First Class/20th Century Fox
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When filming for “Prometheus” wrapped, Michael actually decided to step away from acting for a bit. (Noooooo!)
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Prometheus/20th Century Fox
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“I needed to stop,” he said. “I needed to get some perspective. I had done six films back to back in 20 months, so it was like ‘Okay, take a break’ and then the promotion thing kicked in and then I really wanted to make DMC, my production company, really work as opposed to just an idea and you’ve got to put a lot of time into that. So I really did focus energies in that, working with writers, finding the writers, and so now I go back to acting again, plus my friends are like ‘We are f—ing sick of you and we see your face everywhere,’ so I was like ‘Okay, I won’t do anything for a while.’
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GQ
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He didn’t stay away too long … his upcoming films “The Counselor” and “Twelve Years a Slave” are currently in pre-production.
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