Michael Fassbender’s February GQ UK cover: pasty undertaker fug or still hot?
Sigh… we’ve been so lacking in Michael Fassbender love for so many months. Is it my fault? Did my Fasslunacy simply peter out, in a normal ebb and flow of crush-dom? Or was Fassbender actively trying to turn off his Fass-girls? I tend to think it was a little of both. One, this is The Year of Cumberbatch and my other crushes had to fall by the wayside so I could devote more attention to Benedict. Two, the bloom has been off the rose with Fassbender for most of 2013. He just wasn’t around, and then when he was, he was just surly and petulant. He whined about Oscar campaigns in an interview he was doing to promote the most Oscar-worth performance he’s ever given (as Epps in 12 Years a Slave). I’m just not that into him these days.
So imagine what I thought when I saw his new GQ UK cover, for the February 2014 issue. YIKES. If I may fly the tattered old Fass-loonie Flag for a moment… this is a horrible look for an attractive man. Fassy has shark teeth, a sexy smile, beautiful blue eyes and a jawline that makes women weak in the knees (amongst other places). Why did GQ try to make him look like a pasty, exhausted undertaker? But… this IS GQ UK – they’ve been doing absolutely awful editorials lately. Think of Tom Hiddleston’s crazy pimp coat or Cumberbatch’s ladies’ turtleneck. Whoever styles for GQ UK’s cover shoots needs to be fired.
I haven’t seen any excerpts from the cover story yet, but there are these new quotes from Fassy’s interview with Empire:
Fassbender, who plays plantation owner Edwin Epps in the film, admitted he had a ‘lump in his throat’ when he spoke to the young actress who plays the daughter of slave Patsey. He told Empire: ‘She was so sweet, that little girl, because we did the scene and I come running out, screaming and yelling, and she got really frightened and started crying. I was like “This is make-believe, we were playing pretend and everything’s OK” and we took her out of the scene.’
‘After that I was getting ready to go back into the scene again and I was…getting into the headspace, pacing around a bit and she stood in the doorway. And she goes “Are you OK?”’
The actor went on: ‘I almost started crying. I had a lump in my throat. I was like, “I’m just getting ready” and she was like “OK”. And then she just sat down and watched me, like she was there to support me. It broke my heart.’Despite the challenging conditions, Michael said he had no qualms about playing abusive plantation owner Edwin Epps in Steve McQueen’s slavery drama, based on the real story of Solomon Northrup, a free man who was tricked and spent 12 years in slavery.
“It’s ‘Whatever, Steve, whatever you want’. Because he changed my life literally in 2007. I owe Steve everything,” he said. “He really is very demanding and he pushes, and he’ll do that with each of the actors and each of the crew members. But then he’s also very nurturing and supporting.”
I’m fine with this interview as long as we’re all acknowledging that this interview is part of Fassbender’s Oscar campaign, even though he bitched and whined about campaigning. There’s no shame in it – I’ve been wanting him to do more press in support of the film for months now, and I’m glad he’s finally talking and promoting at long last. I wonder what changed his mind?
By the way, Fassy has been nominated for all of the big awards thus far – Golden Globe, SAG and Independent Spirit nominations have all come in. I believe he’s going to get his first Oscar nomination soon enough. But at the end of the day… will Jared Leto simply run the better Oscar campaign?
Photos courtesy of GQ UK, Fame/Flynet.
