Michael Fassbender is without a doubt one of the best actors in the industry today but for some reason the guy just hasn’t become the breakout star that a lot of pundits are aware he can be. He absolutely has the talent, the looks, and the desire to break out into a bigger star but something just seems off. With his recent outing as Steve Jobs failing to live up to financial expectations you have to start looking at his name and wondering ‘why don’t people see movies for him?’ He’s not a draw like a Tom Cruise or a Leonardo DiCaprio and I know why. It all boils down to audience confusion on what kind of actor he’s trying to be.
First lets look at where he went wrong:
Jonah Hex:
I get the feeling that this could have either been simple work for a simple check or he honestly was trying to get involved in a comic book film noticing their potential for anchoring a career, which was correct. The only problem was that he got behind one of the least popular comics in existence and this mis step may have cost him with the fickle sci-fi/comic audience. Comic fans knew we would never see a Jonah Hex movie since we don’t even read the Jonah Hex comic and that was only $3!
Shame:
Now while this was a fantastic movie and he delivered a fantastic performance, it was too sexually creepy to be appreciated by most audiences. The idea of Fassbender playing some pervert who has no reservation about misogyny, masturbation, and is a bit of a nympho while committing infidelity way may be awkwardly realistic but let’s be honest and admit that the last thing a sci-fi/comic fan is looking for is realism. Again, Fassbender has trouble developing his core audience.
A Dangerous Method:
Another fantastic movie with a fantastic performance that did nothing for his career. It doesn’t help that the movie co-starred Viggo “stuck in the same boat” Mortensen and Keira “Natalie Portman” Knightly. All 3 of these actors can pull off an incredible performance they continue to struggle with regard to making movies that turn an appreciable profit. Now you can argue that film is an art and it’s all about the performance but that’s simply not the point. Films are typically made for one reason: to make money. You fail to do that on a consistant basis and you’ll get Shia LeBooted out of town.
Now if you take a look at Steve Jobs you see Fassbender demonstrating the talent and range to transform himself into a charismatic megalomaniac with little disbelief, but if you look back at his film history what you find is a muddled mess and slight fascination with the Sci-Fi genre. Now as a fan of Sci-Fi I can admit that we’re a fickle, disloyal, and financially cheap bunch. We won’t spend money that we full well know will be offered for free at a later date. Don’t get me wrong there are a bunch of things for sale that we’ll anxiously offer money, blood, and slavery to exchange for a product but there are others that just make us roll our eyes. Someone needs to help Fassbender better navigate through the terrible properties and projects out there and help him find something more stable that will convince us to buy into what he’s selling.
Now MF doesn’t always misfire and he has made a lot of good choices that have helped him become as successful and popular as he is today. A few that quickly come to mind are Prometheus and those X-Men movies that he’s often viewed as the being the highlight not named Hugh Jackman but for every movie that puts him on the right track he does something that’s considered a stumbling block. He’s not the only actor to have this issue as Hugh Jackman suffered early on (and still occasionally misfires), Jeremy Renner is in trouble with and it also took a Hollywood lifetime for Chesty Jake to be forgotten. Like his upcoming Assassin’s Creed movie. Someone should have warned Fassbender that video game movies are borderline career suicide.
He needs to find his niche and being horridly inconsistent with the types of roles that he’s willing to take is seriously hurting him. There’s a reason that Leonardo DiCaprio never touched a superhero movie. CONSISTENCY. There’s a reason Tom Hanks doesn’t flop back and forth between his comedic roots. CONSISTENCY. There’s a reason Marlon Wayans isn’t taken seriously as a dramatic actor. CONSISTENCY. There’s a reason that Shia LeBouf is not even mentioned in the promotions for films he co-headlines. STUPIDITY.
