HE is Erik Lehnsherr, a.k.a. Magneto. The leader of the Brotherhood of Mutants, Master of Magnetism and quite possibly the most powerful mutant on the planet. The white-haired yin to Charles Xavier’s yang, he’s the dapper, regal and ruthless fly in the ointment of the X-Men.
Or, at least, that’s the older Erik, as played by Sir Ian McKellen in the original X-Men trilogy. The Erik of X-Men: First Class is a very different and arguably more dangerous proposition—a man tortured by the ravages of his past, consumed by pain and a thirst for vengeance, and a mutant just starting to grapple with the notion that humanity is something to be discarded like a used toy. And yet he’s also someone exploring a rich and rewarding friendship with the young Prof. Charles Xavier—but will Charles’s benevolence be enough to pull Erik back from the brink?
To play this version of Magneto—a younger, more lithe and dominant personality—director Matthew Vaughn turned to an Irish actor who has been blazing an onscreen trail over the past couple of years. Michael Fassbender is one of the most electrifying screen presences working today, able to capture the raw dynamism, anger and rage that fuel Erik in his quest to hunt down Sebastian Shaw.
Though the 33-year-old German-born actor had made an impact in the likes of 300, it was his gut-wrenching and heartbreaking turn as Bobby Sands in Steve McQueen’s Hunger that put him firmly on the map. He then followed it up with a stunning extended cameo in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, marking him out as one of the hottest talents around.
We spoke to him on set about stepping into McKellen’s shoes, about Erik’s inner turmoil and about trying to bend spoons.
This is a very different Erik from the one we’ve seen before. Today, for example, you’re sporting a black turtleneck of which Sean Connery’s Bond would be proud!
Yes! I think James is the one that wanted turtlenecks for his character, and I ended up stealing them. That’s where it all starts, the rift between them. It all comes down to the turtleneck.
But that sums up Matthew’s take on this film, doesn’t it? It’s got a cooler vibe than, perhaps, the other X-Men movies had.
It’s fun to play. I guess the appeal when I got onboard and lots of the other cast had been cast was that James (McAvoy) was going to be playing Xavier and Matthew was directing. They were real draws for me, and I read the script and thought it was interesting to take it back to basics and strip it of everything we’ve seen to date. It’s cool to wear nice clothes. I think ’60s suits, in particular, suit me best anyway, because I’m a skinny bastard!
The relationship between Charles and Erik is extraordinarily complex. Were you drawn in by this friendship that’s doomed to end in tears?
Well, there are moments in the comic book where, even after they split, Charles asks Magneto to take over the mutants, look after them and take over his position as teacher, and there are moments where they reunite again in various points of the comic-book history. There’s still a massive respect for them there, and it is that thing of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X which I think is a pretty good description for both of them. Both of them do have very real arguments and both of their arguments make a lot of sense—Magneto’s arguments making more sense than Charles! (Laughs)
Their two ideologies are completely opposed, so what brings them together?
I don’t know. (Laughs) Sometimes you just like somebody, and you don’t have to agree with them. There’s just a sort of kinship between them. I think Charles is more complete, if you like, than Erik, and Charles shows sides to Erik’s powers that Erik wouldn’t have been able to access without him. There’s huge respect there and fundamentally they like each other as people, but they’re forced to bring it to a head. They’re forced into a practical standoff, so it has to go one way or the other. All the ideas throughout the film are expressed metaphorically speaking, and then it comes to a point where they’re becoming their true selves. And unfortunately, that causes a rift.
Have you consciously tried to incorporate elements of Ian McKellen in your performance?
Who? (Laughs) Oh, that fantastic actor? Of course, there’s definitely a flavor of it there, but I’m taking it from a fresh standpoint and that’s not a reflection on his performance. He’s fantastic, obviously, and they are big boots to fill. I haven’t based it on him and studied him. I thought I’d come from scratch and use the information that’s available in the comic books and take it from there, really. But I did watch all of them and watched him in particular. But it’s my fresh take on it really.
What is your take?
To be fair to Erik, human beings don’t really stand up to be a fantastic species that should be nurtured. The history of the human race has been pretty destructive. In real life, it seems we’re designed to destruct. Someone said the other day if all of us became extinct, the world would flourish, but if a certain insect died, the world would come to a halt and die. It’s an interesting point. Magneto’s take on it is that he’s been a victim of Nazi concentration camps and has seen the capabilities of human beings, and he has a very real point. And if you’re looking at natural evolution, mutants are the homo sapiens to man’s Neanderthal and it is an evolutionary step that’s going to be taken at some point. I do believe that he’s very Machiavellian. He does believe the end justifies the means. His viewpoint is that a lot of its collateral damage might be necessary for an eventual mutant world that would flourish, and human beings have to be sacrificed. It’s a trust thing, really—he doesn’t trust them and Charles feels there’s a lot of good in human beings that should be explored and given the chance to flourish.
One of the big advantages of having a younger Charles and Erik is that they can be more physical.
Which is great. If you overplay the powers, the audience, may be, becomes numb to them after a while. It’s finding the right point to use them, rather than just plastering the piece with it. We do have a lot of hands-on action sequences, which are always fun to do.
Matthew’s great at knowing when’s the right time to move metal in my case, and when the right time is to get physical. It’s mix-and-match, really.
Obviously, the relationship between Charles and Erik drives the film, but is the relationship between Erik and Sebastian Shaw equally important?
That’s his one objective in this. Erik wants to find Shaw and kill him, basically. Shaw is the guy doing experiments on him in the concentration camp in Germany, and he sees the potential in this kid.
He’s subjected him to all sorts of cruelty. It’s that thing of the abused becoming the abuser, and it’s that syndrome that is part of Erik. That is what’s driving him when we meet him in this film and throughout the film. His goal is to get Shaw. He doesn’t know that there are any other mutants out there until he comes across Charles and Jennifer Lawrence’s character, Raven. That’s a revelation, and quite comforting and encouraging, for him to realize that he’s not alone. His objective changes—he tries to achieve one goal, and then it leads onto a bigger picture.
It’s one of the great contradictions of the character that he feels humans must suffer, yet the man who’s done the most damage to him is a fellow mutant.
Yes. And his viewpoint and Shaw’s is not so far away. I don’t think it is his intention to harm another mutant, but as I say, this is someone who’s totally driven. It’s his clarity about getting to the end point that doesn’t allow for anything to get in his way or veer him off that end path and if it’s Charles or any other mutant who gets in his way, he’s going to put them down. That’s the way he has gone about his whole life, I guess.
Were you an X-Men fan before coming onto this?
No. I never read comic books at all. Even when I was a child, I used to weep! I never did read comic books. I read the odd Dandy and Beano. This was new to me. I’d seen some of the films but not all of them. It’s a new world. But I’m very excited to be a part of it. There’s a big responsibility for the fans out there as well. I know they’re such die-hard fans and they’re very committed to anything that happens with the X-Men franchise. I don’t want to let them down.
Erik’s not officially called Magneto at this point, is he?
I think he has definite theories and doubts, which become consolidated by the end. His viewpoint is very solid and all his theories are correct and become justified at the climax. It’s very much a journey toward that end figure we see in the helmet and cape.
Have you worn it?
Just at home—alone. (Laughs)
How was the helmet?
It looks great. It’s great when you have something like this and you get all the imaginations of all the various departments putting their creative worth into it. It’s a real team effort and they’ve done a fantastic effort with the costumes and the design of it all. I’m quite excited to put on the whole getup.
You’ll feel powerful, like you actually are Magneto.
Well, I’ve been sitting in my trailer trying to bend a spoon for the last two months! (Laughs) I’m almost getting there. I’d love to speak to Uri Geller, but he doesn’t return any of my calls.
