13 Interesting Facts About Michael Fassbender

1. Michael Fassbender is half Irish and half German

Fassbender was born in West Germany to a German father, Josef Fassbender, and an Irish mother, Adele, who hails from Larne, County Antrim, in Northern Ireland. He is the second of two siblings, his older sister being Catherine who is a neuropsychologist in Sacramento, California, USA.

2. The Fassbenders moved to Ireland when Michael was two

Michael Fassbender was a mere toddler when his family moved from Germany to Killarney in Ireland to run a restaurant called the West End House, where Josef Fassbender was also employed as a chef.

Adele and Josef Fassbender picked Killarney because of their desire for their children to grow up in the countryside, which was contrary to the industrial backdrop of their previous place in southwest Germany. Michael and his sister Catherine still spent summer vacations in Germany, however.

3. Michael Fassbender’s maternal relatives believe they are related to Michael Collins

According to the “lore” of Fassbender’s maternal side of the family, his mother Adele is a great-grandniece to the celebrated Irish War of Independence leader Michael Collins.

Michael Collins was born in Woodfield, County Cork, in October of 1890. He was a revolutionary, soldier, and politician who was a main figure in Ireland’s fight for independence in the early 20th century. He died in an ambush on August 22, 1922 during the Civil War.

In the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2006, Michael Fassbender played the role of his great-great-uncle in the Mary Kenny play entitled Allegiance, which is based on the meeting between Michael Collins and Sir Winston Churchill.

4. Michael Fassbender was raised as a Catholic

This is not surprising considering he grew up in Ireland. He served as head altar boy at Prince of Peace Church in Fossa, near Killarney – the church his family attended. In a 2017 interview, Fassbender claims he was quite good at it!

5. He was 17 when he decided he wanted to be an actor

Fassbender was attending St. Brendan’s College in Killarney when he decided that he wanted to pursue a career in acting. When he was 17 years old, he became a cast member of a play by Donie Courtney, which ignited the desire.

Two years later, he left Killarney for London to attend the Drama Centre.

In 1999, Fassbender dropped out of the Drama Centre to tour with the Oxford Stage Company and act in the play Three Sisters by Anton Chekov.

6. He worked in various jobs before he became a professional actor

Before he could find a steady work as an actor, Fassbender worked in various jobs, including manual labor and bartending. He also worked at Dell and as a postman and market researcher for Royal Mail.

7. He landed his first screen role in 2000

Fassbender managed to land his first screen role in 2000 in the TV miniseries called Hearts and Bones, which follows the lives of a group of friends from Coventry living in London.

The following year, Fassbender got a huge break on the American mainstream. He was cast for the role of Burton “Pat” Christenson in Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg’s award-winning war drama TV miniseries called Band of Brothers.

Band of Brothers first aired on HBO on September 9, 2001. It got many nominations and awards, including the Emmy and Golden Globe awards for best miniseries.

8. Fassbender was in a Guinness TV ad

In late 2003, Michael Fassbender was seen in the iconic Guinness TV commercial, titled “Quarrel,” in which he played a man striding across Ireland, diving off the Cliffs of Moher, and swimming across the Atlantic Ocean to New York in order to personally apologize to his brother. This advertisement won a gold medal at the 2005 FAB Awards.

9. He underwent a crash diet in preparation for his role in the Hunger movie

In 2008, Michael Fassbender played the role of Provisional Irish Republican Army prisoner Bobby Sands in the political drama entitled Hunger. For the role, he had to lose weight, so he underwent a crash diet and restricted himself to 600 calories a day.

All his efforts paid off. His performance as Bobby Sands in Hunger earned Michael Fassbender the British Independent Film Award.

10. Michael Fassbender played Magneto in X-Men: First Class

In 2011, Fassbender portrayed Magneto in the prequel to superhero blockbuster X-Men. The film was X-Men: First Class, set in 1962. The movie follows the friendship between Magneto and Charles Xavier (portrayed by James McAvoy) as well as the origin of their respective groups – the Brotherhood of Mutants and the X-Men.

In 2014, the Irish-German actor reprised the said role in the X-Men: First Class sequel, called X-Men: Days of Future Past.

11. Michael Fassbender has been nominated twice at the Academy Awards

Fassbender was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Award at the 2014 Oscar for his role of Edwin Epps, a slaveholder on a Louisina cotton plantation, in the 2013 feature film 12 Years a Slave.

The movie is based on the life of the freeborn African American Solomon Northup who was abducted and sold as a slave in the middle of the 19th century. 12 Years a Slave was Fassbender’s third collaboration with Steve McQueen, the first two being Hunger (2008) and Shame (2011).

In the 2015 movie Steve Jobs based on the life of the late Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs, Fassbender played the title role, which was first offered to Christian Bale. This role garned Fassbender another Academy Awards nomination, this time for Best Actor.

12. Fassbender is also a race car driver

Even before Fassbender started acting and became famous, his other big dream was to go auto racing.

In 2016, he had his first training with Ferrari Corso Pilota Driving School. The following year, he finally realized his dream and competed in the Ferrari 488 Challenge Cars.

He drove in the full Ferrari Challenge North America in 2018 and won the season opener at Daytona International Speedway.

Fassbender races in the European Le Mans Series. He currently drives for Proton Competition. His best finish is 5th, which took place in 2021.

13. Fassbender married Swedish actress Alicia Vikander in 2017

Fassbender and Swedish actress Alicia Vikander worked together in the 2016 romantic drama film The Light Between Oceans. They had been dating for more than a year prior.

In October 2017, Fassbender and Vikander married in a private ceremony on the Spanish island of Ibiza, moving to Portugal later and residing in the capital. Vikander gave birth to their baby boy in 2021.

Christine Rogador

Hi, I’m Christine – a full-time traveler and career woman. Although I’m from the Philippines, my location independent career took me to over 60 countries for the past 12 years. I also lived in 4 continents – from the Caribbean, South East Asia, Africa and now in Europe. But despite living in several countries, my love for Ireland remains the same. A country that had been a part of my life since I was 14 because of my love for Irish music and bands. Ireland Travel Guides was born because of this passion and hopefully, in some little ways, this website will be able to help you on your next trip to Ireland.