Michael Fassbender
Age: 38
From: Heidelberg, Germany
Last film: “Macbeth”
Michael Fassbender is the objectively perfect James Bond.
First, he is incredibly good looking. This might be a rather superficial assessment, but for a character whose charms are as superficial as James Bond’s, it’s quite important. He’s strong, but not overly muscular. His looks are distinctive, but not unconventional. Plus, he can wear the hell out of a suit.
He’s also suave. Despite playing violent, wrathful figures in several recent works, Fassbender actually excels at dialing down his natural intensity to play calm and collected. One of his earliest major roles was in Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglorious Basterds” — where he slipped so naturally into the role of the posh, urbane British soldier you would think he had been playing that type of character for years.
Fassbender can even be comic. For anyone that misses the dry humor not really present in the current Craig films, Fassbender is actually quite funny. His recent performance in “Frank” showed a talent for droll wit and deadpan humor — necessities for delivering Bond one-liners.
Most importantly, Fassbender can actually act. Craig is one of the few people to play Bond with serious acting range, resulting in an unusually nuanced and moving Bond. In turn, the movies have matured to match Craig’s performance — resulting in previously unseen levels of franchise sophistication. Thus as a critically lauded performer, Fassbender makes an excellent successor to Craig.
Fassbender is certainly a much more expectable choice than what many of my coworkers have said. But be honest, is being too perfect for the role a problem in the first place?
Contact Raymond Maspons at raymondm ‘at’ stanford.edu.