Michael Fassbender considered doing some very stupid things to get out of playing Steve Jobs

'It should cause a break and it should get me out of this gig'

The iMac experience: Michael Stuhlbarg, Michael Fassbender and Kate Winslet star in ‘Steve Jobs’ (Universal Pictures)

At the Toronto Film Festival, Michael Fassbender put himself through something most actors never do; he watched clips of his own films back with an audience present, candidly speaking about each role (all for charity).

Notably, Vulture reports how the actor spoke of his displeasure with his performance as Magneto in X-Men: Days of Future Past, saying of one scene: "I don’t actually like that performance there, to be honest. I just think it’s me shouting. It’s just some dude shouting."

Another highlight came as he watched a scene from Prometheus with Charlize Theron, saying his performance as the android was inspired by both David Bowie and Olympic diver Greg Louganis (“I just remember watching the Olympics thinking his walk was so funny and mesmerising”).

However, one of the most revealing snippets from the event came when an audience member asked about playing Steve Jobs in the Danny Boyle-directed biopic.

When asked which film was the most difficult to make, Fassbender replied Steve Jobs, reportedly without hesitation, blaming screenwriter Aaron Sorkin.

"He wrote all that stuff!" he told the audience. "It was so dense! It was such a mountain, and I’m a slow learner, so when the script arrived for me and the opportunity came to play the part, I really thought, 'This is not me. This should be somebody else. It’s a miscast scenario.'”

Only after his father and agent pushed him did he take the job. "But in rehearsals, I was trying to find a way to get out of the job," he continued. "I remember telling my driver, 'If I put my arm in the door, you should slam it. It should cause a break and it should get me out of this gig.’”

As we all know, the driver didn’t end up breaking Fassbender’s arm; instead, the actor went back to his apartment to learn his lines and he ended up getting nominated for an Oscar.

Meanwhile, you can watch Fassbender in Cinemas from the 4 November alongside Alicia Vikander in The Light Between Oceans.