10) Inglourious Basterds
It’s hard to imagine Quentin Tarantino’s original choice for the part – Simon Pegg – playing Lt. Archie Hicox after you’ve seen Michael Fassbender in the role. Not that Pegg wouldn’t have put a decent spin on it, it’s just that Fassbender is so good in QT’s WWII epic, you wish Hicox had been the star of his own film. Alas, he’s a supporting character in a movie dominated by Brad Pitt and Christoph Waltz, but nevertheless, Fassbender walks casually away with his quarter of the picture.
Going from stiff-upper-lipped Brit to suaveness personified, as an undercover English agent play-acting at being a German officer, Fassbender spends most of his time in Inglourious Basterds speaking German and sweating over the fact his cover might get blown. Of course it is, and he goes out in a blaze of glory, but not before he lights up a cigarette and takes a few Nazis down with him.
Imagine an oh-so-English Steve McQueen – vaguely snooty, but devilishly cool.