6) Hunger
He’s been better since, but it’s nonetheless obvious why Hunger was the film that brought Fassbender to mainstream attention.
As IRA political prisoner and hunger striker Bobby Sands, Fassbender gives the very definition of a raw performance. It’s not a technically perfect turn – in the centerpiece tete-a-tete between Sands and Liam Cunningham’s priest, Fassbender can be overly-mannered, even stagy – but it’s imbued with the power of an actor who’s been waiting all his life for a moment to show what he’s made of.
The dedication is clear: not before or since has Fassbender gone to the lengths he goes to in Hunger, losing a staggering amount of weight, to the point of emaciation. Using his own accent in the film (there haven’t been many opportunities for him to do the same since), the fact that Fassbender gets to speak with his native lilt here just adds to the sense that he’s doing something real and summoned from within.