"Michael Fassbender" doesn't have quite the marquee zing of "Brad Pitt." But the handsome German-Irish actor, who came to the art-house world's attention three years ago playing Bobby Sands in Steve McQueen's Hunger, outgunned Pitt with four remarkable performances in films released this year. In Jane Eyre he plays the broodingly sensual Rochester to Mia Wasikowska's sympathetic governess. He is the young Magneto (who grows up to be a maleficent Ian McKellen) in the summer prequel X-Men: First Class and Carl Jung, irresistibly drawn to a comely patient, in A Dangerous Method. All these characters, in whom Fassbender invests so much of his feral intelligence, were known to viewers through earlier films or biographies. But in McQueen's Shame he plays a character Manhattan office worker Brendan who is new and unknown. In a blazing exhibition, Fassbender reveals the desperate urges of a sex addict, seeking anonymous release while denying himself human contact. Would any man want to be him? Could any woman resist him? Hollywood can't keep its hands off Fassbender. He has already filmed roles in Steven Soderbergh's action film Haywire and Ridley Scott's Alien semiprequel Prometheus. So we'll be seeing a good deal more of this Mensa heartthrob, though perhaps not as much as in Shame.
The Top 10 Everything of 2011
- Top 10 Albums
- Top 10 Animal Stories
- Top 10 Apologies
- Top 10 Business Blunders
- Top 10 Buzzwords
- Top 10 Comebacks
- Top 10 Consumer-Spending Trends
- Top 10 Crime Stories
- Top 10 Campaign-Debate Moments
- Top 10 Best Fashion Moments
- Top 10 Worst Fashion Moments
- Top 10 Feuds
- Top 10 Fiction Books
- Top 10 Fleeting Celebrities
- Top 10 Food Trends
- Top 10 Gadgets
- Top 10 Green Trends
- Top 10 Marriage Stories
- Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs
- Top 10 Memes
- Top 10 Movie Performances
- Top 10 Worst Movies
- Top 10 Best Movies
- Top 10 New Findings in Parenting
- Top 10 New Species
- Top 10 Nonfiction Books
- Top 10 Numbers
- Top 10 Oddball-News Stories
- Top 10 Overreported Stories
- Top 10 People Not Running for President
- Top 10 Plays and Musicals
- Top 10 Political Gaffes
- Top 10 Protest Signs
- Top 10 Quotes
- Top 10 Religion Stories
- Top 10 Ridiculously Obvious Study Findings
- Top 10 Scandals
- Top 10 Smart-Phone Apps
- Top 10 Songs
- Top 10 Space Moments
- Top 10 Sports Moments
- Top 10 Toys
- Top 10 TV Ads
- Top 10 TV Episodes
- Top 10 TV Series
- Top 10 Best Tweets
- Top 10 Worst Tweets
- Top 10 U.S.-News Stories
- Top 10 Underreported Stories
- Top 10 Video Games
- Top 10 Creative Videos
- Top 10 Viral Videos
- Top 10 World-News Stories
- Top 10 Photos of the Year
In 54 wide-ranging lists, TIME surveys the highs and lows, the good and the bad, of the past 12 months