Michael Fassbender is one of the most fearless actors of his generation, a performer who brought a ferocious physicality and psychological precision to every role and made both look completely natural. He broke through with Hunger (2008) and went on to a career that includes Inglourious Basterds (2009), X-Men: First Class (2011), Shame (2011), and 12 Years a Slave (2013). His two Academy Award nominations arrived within three years of each other and reflected a run of work that ranks among the most sustained stretches of high-level acting in recent memory.

On screen, Fassbender commands attention through a quality of focused stillness that makes other actors in the same frame work harder to register. The sharp jaw, the pale eyes, and a physicality he has pushed to extremes in roles like Brandon Sullivan in Shame give him a presence that feels charged even in quieter scenes. He has stepped back from film in recent years, which makes every new project an event, and the appetite for his return among directors and audiences alike has only grown in his absence.