Michael Fassbender talks 'Jane Eyre'

Michael Fassbender is in everything these days, and for good reason too. The incendiary actor who has spearheaded films as diverse as 'Shame', 'X-Men: First Class', 'A Dangerous Method', 'Fish Tank' and 'Inglourious Basterds' (all within the last five years!) sits down to chat about one of the roles of a lifetime as Mr Rochester in 'Jane Eyre', out now on Blu-ray and DVD:

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Mr. Rochester and Jane…

There’s a real connection between the two of them, he can be honest with her and also the fact that she challenges him mentally. Here’s a guy who’s very arrogant in his beliefs, he’s travelled around various parts of the world and feels like he has gathered so much information and that makes him very cynical.

And then when Jane responds to him in a sort of way that isn’t the same as his beliefs - she has her own beliefs and is very strong minded, and also he sees that there is some fire within her that she’s been suppressing and keeping sort of caged up for all this time and this really intrigues him, he’s fascinated by it.

 

Mia Wasikowska…

She’s the future, she really is, she just is amazing. I had seen her work in ‘In Treatment’ a series she did with Gabriel Byrne when I heard she was going to be playing Jane and just seeing her work in that, I mean at that point she was just 18 years old or perhaps younger and I thought oh my god, here’s somebody with such a mature, original and interesting choices and such an interesting face on camera as well, it seems to just change within a scene, she’s so mature, very centred.

 

Judi Dench…

Judi Dench, well when I found out, on top of that Mia was playing Jane, to have Judi Dench in the cast too, that was amazing. I think she’s old school, she’s the real deal you feel blessed every day to be sitting in the green room talking to her and you sort of hope that some sort of gold dust or something will fall onto your shoulder or something; it’s a real privilege for me to be allowed to work with her.

Cary Fukunaga

I thought what an interesting choice for him to take this classic British piece and try and bring his angle on it. Again, we are dealing with a very intelligent person and a very specific and hardworking director, and he’s also a perfectionist, you can see that he’s trying to get the best out of everything, every shot, every moment, every piece. And you know he’s got a lot of youth and enthusiasm in him as well and I think it’s a really interesting choice for him to take this piece on.

Jane Eyre is released on Blu-ray and DVD on 12^th March, just in time for Mother’s Day.

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