10 Michael Fassbender Performances That Left Us Speechless

7) Macbeth

There have been many differing interpretations of Macbeth over the years, but none quite like this. While previous incarnations occasionally beggared belief, with Macbeth descending into madness and cruelty as a result of nothing more than a guilty conscience, in Justin Kurzel’s 2015 Macbeth, the title character is dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Suddenly, the character makes sense; and in Michael Fassbender, you have an actor convincingly evolving across the film from already-unhinged warrior to a man in complete mental meltdown.

Initially a vision of rage heading into battle, Macbeth emerges a changed man. With dazzled eyes and detached air, there’s a sense with Fassbender’s Macbeth that the ‘tyrant’ as king isn’t really in control of his own actions. It keeps him curiously sympathetic – in this version of Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth is a mere puppet of Lady Macbeth, a hollow figure who’s ceased to be a person. And Fassbender’s never been spookier than in the moment he declares, “full of scorpions is my mind,” a manic grin on his blank face as he ponders his next bloody move.