Michael Fassbender covers the latest issue of GQ and talks about the famous scene in Shame where he walks around with his big penis flopping everywhere.
“It’s fun to a point,” he says of these situations he has been facing, “and after a certain point you worry that it kind of detracts from the movie. But there’s nothing I can do. I just have to laugh it off. I can. Pretty much. Because I take my work seriously but I can’t take myself too seriously. I’m in such a crazy privileged position—s**t, this is the pinnacle of the dream when I was 17…. Nobody wants to hear really how difficult it is.”
Detract from the movie? Nah. His penis was hangin’ there just chillin’. It played it cool. Sadly, to his dismay, this didn’t get him an Oscar nod.
“At the beginning people [say], ‘You’re going to be going to the Oscars,’ and you’re like, ‘Whatever, doesn’t matter, don’t think so.’ But after a while it does penetrate. After a while you’re like, ‘Anyway, so I’m going to the Oscars…’ ” He laughs. “And you start to believe it. And I did. I thought I was going. And then I found out I wasn’t and I was upset. I was very upset by it. The first reaction was ‘What the f**k…?’ ” He sounds frustrated that he had let himself get sucked in. “It’s a vanity thing. It does become important to you. And it shouldn’t.” On reflection, he decided that he had learned something about misplaced priorities. “A good little lesson.”
The Academy was just scared that if they nominated him it would set a precedent for other films. Like they say, when one door opens, a big, floppy penis comes helicoptering right through it.