Michael Fassbender is still the same guy he's always been, living in the same East London bachelor pad he's had since his 20s and keeping a level head about him as he goes about his work. It's just everything else that's changed.
That's at least the gist of of his interview in the November issue of GQ.
Gracing the magazine's cover, the 36-year-old German-Irish actor spills on how his quick rise to the top of Hollywood's A-list has affected his dating life, his total dedication to his work, and his decision not to worry about little things like the Oscars.
Here's some of the most notable bites.
On meeting women:
"I make a lot more friends, you know what I mean? You become a lot more successful in terms of, like, talking to a girl. She's all of a sudden more interested in me. I know that, like, three years ago, she would've walked away after two sentences left my mouth," Fassbender says.
On how long he's dated someone:
"I think the longest relationship that I've been in was two years," reveals the Prometheus star. "I started doing this [acting] when I was 17, so I guess in my dating, adult life, that kind of covers it."
On the love for his craft:
"I'm kind of selfish with the hours that I put into the work," he notes.
And for good reason, considering it wasn't so long ago Fassbender was a struggling young thespian working a variety of odd jobs, including being a barman, doing market research for Dell and working for the U.K.'s postal service.
Since then, Fassy has gained quite a female following the past five years, thanks to searing performances in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, Steve McQueen's Shame and Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class.
Now in serious demand, Fassbender has two films coming out this fall. One is The Counselor, a Ridley Scott-helmed thriller about a drug deal gone bad that finds him steaming up the screen with Penélope Cruz. The other is 12 Years a Slave, a slavery drama that reunites him with his Hunger director McQueen. In it, Fassbender plays Edwin Epps, a menacing, alcoholic plantation owner in love with a female slave who terrorizes Chiwetel Ejiofor's Solomon Northup.
The latter is also garnering buzz that Fassbender will receive his first Oscar nomination after missing out on a nod for Shame, for which he lobbied heavily only to come up short. That experience, he admitted, turned him off to the usual glad-handing that comes with the job—so much so that if he's nominated this year, he's opted to forego the ceremony in favor of working on a new film he's also producing in New Zealand.
"That's just not going to happen, because I'll be in New Zealand. I'll be on the other side of the world," Fassbender tells the magazine. "You know, I get it. Everybody's got to do their job. So you try and help and facilitate as best you can. But I won't put myself through that kind of situation again."
He added: "It's just a grind and I'm not a politician. I'm an actor."
For the full GQ interview, click here.