According to studies over the years, most of us blink around 15 times a minute. That feels like a lot, doesn’t it? Well, the act of blinking adds constant moisture to our eyes in a way that protects those eyeballs. With that science in mind, Wednesday lead Jenna Ortega found a way to rarely blink on the set of the Netflix hit in order to give her Addams Family character a constant creepy stare about her. Following that, apparently Michael Fassbender did the same thing in the upcoming David Fincher film The Killer!
David Fincher, who memorably helmed movies like Fight Club, Se7en and Gone Girl, recently unveiled Michael Fassbender’s lack of blinking in one of 2023’s new movie releases. In the writer/director’s words:
Michael’s eyes betray a lot. He can hold a lot of conflicting things in his mind and his eyes allow you access to it…He’s like Daniel Craig in that way, saying, ‘I can do it better.’ Tell him to stop 1/3 inch shorter and he can fine-tune that technical stuff, while on top of that, he’s got really good ideas about behavior. He has this gift as an actor, but clamped on top of it is this incredible discipline about how he subdivides his next move.
During an interview with Empire Magazine (via IGN) the master filmmaker shared that Fassbender pushed himself to not blink on camera during his scenes in The Killer. The movie hasn’t come out just yet, as it is coming to select theaters on October 27 before becoming available to stream on November 10 with a Netflix subscription, but talk about an impressive challenge. I think after it’s all said and done, Fassbender and Jenna Ortega need to be challenged to a celebrity staring contest between them to see who mastered the skill better. My money is on Ortega for the time being since Wednesday was an eight-episode series, whereas The Killer is a movie.
The Killer is an adaptation of a French comic book series from Matz. It follows a professional assassin, who has long been a cold and calculating killer, as he begins to gain a conscience, which leads him to have to be opposed by his dangerous employers. The movie also stars Charles Parnell, Sala Baker, Sophie Charlotte, Arliss Howard and Tilda Swinton. You can check out The Killer trailer below:
Michael Fassbender has played some seriously impressive roles in the past, and I imagine The Killer to be no exception, especially with David Fincher at the helm. Fincher has made some of the most iconic crime thrillers of all time, between Se7en, Zodiac and Gone Girl. When The Killer premiered last month at the Venice Film Festival, critics were impressed overall. Given word of Fassbender’s no blinking rule on set, it sounds like The Killer is going to be an intense performance from the actor.