--- title: Michael Fassbender in Steve Jobs Biopic: Why He Should Play description: The "X-Men" actor is the perfect fit canonical: https://time.com/3558362/michael-fassbender-steve-jobs/ author: Daniel D'Addario article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-05T16:37:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T11:14:15.995Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Why Michael Fassbender Should Play Steve Jobs og:description: The "X-Men" actor is the perfect fit og:url: https://time.com/3558362/michael-fassbender-steve-jobs/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcecf3e237ffa606e/6987643ba988ca48346aa352/ap171194988652.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Michael Fassbender og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Michael Fassbender Should Play Steve Jobs twitter:description: The "X-Men" actor is the perfect fit twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcecf3e237ffa606e/6987643ba988ca48346aa352/ap171194988652.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why Michael Fassbender Is the Perfect Choice to Play Steve Jobs  by [Daniel D'Addario](https://time.com/author/daniel-daddario/)  ## Daniel D'Addario Nov 5, 2014 4:37 PM UTC  Michael Fassbender arrives for the UK Premiere of X-Men Days Of Future Past at a central London cinema, Monday, May 12, 2014\. (Photo by Jonathan Short/Invision/AP) Michael Fassbender arrives for the UK Premiere of X-Men Days Of Future Past at a central London cinema, Monday, May 12, 2014\. (Photo by Jonathan Short/Invision/AP)Jonathan Short—Jonathan Short/Invision/AP  by [Daniel D'Addario](https://time.com/author/daniel-daddario/)  ## Daniel D'Addario Nov 5, 2014 4:37 PM UTC Danny Boyle’s planned Steve Jobs biopic (based on the book _Steve Jobs_, by former TIME managing editor Walter Isaacson) has been subject to some turbulence when it comes to the leading role. Which leading man has the right qualities to play one of the most influential business minds of the past century, and more importantly, which one would be willing? Leonardo DiCaprio had been connected with the role and turned it down, and Christian Bale has left the project. But the star Boyle’s looking at now is the perfect fit: If anyone should play Steve Jobs, it should be Michael Fassbender. The Irish actor is reportedly in [“early talks”](http://variety.com/2014/film/news/michael-fassbender-in-talks-to-play-steve-jobs-in-biopic-1201346741/) for the part, and it’s a perfect choice. He effortlessly passes, for instance, what we might call the Kutcher Test: Is the actor serious enough to ensure that the project won’t become an object of derision before anyone sees it? (Ashton Kutcher’s movie _Jobs_ was a laughingstock for much of last year, due in large part to that actor’s _Dude, Where’s My Car?_ pedigree.) Fassbender, who went to the Oscars as a nominee for _12 Years a Slave_ this year, is certainly in the conversation when it comes to the most accomplished young actors. But it’s the sort of parts Fassbender is good at playing that particularly qualify him for _Jobs_. His two franchise roles have proven him uniquely able to convey intellectual power that’s literally superhuman and a certain disregard for the concerns of mortals — as the all-powerful Magneto in the two most recent _X-Men_ flicks, and as David the android in _Prometheus_. The Jobs of _Steve Jobs_ is both a visionary thinker, naturally, but is more concerned with technological advancement than with human ties. Fassbender’s ability to be supercilious onscreen without becoming loathsome would serve him well, here. Magneto and David have been two roles that prove Fassbender’s readiness to play Steve Jobs, but neither saddle him with an unwieldy persona. He’s still free to play characters without making it all about him. Leonardo DiCaprio, for instance, is almost too famous to play the role; he’s such a major star, and pulls consistently from such a familiar bag of tricks, that he only works in roles that are wildly outsized, like his vampy _Wolf of Wall Street_ character. Fassbender’s been in hits, but his _X-Men_ and _Prometheus_ characters are different from one another, and more different still from his character in, say, _12 Years a Slave_. He’s proven he can handle the fundamentals, even changing his appearance for a role (he took his good looks out of the equation, wearing a mask throughout _Frank_). But perhaps more importantly, Fassbender still bears the exciting potential of an actor we haven’t seen do everything he can. And that’s part of why he should take the part, too: He deserves it. Fassbender has for years been a fantastic supporting actor in widely watched movies (add _Inglourious Basterds_ to the list that includes _X-Men_, _Prometheus_, and _12 Years a Slave_) or a leading man in little-seen movies like _Shame_ and _Jane Eyre_. His ability to build an utterly convincing inner life for a morally complicated character has never been tested by a lead role in a movie as potentially big as _Steve Jobs_, a movie whose very bigness demands an actor willing to take artistic risks. It’s early yet, but more famous and more widely loved actors leaving the project could be the best thing that happened to the Steve Jobs movie. And if it doesn’t work out, Fassbender’s star-making project is, no doubt, just around the corner. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3558362/michael-fassbender-steve-jobs/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3558362/michael-fassbender-steve-jobs/"},"headline":"Why Michael Fassbender Is the Perfect Choice to Play Steve Jobs","datePublished":"2014-11-05T16:37:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T11:14:15.995Z","description":"The X-Men: Days of Future Past star would do the role justice","url":"https://time.com/3558362/michael-fassbender-steve-jobs/","keywords":["movies","Jobs","Leonardo DiCaprio","Steve Jobs","michael fassbender","Christian Bale"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcecf3e237ffa606e/6987643ba988ca48346aa352/ap171194988652.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel D'Addario","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-daddario/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcecf3e237ffa606e/6987643ba988ca48346aa352/ap171194988652.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Michael Fassbender","caption":"Michael Fassbender","creditText":"Jonathan Short—Jonathan Short/Invision/AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3558362/michael-fassbender-steve-jobs/","name":"Why Michael Fassbender Is the Perfect Choice to Play Steve Jobs"}}]}] ```