Michael Fassbender has earned a reputation for his brooding, powerful performances, making him one of the most respected actors in the game. However, as he showed in the absolutely excellent "Frank," playing one of the most oddball characters of his career, he can handle comedy with ease. That being said, this bit of news is still slightly surprising and totally exciting.
Fassbender will take the lead role of The Dude (or His Dudeness or Duder or El Duderino, if you’re not into the whole brevity thing) in Jason Reitman‘s live read of "The Big Lebowski" at the upcoming Just For Laughs festival in Montreal. Fassy is apparently a big fan of the Coen Brothers movie, and is currently in Montreal shooting "X-Men: Apocalypse," so the timing works out just fine, but Reitman won’t be able to spend any time with his leading man, which will give the entire read an air of unpredictability.
“Unlike other Live-Reads where I have a decent sense of how, for instance, Seth Rogen [was] going to play The Dude, I have no idea how Fassbender will do it,” Reitman told EW. “But he’s one of the our greatest performers, he’s on the current Mount Rushmore of actors, so I can’t wait to see what he comes up with.”
READ MORE: Watch: Michael Fassbender Takes The Stage In First Trailer For ‘Steve Jobs’
Interestingly, this isn’t the first time Fassbender has tackled Coens’ material. "I think the last audition I did was for ‘Inside Llewyn Davis,’ " the actor told Variety this spring. "It was an unsuccessful audition. I went up for Oscar [Isaac’s] part."
Fassbender will be joined by Patton Oswalt as Walter Sobchak, with more cast members to be revealed. The Live Read takes place on July 24th.