Michael Fassbender Never Blinked While on Camera Filming ‘The Killer,’ David Fincher’s DP Noticed; Director Says ‘Michael’s Eyes Betray a Lot’

variety.com:

Zack Sharf Digital News Director David Fincher is known for doing lots of takes while filming, but Michael Fassbender upped the ante while filming “The Killer” by apparently never blinking when the camera was on him.

The film’s cinematography Erik Messerschmidt revealed the detail in the latest issue of Empire Magazine. Messerschmidt previously worked with Fincher on “Mindhunter” and “Mank,” the latter of which won him the Oscar for best cinematography. “I believe that you have to be impossible to deal with to be any good at this — you have to be completely uncompromising, to the absolute limit, or you’ll never make anything good,” Messerschmidt said of working with Fincher. “And that’s scary.

I see these masters of their craft, fighting for every inch.” Messerschmidt called Fassbender “the perfect actor for David”, with Empire noting that he also mentioned “how the focus puller highlighted something remarkable: the actor didn’t blink on camera for the entire shoot.” “Michael’s eyes betray a lot,” Fincher told Empire Magazine (via IGN), which might explain why he didn’t want his actor blinking in the film. “He can hold a lot of conflicting things in his mind and his eyes allow you access to it.” Fincher said working with Fassbender reminded him of filming “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” with Daniel Craig.

Both actors have a similar personal resolve that they brought to set. “He’s like Daniel Craig in that way, saying, ‘I can do it better,'” Fincher said. “Tell him to stop one third of an 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.