Michael Fassbender: “I consider myself Irish – definitely not British”

The actor insists the media only label him British when he's doing well.

Michael Fassbender says he considers himself Irish, despite having lived in London for 20 years. The 39-year-old actor was born in Germany to a German father and an Irish mother. He moved to Kerry at the age of two, and spent his entire childhood and adolescence in the Kingdom. "I definitely still consider myself Irish. Yes, yes. And I’m definitely European," he told The Guardian newspaper. "I would never consider myself British." Fassbender says that the British media only try to claim him when he's doing well. "If I’m not, I’m Irish," he laughed. Fassbender has revealed how his parents were concerned when he told them he wanted to be an actor. They wanted him to go to college first. "They wanted me to go to university, because they were of that generation when anybody who went to university had security and got a good job. "They said, ‘Go to university first’, and I was like, ‘No, I’m not going to waste time and money, I need to do this now.’" His parents' attitudes changed, he revealed, when they saw him put a stage production of Reservoir Dogs together at the age of 17. "They saw me put on that play and they thought, 'Sh**, he’s serious.' When they saw that I’d made up my mind, they knew that’s what I was going to do, and I have to say they supported me immediately after that."