Filming around Fassbender’s schedule helped create a western with an otherworldly feel
Michael Fassbender wears his role well in Slow West, mostly because the cowboy part was tailored to fit by writer-director John Maclean. They became friends after Maclean showcased Fassbender in two short films. “And Michael said, ‘What do you want to do next?’ ” Maclean said while in Toronto promoting the movie. “I told him I wanted to do a feature, probably a western, and he was up for it.” In the film, Fassbender plays a saddle tramp bounty hunter who agrees to lead a young Scottish lad (Kodi Smit-McPhee) across the Colorado frontier in search of his childhood sweetheart. The backdrop (New Zealand subbing for Colorado) is as unique as the lowkey story driven by Fassbender’s portrayal of a range rider with a difference. “I knew I was going to have Michael from the beginning, so it was easy to write the part especially for him,” Maclean said. “It was a collaboration from the start. That really helped the movie.” Smit-McPhee turned out to be an available lucky break. The Australian teen had co-starred in The Road, Let Me In and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. (And he was recently cast as Nightcrawler in 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse). So the Slow West writer-director figured Smit-McPhee would be an equal match for Fassbender, who has earned acclaim for intense performances, including his Oscarnominated role in 12 Years a Slave. “Kodi was also very close to what I had imagined for the character,” said Maclean. “He’s classically otherworldly and seems out of place.” Certainly, an American western by a Scottish filmmaker was another odd mix in the ingredient, but shooting the movie in New Zealand turned out to be more peculiar. Timing and logistics were the practical reasons for the location; Fassbender was only available in November and December of 2013. In the end, the New Zealand exteriors proved to be an appropriate feature for Maclean’s off-kilter “forest western.” Maclean also knew Slow West “would be equal parts western and something a little more mood-setting like Japanese and European films.” Even Fassbender’s cowboy goes through a visual alteration as the film does thematically. “The idea was to start off Michael’s character like a comic-book cowboy and then as we go along he sheds his hat and his waist coat and all his clichés,” he said.