GQ creative director Jim Moore speaks to us about how the concept for our June cover man Michael Fassbender came to be and why the actor made an ideal subject for shooting. In his own words...
"Michael Fassbender is a real man's man and a real ladies' man and in a way he's better than a James Bond character because he just seems to have it all. What we wanted to celebrate with this cover shoot was the roughness and the refinement of him.
One of the inspirations the photographer Mario Testino and I talked about were Helmut Newton photos. Not necessarily the black-and-white series he did but ones that had a more voyeuristic feeling to them. The story is actually shot through objects and is meant to feel as though Fassbender and the model are being watched. We wanted something that was tough, chic, and a little bit naughty as well as a scenario that played to some of his recent parts as a leading man. Our goal was to make it a really epic shoot and once we had the great Mario Testino we then pulled in a lot of references, from Steve McQueen to Cary Grant and images of strong guys who ride motorcycles (and have a beautiful woman on the back of them).
Fassbender arrived to our shoot on a motorcycle without any handlers and he was game for the entire process. He didn't' really question his director. He did what Mario and I asked of him and I think the end results are great. I love these pictures because he clearly feels comfortable in his own skin - it's a perfect example of a man wearing clothes instead of the clothes wearing him.
We wanted the shoot to feel intimate but still wanted it to be powerful. To showcase this through the clothes we put him in current pieces that reflected what is going on in fashion at the moment but are also quite timeless and masculine - pieces like a crewneck sweatshirt, a Barbour-style jacket, and a simple black polo.
The first time we shot Fassbender was for this past December's Men of the Year issue. We photographed him in simple portraits, which the images needed to be in order to introduce him to our readers. That having been done, and not wanting to repeat ourselves, we wanted to dig deeper this time and do something more epic. I'm equally proud of both stories but feel like this one in our June issue is a real tour de force."