Before They Were Stars: Michael Fassbender as Guy Fawkes in “Gunpowder, Treason & Plot”

We’re close to concluding our “Before They Were Stars” series on this year’s Academy Award nominees and we’ve arrived on Michael Fassbender, who received his second career Oscar nomination for his portrayal of the title character in Steve Jobs. Two years before V for Vendetta brought Guy Fawkes’ name back into the pop culture lexicon, a relatively unknown Fassbender portrayed Fawkes in Gunpowder, Treason & Plot, a 2004 BBC miniseries about the infamous “Gunpowder Plot”, though the story focused mainly on James VI of Scotland and gave Fawkes limited screen time. It’s somewhat appropriate that Hugo Weaving would deliver an entire performance behind a Guy Fawkes mask in V for Vendetta since Fassbender would attempt a similar challenge many years later by doing an entire performance underneath a giant paper-mache head in Frank.