Michael Fassbender recalls wearing an unexpectedly sexual costume item while filming The Killer stars Fassbender as an assassin who finds his perfectly organized life threatened after a job goes wrong. The Netflix movie was met with generally positive reviews due to Fincher's meticulous direction and Fassbender's calculating performance, which involves a number of costume changes as he tries to remain anonymous.

In a recent video for Entertainment Weekly in which he breaks down aspects of his past films, Fassbender reveals that the gloves he wore as part of his look for The Killer weren't regular latex gloves, they were fisting gloves. The reason for this surprisingly sexual aspect of his costume, Fassbender explains, came down to how much detail was visible on his fingers. He reveals that the production ended up using so many of these gloves that the company supplying them actually ran out. Check out Fassbender's explanation below:

“What would come to mind would be fisting gloves, which is what I wore as gloves that wouldn’t leave a fingerprint I guess because they were so sleek. And Fincher wanted something that would fit my hand like a glove, obviously, but really kind of where you could see the outline of my finger very clearly. And we found fisting gloves were the best for that.

“I think we actually used so many that there was none left in the company that we were sourcing them from. So there could have been some unhappy fisters out there because of us.”

What Fassbender's Killer Glove Story Means For David Fincher

The Direct's Exacting Style Explained

Though Fassbender doesn't mention this in his explanation above, one reason for The Killer's production going through so many fisting gloves could be due to Fincher's notoriously exacting nature as a director. The filmmaker is famous for his willingness to do dozens of takes of any given scene until it matches exactly what he's looking for. The opening dialogue scene of The Social Network (2010), for example, reportedly took 99 takes to get right.

It's certainly possible that a great number of takes while filming The Killer meant that a great number of fisting gloves were used, especially when ing for change-over due to sweat, scuffing, rehearsals, and breakage. Fassbender's character, after all, seems to wear the fisting gloves during his fight scene with The Brute (Sala Baker), and it's very likely that many pairs were damaged or destroyed as this sequence was rehearsed and filmed.

Our Take On Fassbender Using Fisting Gloves For The Killer

Fincher's Approach Pays Off

Though the Killer's gloves may not be something that audiences spend too much time thinking about, Fassbender's story speaks to just how much thought goes into seemingly mundane aspects of every movie. This is especially true of Fincher movies, with the director clearly having a very specific vision of what he wants to see on the screen for every shot and scene. The Killer reviews were generally positive from critics and audiences alike, suggesting this attention to detail did ultimately pay off.

The Killer has an 85% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 61% Popcornmeter score.

It's not clear what Fincher's next project will be, as nothing has been announced or reported just yet, but he is sure to take this same approach with whatever movies are to come. It's this approach that has given audiences movies like Gone Girl (2014), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), Zodiac (2007), Fight Club (1999), and Se7en (1995), suggesting it has been serving both Fincher and audiences well. While the wait continues for the next Fincher movie, Fassbender's story certainly means that re-watches of The Killer will probably involve more attention being paid to the assassin's gloves.

Source: Entertainment Weekly