Michael Fassbender’s character in the currently-showing Shame is a far cry from his role as "Magneto" in last summer’s X-Men: First Class. He plays Brandon Sullivan, a sex-addicted New York executive whose addiction draws him to internet porn, casual sex, porn shops and hookers—without any apparent sense of pleasure. The actor even met with many recovering sex addicts while preparing to protray an addiction that is often misunderstood. Fassbender tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross, "It would be a similar circumstance if you make a parallel to an alcoholic. An alcoholic doesn't enjoy a drink, but it gets to a point where when you wake up in the morning, you have to get a bottle of liquor in your system just in order to function...The addiction totally takes over so the pleasure center dwindles, and it's more about satisfying the compulsion." The movie Shame, directed by Steve McQueen, is meant to be explicit rather than erotic, to show people the sadness and struggle of sexual addiction.