'I always wanted to star in a Western' reveals Michael Fassbender as he gets his dream

The half-Irish, half-German actor was also a producer on the film in which he plays a bounty hunter who joins a 16-year-old boy journeying across America in search of the woman he loves.

"In terms of my fantasy career, yeah, Westerns were on my list. In this case I think it comes from the time when I was a boy and watching Westerns and being really engrossed in them," he said.

"And at that young age thinking to myself how much I'd love to be in one," he added.

Michael Fassbender and Kodi Smit-McPhee in Slow West

It was the first Western film to use New Zealand to mimic the American frontier.

"We were looking for that special kind of fairy tale element within the Western that I always felt to be very interesting," he said.

"We were looking for landscapes that seemed untouched, and they've got a much smaller population than in the States.

Crews

"I think it worked out beautifully. I hope it entourages more people to make Westerns in New Zealand. The crews are fantastic down there," he added.

The 38-year-old has a number of films coming out this years including an adaptation of Macbeth, the Steve Jobs biopic, Trespass Against Us and The Light Between Oceans.

"I really loved the teaser for Jobs. I feel very lucky to be a part of this movie at all," he told Entertainment Weekly.

"It's exhilarating - for the opportunity to fall flat on my face, maybe.

"But it was nothing but a joy for me to be working with Aaron Sorkin, a genius, and Danny Boyle, such an inspirational person and a wonderful filmmaker," he added.