10 Actors Who May Have Given Up Acting

2. Michael Fassbender

Michael Fassbender is one of the greatest actors of his generation, no question, but it's also fair to say that the fates haven't been too kind to his career in recent years.

After scoring a Best Actor Oscar nod for Steve Jobs in 2016, Fassbender has suffered through the critical and/or commercial failure of X-Men: Apocalypse, The Light Between Oceans, Assassin's Creed, Song to Song, Alien: Covenant and The Snowman, to say nothing of the complete audience apathy towards Dark Phoenix.

And while this might suggest that the actor is in need of a new agent, the truth might simply be that Fassbender has found a far more compelling passion - racing cars.

The twice Oscar-nominated actor picked up the sport in 2016, and in interviews over the last few years he's expressed decidedly more enthusiasm for racing than he has, well, any of his actual movie projects.

He recently said, "It's a lot more fun prepping for [racing] than learning lines at home", and while Fassbender is set to start shooting Kung Fury 2 later this year, beyond that he doesn't seem to have many prestige or tentpole offers on the horizon.

Sad though it would be to see an actor of Fassbender's talent calling it a day in his early forties, it wouldn't be remotely surprising at this stage, and if racing truly has become his primary vocation, it's tough to knock him for it.