10 More Actors Who Gave Their Best Performances In Movies Nobody Saw

Though his acting career hasn't been up to much the last five years, Michael Fassbender is nevertheless one of the finest performers of his generation, as evidenced by his strong work in Fish Tank, Inglourious Basterds, Shame, the X-Men and Alien films, 12 Years A Slave, Frank, Slow West, Macbeth, and Steve Jobs.

Yet Fassbender's best work to date occurred before any of these films were released, in Steve McQueen's expertly crafted 2008 historical drama Hunger.

In the film Fassbender plays IRA member Bobby Sands, who leads a hunger strike in prison which ultimately claims his life.

In what would become the first of three collaborations between Fassbender and McQueen so far, Fassbender gives an astonishing physical and emotional performance, losing a concerning amount of weight while getting audiences firmly into Sands' mindset.

Aided by wonderfully stripped back direction from McQueen, this is a singular examination of a devastating act of political defiance, and one surely best remembered for the jaw-dropping 17-minute single take in which a priest (Liam Cunningham) attempts to talk Sands out of his hunger strike.

Though Hunger received rave reviews and snagged Fassbender the British Independent Film Award for Best Actor, it barely cracked $3 million worldwide and so any Oscar buzz for Fassbender consequently went up in smoke.