Michael Fassbender is pretty much killing it these days. The Oscar nominee (he received his second Academy nod this year for his titular role in Steve Jobs) has the rare distinction of thriving in big-budget franchise fare like the X-Men movies while consistently raising the bar on the passion-project side as well. Why? Well, in short, he’s pretty great at everything he does.

In his latest, The Light Between Oceans, Fassbender plays a lighthouse keeper who discovers a baby adrift on a rowboat. He and his wife (real-life girlfriend Alicia Vikander) decide to raise the baby themselves, in the movie that opens September 2.

Let’s count the reasons Fassy's so on top of the world at the moment. Spoiler: He’s not a real-life mutant. That we know of.

1. His first major movie role was nothing short of epic.

Michael Fassbender first claimed the silver screen in 2006 as the ultra-heroic Spartan soldier Stelios in 300. This was a guy who was allegiant to the bittersweet end and he looked unfairly cool while doing so. Not only did he have one of the best lines of the entire movie -- “Then we will fight in the shade!” -- but he was also a surprisingly solid spokesperson for the idea of a “beautiful death,” which is otherwise a pretty hard sell.

2. The man is committed to his craft.

Fassbender’s three collaborations with writer-director Steve McQueen (Hunger, Shame and 12 Years a Slave) have all been extremely difficult explorations of the darkest corners of humanity. Thanks to his charisma and dedication to making every moment feel true, though, they also served as a three-part showcase for his talent and professionalism. For Hunger, for example, he lost more than 30 pounds to fully embody his hunger strike-waging character and for Shame, he dared to bare it all. “It was important to go all out… to be naked in every respect. Otherwise, I don’t think the film would have worked,” he said. (Note: Only Michael Fassbender could make a subway creeper kinda-sorta sympathetic. No one else.)

3. He’s something of an existentialist.

Despite the title of the movie that required him to bare it all, Michael Fassbender is not one bit ashamed of putting himself out there, so to speak, and the reason is simple: “We’re all going to die one day.” He credits McQueen with instilling in him that philosophic mentality during production on his nude scenes, and it stuck, making him fearless with his approach to roles. “We feel a lot of pressure about looking silly or appearing weak, whatever that means… You have to keep in your head, what’s the worst that can happen?” he said. “You fall flat on your face, then hopefully get back up again and go for it again and try something else.”

4. He knows a good source of inspiration when he sees one.

Who better to emulate as a space oddity than David Bowie himself? Fassbender took notes from the late, great icon when preparing for his interstellar-robot role in Ridley Scott’s Prometheus and infused a little stylish humanity into the mix. Good call. And Ziggy Stardust wasn’t his only interesting source of inspiration for the role, either. He also looked to Olympic diver Greg Louganis for pointers on posture, “economy of movement” and one “mesmerizing” walk, he told W magazine. Megapoints for originality in sourcing.

5. He’s big enough to admit when he’s outmatched.

Fassbender’s Haywire costar Gina Carano, an MMA fighter turned actress, was a fierce opponent indeed, and he was quick to admit that she was the tougher party of the two offscreen. “I’m not going to hurt Gina. She’s going to hurt me if it’s going to be anyone that goes down,” he said of his safety concerns during production on their big brawl. Indeed, Carano did slip a bit during their tussling takes and smashed a vase across his face. “It was like a camera bulb had gone off,” he said to describe the accident, though he didn’t seem to hold any grudges for the accidental TKO.

6. He keeps his awards in the bathroom.

Fassbender told Vogue Italia that he keeps his acting trophies in the bathroom, and if you can overlook the potential ick factor of airborne fecal particles, he’s got a pretty intriguing reason for the prize placement. “That way when I sit on the toilet I can contemplate them,” he explained to the mag. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s really great receiving awards, an honor. But I try not to live in the past, preferring to think about the future, what I’ll do next.” Picture The Thinker in the loo, and there you have it.

7. Yes, there will be dancing.

Michael Fassbender likes to boogie, whether it’s with his costars, on-screen love interests, fellow Brits, or even after suddenly transforming into a satyr in the streets, as in the completely bonkers music video for the Cooper Temple Clause’s “Blind Pilots.” Gotta love a guy who knows when (and more importantly, how) to shake it.

8. He also might single-handedly rescue the video game movie genre.

Assassin’s Creed looks like it might just be able to pull off transforming the popular pseudo-historical action-adventure game of the same name into a full-length feature worth watching because 1) the stylishness of what we’ve seen so far cannot be denied and 2) Fassbender is scary good, even in semianimated format.

9. At the same time, he'll also probably break everyone’s hearts soon.

If you feel nothing when watching the trailer for The Light Between the Oceans (which also stars Oscar winners Alicia Vikander and Rachel Weisz), you might want to have a professional check your pulse. This looks to be a true emotional powerhouse with all three thesps ready to wrench our guts.

10. Last but not least, he’s so delightful and terrifying as Magneto.

Not many people could measure up to what Ian McKellen has been laying down with this character for almost two decades, but Fassbender can and does. His penchant for chaos is packaged so subtly within his every move that he's a magnetic (OK, pun!) scene stealer who gives a new sense of gravitas to Erik Lehnsherr's regrettable outlook on human-mutant affair.