Prometheus: Michael Fassbender plays David the android

leading from

Prometheus' Cast and Characters
and
Prometheus :Exploring Shaw, Holloway and David

a) Putting together the David character
Michael Fassbender regarded the David character as a walking question mark.

When Ridley talked to him about what what he wanted for the character at the beginning, and he was open to ideas as well, but Ridley generally said to him "I want this quality of this character, where you're looking at him and you're like, is this guy, you know, messing with me or is he being serious, is he sarcastic or sincere and that's kind of like throughout the whole time with the audience and the other crew members,  "

b) Films were discussed
They were talking about the films The Manservant, Lawrence of Arabia and The Man Who Fell To Earth. Along with that Ridley wanted the look of the blond hair and Fassbender decided that there was a certain amount of vanity about the character, and he might have even gone of the point of imagining David performing plastic surgery on himself.

Perhaps he didn't like the look as much as that because he thought David seemed to resemble a five or eight dollar rentboy too much

c) David as a Butler
The viewers are introduced to David as something like a butler in space and he's looking after the spaceship, and this would have been one aspect of the character relating to Dirk Bogarde's role in The Manservant.

David the Android with the hologram of planet Earth

d) David as an information junkie
For Fassbender, David was somebody who's curious, his whole purpose was information as an information junkie, to take as much information and process it. He was quite child like about it in that respect, much like the way a child was, and everything was new to him.

e) Lindelof's point of view
For the writer Damon Lindelof, one of the things that evoked the idea of Ridley's 1982 movi Blade Runner was "'What does the movie look like from the robot's point of view?'". And perhaps Damon would be having people ask David the Robot 'What do you think about all of this? What's going on? What do you think about these humans who are around you?,'

He decided that it would be a wonderful idea if the robot found a way to ask those questions. Bringing Fassbender into the production meant that it would be something different from Anthony Daniels.

f) David's ambiguity
The idea was to keep the character ambiguous through the film, so while he has a programmed objective,  but one might start asking if the programming was starting to have a bleeding effect and that he was starting to develop his own motivation, and so Fassbender would be having fun playing with these two elements



Source quotes:

1. Damon Lindelof: "He plays a robot. One of the things that evokes the idea of 'Blade Runner' is, 'What does the movie look like from the robot's point of view?' If you were to ask him, 'What do you think about all of this? What's going on? What do you think about these humans who are around you?,' wouldn't it be cool if we found a way for that robot to answer those questions. When you cast a guy like Fassbender, who's going to bring a lot more to it than [makes clichéd robot movements] — that was me doing the robot, I don't know if you could tell — it's not Anthony Daniels. All due respect. He's phenomenal. But C-P3O…" (Damon Lindelof was interviewed by MTV)
2. Source Quote;
   Bill Travers: Everybody writes about you showing all of your junk
   
   Michael Fassbender: Mmhmm
   
   Bill Travers: Everywhere
   
   Michael Fassbender: Mmhmm
   
   Bill Travers: So you're going to get the question about what kind of penis did David the android had
   
   Michael Fassbender: Well, I mean
   
   Bill Travers: Did you invent a different one for him
   
   Michael Fassbender: I didn't really go down that route
   
   Bill Travers: Come on
   
   Michael Fassbender: No
   
   Bill Travers: Your Michael Fassbender
   
   Michael Fassbender: I thought of a more sort of like a Ken (Barbie dolls boyfriend), you know
   
   Bill Travers: As a Ken, so
   
   Michael Fassbender: Yeah
   
   Bill Travers: There was nothing happening
   
   Michael Fassbender: No
   
   Bill Travers: Woah. This, I'm not believing you
   
   Michael Fassbender: Why
   
   Bill Travers: I don't know
   
   Michael Fassbender: You've got something off him
   
   Bill Travers: I can tell
   
   Michael Fassbender: You got something off him
   
   Bill Travers: There, there was a vibe that happens in that where the guy he is in love
   
   Michael Fassbender: Okay
   
   Bill Travers: With Noomi Rapace's character, and there's something in the attraction. A lot of other people are too scared being killed
   
   Michael Fassbender: Yes
   
   Bill Travers: By aliens, David's not that...
   
   Michael Fassbender: Well, he doesn't get that scared
   
   Bill Travers: He doesn't get scared
   
   Michael Fassbender: It's convenient
   
   Bill Travers:  It's not frightened by it
   
   Michael Fassbender: Yuh. But, yuh, no, it was a, it was pretty straight forward, with er David. I mean for the most part he's er, he's asexual. He is, I think a curiosity junky. It's all information to him.
   
   Bill Travers: Yeah
   
   ABC News https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXevjlAJYjQ 
3. Charlie: So what was that in you?
   
   Michael: Er, I expect
   
   Charlie: Is that how you saw David
   
   Michael: Er, you know, and that was something that Ridley and I sort of discussed right at the beginning, he was like "I want this quality of this character, where you're looking at him and you're like, is this guy, you know, messing with me or is he being serious, is he sarcastic or sincere and that's kind of like throughout the whole time with the audience and the other crew members," we wanted to sort of have that, that quality to the character. But essentially for me, he he's a he's he's somebody who's curious, he he his whole thing is information, to take as much information, to get information, process it and he's quite child like in that respect, you know the way with children, everything is new to them, and ( Charlie Rose, Published on 14 Nov 2012 show , part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2jN4vvFhBY) part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXxzcl_W_os )
4. Genevieve Loh: And about you Michael, I mean, you've gone on record to say and David Bowie, you know, and got inspiration from David Bowie, from Peter O'Toole, from Greg Lougainis' walk, but yet, it was really original, I mean, David as an idea, as a concept, is so original, how did you, how did you sort of workshop towards then, that process of it
   
   Fassbender: I don't know, it's like lots of different things again, it came down to you know Ridley as well, you know, he was very open to ideas, you know, there was this thing that I thought of at the beginning, you know, because Ridley had the look of the blond hair and the you know, it was going to be sort of you know based on Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia and that whole theme and then I thought well you know, there's a certain amount of vanity to this character, it's almost like he would be performing plastic surgery on himself if he could. Probably does. (TODAY speaks to Prometheus stars Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender Published on 3 Jun 2012)
6. Fassbender: Uh, not really, sort of you know, the the idea that that, erm, they was always gonna keep ambig... ambiguous with er, David, whether you know, is, is it sort of you know, he's got a programmed objective but then, is there some way that that program started to have bleeding effect and , and he's starting to develop his own motivation, and and to just sort of play with those two things, and erm, and then it was fun, you know, I wanted to have fun with the character. (Interview published on 1 Oct 2012 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHu6CmA3S_I )