- 2 days ago
'The Agency' stars Michael Fassbender, Richard Gere, Jeffrey Wright and Jodie Turner-Smith chat with THR's Seija Rankin to discuss making their spy thriller during a THR Frontrunners panel.
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00:00I suppose no one else's character here is a sociopath, certainly not yours.
00:05Yeah, Jeffrey, you said that. It's not good to have too many of them in the same room.
00:09Just one will do.
00:11Yeah, most, this is actually probably most to least.
00:14One is useful, two is complicated.
00:22So your character Martian has just returned from six years in the cold,
00:28I believe that's the term that we use.
00:30What was the, I guess, character brief would be the term?
00:33Because I believe you were the first person of this crew to sign on,
00:36and first person in general, right?
00:37That's what they told me, but they could have been lying.
00:40As everyone's lying, it seems.
00:43No, you know, it's a good question, because actually nobody really said,
00:47this is what this guy's about.
00:49I guess I sat down with Joe early on, and we talked about what it sort of all meant.
00:56But I was sort of, you know, as I was sort of looking at this guy,
00:59it was one of the consultants, actually, that I got in touch with.
01:04There was one guy that was our CIA sort of specialist that I talked to,
01:09but I was like always asking questions.
01:11I was like, you know, what is, you know, why do people get into this?
01:15Who would want this job?
01:17You know, and looking for kind of the dirt.
01:19And I found that gentleman was really nice, but very much like towing the company line.
01:26And then I talked to another guy who really helped me out.
01:31And, you know, the question for me was, is this guy a sociopath or not?
01:37And, you know, having the conversation with this gentleman who sort of, you know,
01:42again comes from this world, he was like, yeah, you know, let's go through the boxes,
01:47you know, tick the different boxes.
01:48And after a while I was like, yep, he ticks that one, that one too, that one.
01:53And then it really helped a lot because I was like, okay, this is the guy I'm dealing with.
01:58You know, now it's not to say that he's not trying in some ways to find sort of,
02:05you know, his soul or humanity.
02:07And I think, you know, that's the Samia character is there's a, you know, that's,
02:11that's his savior.
02:13You know, his, his humanity is in that relationship with her, but he actually even says,
02:18you know, I think it's love, you know, it's, it's certainly haven't felt it for anyone else
02:22before.
02:22So knowing that this was the kind of character he was, but in search of that, then it made
02:28a lot of decisions easier for me.
02:30That makes sense.
02:31And clearer.
02:32I suppose no one else's character here is a sociopath.
02:35Certainly not yours.
02:37Yeah.
02:37Jeffrey, you said that.
02:38It's not good to have too many of them in the same room.
02:41It's like, just, just one will do.
02:43Yeah.
02:43Most, this is actually probably most.
02:45One is useful.
02:46Two is complicated.
02:49Richard, we'll go to you next.
02:51These characters, there's a lot of like interiority going on with these, these folks.
02:55And when you work for the CIA, obviously there's a lot of moral, I don't want to say moral
03:02ambiguity, cause that's assuming what you might say, but there's a question around like, what
03:07is everyone doing and why, and you're making these decisions.
03:09And I assume that you guys had to kind of figure out who these people were in order to maybe
03:14say yes to the role or to play them, but kind of what, what was it that you came to like
03:19learn and decide for yourself of who Bosco was?
03:24Well, I think I, I kind of intuitively felt the guy, but I wanted to, you know, I picked up a lot of books
03:34about the CIA, the history of it, where it came from, and I, being the boss, the daddy in this one, I wanted
03:41to feel that sense of history, uh, that he would be feeling, and, uh, what the original impulse was of the first guys, they were
03:51Ivy League guys who basically wanted to be Lawrence of Arabia, and so it was very romantic for them.
03:58Um, and I think it's still in Bosco, a sense of romance about this, and I think he was out there himself.
04:04You know, and Joe and I were talking, the director, um, first talk we had, I said, uh, this only works for me if it feels like this guy has,
04:14has a vast experience at this stuff, and has blood on his own hands one way or another, uh, that he feels it.
04:24It's visceral to him.
04:25Um, and, um, I didn't want to play a guy who was just an organizational guy, or was a political appointee, but it had to be
04:34someone who, who had been in the trenches, and would deeply understand what these guys were going through, all of them, but
04:41especially him, and understand the challenges to his heart and his mind, uh, having this kind of a job, and I could see the
04:50crisis he was in.
04:51What the fuck is wrong with you, Henry?
04:52Listen, yeah, ask me your brother-in-law for a classified pop, by a code name, a code name, you weren't even supposed to know.
05:02You didn't think that was going to come back?
05:04On the contrary, I hoped it would.
05:07Why?
05:09I wanted to know if he's exposed.
05:12He's a blackout, in a war zone.
05:14Nothing operational was shared, I knew nothing about Felix, all I had was a name.
05:22You want to know something?
05:24No.
05:25I believe you.
05:26You want to know why?
05:28Because I, Henry, am station chief, and even I don't know what Felix is, which means that,
05:35Felix, dear boy, is the very, very heaviest of every, heavy shit, and nobody, now you, now I, no one,
05:44would have a mention.
05:47Yes, sir.
05:52Jeffrey, your character, deputy station chief, I don't, he's not been in the field, right?
06:00Oh, yeah, he has.
06:01He has been.
06:02He seems to me from, from watching the show, like he has, he maybe has the most emotional
06:08journey, and maybe it's because of, you know, his, his emotional, and so far as like his
06:13decision making around, he feels more conflicted to me about some of the decisions, and maybe
06:18it's just the way that you're able to act with your eyes, or what have you, but what did
06:23you, like kind of what did you come to learn about Henry, and like what was his approach
06:29to the job?
06:32Yeah, that's interesting.
06:33I mean, I think we're all conflicted.
06:35All of the characters are conflicted.
06:37Henry does have a tension, you know, that's pulling him between his work and his home life.
06:46That's true, but at the same time, I think that he seems like very much, you know, kind
06:53of riffing off what Richard said a bit, he's very much a company man, you know?
06:58He's a guy who I think, you know, treasures his own professionalism, and that was kind
07:08of important for me to focus on.
07:11I wanted to make sure that this guy was, you know, competent, that he's there, you know,
07:17not because somebody did him a favor, he's there because he's good at what he does, he
07:22takes it seriously, he's not a politician, he's a serious person relative to the government
07:28and governance.
07:30It's not a game for him, but it's a calling.
07:35And, you know, granted, you know, there's self-interest there, it's a steady job, it's
07:39all that, there's the adventure.
07:40But at the same time, I think there's a, you know, there's a through line of a sense
07:47of duty and a sense of responsibility and an appreciation for kind of the, you know,
07:54the larger or the largeness that is the responsibility of being in that position.
07:59So I looked at it in some ways as a kind of, and particularly within the context of what's
08:05going on right now, and I think there are moral ambiguities and ethical ambiguities associated
08:11with this, and I think the CIA does at times go about solving problems that it's caused.
08:17I think that's a larger kind of story about, you know, American foreign policy.
08:21But I think he's a guy, for me, through which I wanted to celebrate the civil servant, the
08:29federal employee, you know, who manages this institution that, you know, we call the United
08:38States government and provides stability and security for us and a lot of things that we
08:43sometimes take for granted.
08:45Yeah, I scribbled down a line, actually, I think it might be Richard's, that I thought
08:49was really interesting.
08:50The only, that this, you guys are the only branch of government that thinks in terms of
08:54decades.
08:54Um, and I found that to be like a kind of comforting thing that like you're, someone
09:00is playing the long game out there and someone's thinking of things, not to say that it like
09:05to disregard the problems that are happening in the short term, but, um, I think that just.
09:10Well, I mean, I think that, that, that, that luxury exists only for the bureaucrats in government
09:17because, you know, politicians, you know, in politics, political cycles are so quick, you
09:21know, two years, four years, you know, six years.
09:24So you can't think long-term or they can, but they don't, you know, they think in terms
09:28of, uh, self-sustenance, whereas, yeah, the government has the ability to at least, you
09:33know, kind of compete, for example, with the Chinese or with, you know, other, you know,
09:38governmental systems that can afford to look decades ahead.
09:40Yeah.
09:41Certainly within, you know, this agency, it would probably be within their, you know, it would
09:46probably be the healthy thing, you know, within their own self-interest.
09:49Just, yeah, not to be flitting around from one thing to another, but they do that too.
09:54But yeah, they do have that luxury though, I think.
09:56Well, these, these are the guys who would be fired now.
09:59Right.
10:01Season two.
10:02No, it's the, it's the guys who have institutional memories.
10:06Season two, it'll be the three of us on a beach somewhere in Mexico.
10:14Jodi, so I want to know what you knew about your character when you signed on, and maybe
10:25you watched the French version to kind of get an idea of how the character and her storyline
10:30is like unfurled and revealed, right?
10:32Because it's, it becomes a lot more complex as you go through the season.
10:36So kind of what, what did you know from the beginning and what, and if you said yes to just
10:41like kind of that very beginning part and then got a delicious surprise to everything
10:45else that comes next?
10:47I mean, yes, I said yes to the delicious beginning and it was like, absolutely.
10:52Um, it was just kind of, uh, ticked all the boxes and then I got into the French show cause
11:00I'm endlessly curious and I wanted to know, you know, I wanted to understand the world
11:08of the original and not in a way to sort of attach myself to it, but just to kind of get
11:14an idea of, you know, what it was that was inspiring this and I was so blown away by the original.
11:22So it was kind of pleasant to go through it and it's been, I love that because it's given
11:26me, it's been so interesting to see, you know, the ways in which we deviate or what we follow
11:30from the first one and, and you know, the ways in which it becomes sort of a powerfully
11:35altered to cater to, um, primarily American audience, you know, versus the French original.
11:43Um, so, you know, I think that, you know, Jez and John Henry are such incredible writers
11:49that even though they are sticking in many ways to the source material, that it's still
11:54so much uniquely its own thing.
11:57Um, so it's been interesting to just be on that journey.
12:00I'm still being surprised by the story and the ways in which it's different.
12:03And, but at the same time, sort of having a kind of an idea of like where things are
12:09generally going.
12:10And then again, to have an actor like Michael Vassbender take on this role.
12:15I mean, honestly, one of the greatest pleasures for me of this whole thing has been taking
12:19it in after, because there's so much happening that I'm not actually even a part of, but I
12:25get to be a part of just by the way in which Michael is carrying me into Martian story, the
12:31way in which we're seeing this tangled web that he's weaving Titan around him.
12:37And I, so I get to just like be present even when I'm not present, which is so fun.
12:43But yeah, so.
12:45You filmed in Cairo, I want to say for some of your, so yeah, you guys got some of the
12:49more, um, interesting on location scenes, but what was, I guess, what was, um, the best
12:55part about kind of getting off campus, if you will, from the London set?
12:59I mean, I, I find it, I still find it to be so fun to get to go to an interesting location
13:05and, and not only, uh, film in a new city where you're going to experience many different
13:12things as just primarily even just a different culture, but also seeing how crews operate
13:16in different cities and like getting something done.
13:18But, you know, the madness and the beauty of a city like Cairo, I mean, that was really
13:22fun to run around Cairo and, and to do that.
13:25That was exciting.
13:26Obviously everyone here is, is past any sort of like audition or chemistry test read, but
13:33did the two of.
13:34I still audition.
13:35I just want you guys to lie.
13:37Well, there's people, let's, we're going to.
13:39These guys might not, but we got some like really heavy hitters.
13:41I, uh, I'm still, I'm new to this.
13:44Uh, get her email afterwards, um, to be clear, bump you up to offer only.
13:48Um, did, but did you, when was the first time you guys met and did you, was there any sort
13:52of like, um, thing that either of you were looking for in the other person to kind of
13:57know you'd be able to achieve what you needed to on screen?
14:00Are you like, got it?
14:03No, there was a talk about us doing a chemistry read.
14:06Um, Joe was like, I'm really, you know, into Jody Turner Smith.
14:11And I was like, great choice.
14:13And then it was like, I was like, we don't, we don't need to, you know, do a chemistry
14:18read.
14:19Um, so never really came up again.
14:22And then we just, you know, I think the first time, well, we had a read through, which was
14:27kind of quite cool.
14:28Actually, we did a read through, um, for the first two episodes and that was kind of nice
14:33to do that.
14:33I hadn't done that in a while.
14:34Um, and so we'd met, but then, you know, we just sort of started filming and luckily,
14:40you know, we, we, we got along as it did all of us actually, which, you know, in hindsight,
14:45thank God, because, um, it's such an intense experience, you know, filming a show, 10 hours
14:50to do, but all of us, we were saying earlier, you know, actually Richard was saying, you know,
14:53we all kind of work the same way, you know, everybody just arrives having done their homework
14:59and brings it to the table.
15:00We don't discuss, it's not always like that kind of, sometimes you adjust to how other
15:09people work, but that, that didn't happen here.
15:11I mean, really just, we all kind of vibrate the same way in our approach to, to acting
15:17is very similar.
15:18So they just kind of flowed together.
15:20I know a lot of what you've talked about, cause people, people love to ask you from what
15:24I've seen of, um, press of this show is like, what was it like doing TV first time
15:28in a long time, blah, blah, blah.
15:29Um, big movie star doing TV.
15:31And a lot of this show is a production, like a film, right?
15:35It's like film screenwriters, film director.
15:37It was completely like a film.
15:39So my question is, is there anything bigger than the last films I've been making?
15:44I've been making very small independent films, which I love doing, but I hadn't seen, we
15:49were talking about it today.
15:49I hadn't seen, I don't think I've ever been in a soundstage that big after all these years
15:55of me making studio films.
15:58Never have I seen a set this big.
16:01I mean, he has, cause he's done all the bonds and all of that stuff, but.
16:05Somebody's got to do it.
16:06What do you want?
16:09We need a word.
16:12I've got the U.S. and Belarus ambassadors, and they're trying to avert a major diplomatic
16:17incident.
16:18We have an idea.
16:20There's a better than nothing.
16:20Oh, we lost an agent.
16:22Can we please get him back?
16:23Why are they here now?
16:25Cause some bumfuck no-name congressman throws a little shade on Capitol Hill?
16:28Maybe they want to start a negotiation here.
16:33If they do have Coyote, they'll allude to it.
16:36They'll give us a sign, open a back channel.
16:38It'll be masked, subtext.
16:41We need to be in there to spot the sign.
16:45Owen, check, walk away.
16:47Check.
16:51Observers.
16:51Observers.
16:53What a fucking word.
16:54What a word.
16:55I mean it.
16:55The entire office is soundstage, or what?
17:01That was all built.
17:02That's all LED screens.
17:04Sarah Greenwood.
17:05This was, everything you saw out the windows, that London was all on screens.
17:10Wow.
17:11Wow.
17:12Okay.
17:12My apartment as well.
17:13Yeah.
17:14So it was all.
17:15You're not really at the Barbican.
17:17We did shoot, obviously, the outside.
17:18You know, when you have that long, wide shot, and it zooms in or out, I can't remember.
17:24That was obviously, we shot all of that at the Barbican, but then, you know, the whole
17:27apartment's recreated, and, you know, whenever you see nighttime outside, you know, that's
17:33all LED screens.
17:35Yeah.
17:35So beautiful.
17:36Yeah.
17:36A lot of our Samia and Demartian's rendezvous, we did that on locations.
17:41And a lot of, you know, I really think with the exception of our first scene, our breakup,
17:50mostly all of our stuff was on location in public.
17:54And we didn't have, we didn't.
17:55We did get to fight on that bridge.
17:56Nothing was ever locked off.
17:58We always had just live people on the street.
18:01Sometimes a little worse scene.
18:02Sometimes you're in takes, because someone's just, like, staring down the camera.
18:05Yeah, exactly.
18:06I was like, I was looking for people.
18:08We were, we got away with it, because we shot a lot in live, you know, live London.
18:12It wasn't locked off.
18:14Did people start to kind of get hip to the fact that you were doing that in London and
18:17kind of looking for you around town, the sort of sex in the city effect from that?
18:20Nobody cares.
18:21Effect from that?
18:21Well, now that everyone knows what the show is, and for season two, when you guys go back
18:29in, I feel like if people will...
18:31You know, I think, you know, it's funny, like, if you have to sort of repeat something
18:35or you're going down, but, I mean, you just, you know, we did have, you know, great sort
18:41of runners and people that were trying their best to sort of work around the crowd, but,
18:45you know, we're in Battersea Power Station, you know, which is like shopping center, and,
18:49you know, you're just sort of working with the crowd.
18:52I was, like, worried about it, but we, it was never there on screen, either, where people
18:56are, like, looking down the lens.
18:58We got lucky, and we'll see what happens next.
19:01Belarus is a situation we're across.
19:03So far, nothing special.
19:07It's early days, but for now, we're seeing this very much as a local problem.
19:12Jim, we both know there's no such thing as a local problem in Belarus.
19:19Yeah, there's an unfolding situation in Minsk.
19:25Once we have a degree of clarity, we'll fold you in.
19:28You know about new domino theory?
19:31Yes, sir.
19:31Yes, domino theory.
19:33Yeah, I didn't ask about domino theory.
19:34I asked about new domino theory.
19:36New domino theory is that the United States exists three dominoes away from full nuclear
19:40exchange.
19:41As we speak, there are 7,000 nuclear weapons pointed at American targets.
19:45Minsk is a big fucking domino.
19:48Yes, sir.
19:49The cast of this, like, show is so stacked that even, like, Dominic West has, you know,
19:57like, that's the level of people who are doing, like, smaller roles on this show.
20:01Were you looking at blank screens whenever you're, like, in the situation room?
20:08Or did they get that really up there, too?
20:10That's all real.
20:11They're definitely there.
20:13Wow.
20:13Okay.
20:14Incredible.
20:14Because sometimes you see, like, the early cuts of things and it's just everything's
20:18green and you just have to pretend.
20:20But, okay, you're doing it for real.
20:22Okay.
20:22No, and in fact, he was, you know, he was in another room.
20:26He was being filmed live the same time we were.
20:29Wow.
20:29I mean, how many cameras?
20:30Usually two, maybe three cameras sometimes that we were using.
20:35So, I mean, all of that was live.
20:37There's no green screen there.
20:39And as well, the cinematographers were using a lot of reflection, you know, wanted to use
20:44that we're in, in fact, we're shooting certain angles in the, in the crisis room, shooting
20:51into the screen back at us.
20:53So, shooting through the screen.
20:56So, the reflection was on us, but we were.
20:58That was the trickiest stuff, actually, was that stuff down there.
21:02It looked great.
21:02It looks fabulous, but it wasn't easy.
21:05That can be very frustrating, getting the timing right between the reflections and what's
21:10going on screen, and the moving cameras, and moving, getting that stuff.
21:15Well, you shot the footage way before that's actually on the screen, but syncing everything
21:19up was, some days, was pretty frustrating.
21:22I don't recall any green screen.
21:23I think for the directors, it was a hard room to shoot in.
21:25Yeah.
21:26You know, it was sort of like, oh, we're back in the crisis room.
21:28You know, there's only so many angles, and how do you cover that room, and not have it
21:33become, you know, repetitious.
21:35Did we use any green screen at all?
21:37No, no, no.
21:38Anything?
21:38No, everything was photographed, yeah.
21:40Incredible.
21:42Jody, I wanted to ask you about building the accent.
21:46Because that, yeah, just talk about kind of the training that went into that, and how
21:53you developed her, like, very specific accent.
21:55She's, you know, a woman of many, like, she's very worldly, you know.
22:01What went into that?
22:03Yeah, so, you know, in addition to our show, we had a Sudanese consultant, just in terms
22:12of making sure that we were hitting certain notes or understanding certain things culturally.
22:18But I had an amazing dialect coach in Khaled Abu Nama, who is a Rhodes Scholar.
22:26He's so intelligent and amazing and incredible.
22:29And I'm really smart, too.
22:32So what's great is, you know, I've found that I feel like, you know, language, well, first
22:41of all, you know, accent work is hard.
22:42It is because half of it is just confidence, really.
22:48And then there's the other bit, because, like, when you have a dialect as beautiful and incredible
22:54and hard as Arabic in that, because it contains sounds that we don't use in English, parts
23:01of your mouth and your throat and your vocal cords that you don't utilize.
23:06So it's like learning something new.
23:08But I do feel that it's something that perhaps it's a bit closer to than maybe some other people
23:18are, and I feel confident that I can do it.
23:22So, and, you know, I love to throw myself into things, and I threw myself into it.
23:26And, you know, even now we're doing Arabic lessons as well, because I think, and I'm grateful
23:33that I get another season, because that means I can even have a chance to do a better job
23:39and to go deeper into it.
23:41And with anything, I mean, I find that I'm often asked to do some kind of an accent, and
23:47always, or I have the privilege of playing a different culture or another, you know, community
23:55in the diaspora.
23:56And I find that that is something that I take with such, you know, I have a lot of seriousness
24:03with that, because I think it's important to honor whatever culture I've been, you know,
24:08allowed to play.
24:10I want to honor it as best as I can.
24:13I'm not always going to get it right, because it's not my mother tongue.
24:17I'm an actor.
24:18You know, I'm not a Rhodes Scholar, like my dialect coach.
24:23You pointed over here.
24:23But, just go with it, Rhodes Scholar, Jeffrey.
24:28I could have been a contender, but not quite.
24:32Not quite.
24:33You know, it's my job to pretend, and, you know, the biggest, I think, part of the pretending
24:39is the belief, the sheer and utter belief.
24:44Like, you have to profoundly just wear something else.
24:47And when you do, even if, I mean, I think we've all watched something where the accent perhaps
24:53wasn't that great.
24:54Maybe we even had to, you know, focus a bit so it wouldn't take us out of it.
24:58But eventually we got lost because of how committed the actor was.
25:02And to me, I think that's the most important thing, because ultimately, you know, you're
25:07never going to get everything right, because it's not your mother tongue.
25:11And there's just certain, you know, I've been talking a lot today about nuance.
25:15And that's what I think, you know, when you have a different accent and a different culture,
25:20this is about nuance that you're bringing to something.
25:23And you're never going to get everything right when it's not native.
25:26And I know there's an expectation for, especially with film and television, it's different than
25:30stage, where you're transported and the viewer wants to feel like it's real.
25:34So there's an expectation for this reality.
25:37But, you know, the reality is I'm an actor.
25:39And so, but I'm still going to fucking give it my all, you know what I mean, and do my
25:45best and I always ask, try to improve and take by take.
25:49And I like to have a dialect coach on set because I like somebody to come in and because
25:54I, you know, that's the Virgo part of my brain.
25:56I'm like, it needs to be perfect.
25:58But it wasn't perfect, you know, and I'm always there like, well, you know, the director
26:02liked the take, but did my dialect coach think that that sounded good?
26:06And if it's not good, then we try to go in ADR.
26:09I love ADR.
26:09I used to hate ADR when I first started because it was so hard.
26:12And then I realized it's so powerful.
26:15You can do so much in ADR.
26:17I mean, you can, you have the power to even change performance based on inflection of your
26:22voice.
26:23And so, you know, we go in when there's ADR.
26:26I'm always like very in with my, I go in my dialect coach and I'm like, listen, let's
26:30lock arms so that we can make sure that this is absolutely the best.
26:33Because for me, it's about someone from that culture or close to that culture watching
26:38and feeling like they've been honored.
26:40Because I'm Jamaican and let me tell you how many times I've heard Jamaican accents that
26:44I've just been like, my God.
26:46But I've also always been just so excited when I see Jamaican culture represented because
26:50you are, you just have this excitement and pride and you know that someone might not
26:53get it 100% right.
26:55But when you see someone like giving it their all, you're just like, yes, big up.
26:59So that's all I want is for people to see it and see like that I've done the homework,
27:04I've done the work, you know, and it's not gonna be perfect.
27:06I know that, but there's always going to be room to improve and I get to do another season
27:09and maybe do a better job and take it to the next level.
27:13That was so long.
27:18I feel like I've been talking for a long time.
27:20I gotta stop now.
27:21Now do it in Arabic.
27:26Do you fall into an American accent easily?
27:32Um, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's like, um, Jody was saying, it's, it's just a lot
27:39of hours, you know, I was shooting black bag and there I've got to do British.
27:43And so it was a lot of hours working on that.
27:46Then knowing that I, you know, there was only a week between finishing that and getting on
27:50this.
27:51So I had to prep both of them in tandem.
27:54So it's, it's, it's just, it's, I don't find it easy.
27:58I just find it's a, it's, it's a matter of putting in the hours, you know.
28:02And then it's about, you know, you know, whatever that is, four hours a day, five hours
28:06a day for however many weeks it takes, however many weeks you've got.
28:10It's just recordings, listening to something back, repeating something, listening to again,
28:14repeating.
28:15Um, but it's not easy.
28:17I don't think it's easy if you're, you know, you guys, you shot black bag before the agency
28:22went into production.
28:23That is incredible work by the editor, everyone on the agency that that, cause that came out.
28:30Yeah.
28:30I mean, that's when you really see how a machine can work because, uh, I was like, okay, so
28:34when, when is it coming out?
28:35And they were like, November.
28:36And I was like, Oh, in November 25.
28:38And they were like, no, November 24.
28:40And I was like, what?
28:42I was like, is that a good idea?
28:44And, um, you know, so literally we still shot a scene in episode one, end of October.
28:50And we went to the screening 15th of November.
28:56And then the show came out 28th of November.
28:58We've, we wrapped the afternoon of the 15th.
29:01We wrapped on the 15th, went to the screen.
29:03Went to the screen.
29:05It was like opening night on Broadway.
29:07And, you know, it was, you know, I have to say, you know, that was partly my fault because
29:14they, you know, waited for me to finish Backpack.
29:17Um, this year we're going to have, you know, we'll be starting earlier.
29:20Um, but it was impressive to see, you know, there's great people behind this, you know,
29:25David Glasser at 101 and you've got, you know, Paramount with their commitment behind it.
29:30Then, you know, you've got Smokehouse, um, George and, um, Grant.
29:36Um, and you know, that everybody was kind of, you know, again, on the same wavelength, the
29:42same notes were coming in it, but, you know, it was like that constant thing of working at
29:46an episode, you know, cutting it down, working on it, working on it, you know, getting
29:50it ready, but it was, it was impressive to see that because I didn't think it could be
29:54done, but, um, but I think David's kind of, you know, done it a few times.
30:00Incredible.
30:01Um, before we are out of time, you guys are going to go into production for season two
30:07quite soon, right?
30:08Has everyone...
30:10This month.
30:11Okay.
30:11Oh, fabulous.
30:12Has everyone read the scripts?
30:14Um, what is that?
30:17Is there anything you can tease, or is there a word that maybe describes, like a word or
30:24a sentence that kind of describes your reaction to what you read?
30:28Trying to think of ways to talk around.
30:30I think it's, it's, it's better.
30:34That's always good.
30:35We want to keep improving.
30:36No, I think I, I'm like, I'm joking.
30:39It's sort of, you know, that's the first season.
30:40What I love about it, that people sort of reaction to it and talking to, you know, people
30:45is that it, it's a, it's a bit of a slow burn.
30:48And we knew that, you know, you're establishing these characters as an audience.
30:52You've got to lean into it a little bit.
30:54And then things start, you start, you things start to sort of reveal themselves about what's
31:01going on.
31:01Then this sort of pressure comes.
31:03Then, you know, the jeopardy of the situation gets ramped up and what, you know, it starts
31:10in the first episode in season two, and it picks up where we left off in episode 10 of
31:15this first season, and it doesn't let up.
31:18So it's, it's full on, you know, the walls are closing in.
31:22Three months are going to have passed from when we left, you know, the Martian in the office.
31:28Yeah.
31:28We've been talking about it's either three or four at the moment it stands at four, but
31:32Okay.
31:32You know, but we might not.
31:34My one word for season two is explosive.
31:38Would you, would you agree, Michael Fassbender?
31:41If you say so, I agree.
31:44Yeah, no, I think, I think it's.
31:47Explosive.
31:47It's intense.
31:49That's a good one.
31:50Trust me on that.
31:50Explosive.
31:52Pin that wide.
31:53Last, last chance for anyone else to offer up their thoughts on season two, but you don't
31:58have to.
31:58We've gotten plenty.
31:59Oh, my one word.
32:00Do I have a one word?
32:01What?
32:01The season two.
32:03I've only read, I've only read, I've only read the first three.
32:06I got it.
32:07I've been distracted by the world burning down around.
32:11What could possibly be distracting you?
32:14I've got, I've got, I've got, I've got, I've got like seven more to read.
32:17You guys are clean right on the right, on the right time.
32:19Yeah, but as you said, I mean, it's not, you know, the wonderful thing about the show is
32:23that it is set against the backdrop of the world as it's happening.
32:26But in this instance, the world is changing so rapidly that it'd be, you know, difficult
32:32to write, you know, the season in the present moment.
32:36And so again, to Michael's point, it's not, it's three months after the end of this.
32:41Because again, if it were in the present moment, we'd all be on the unemployment line.
32:46The warm, comforting hug of June, 2023.
32:49Yeah.
32:49I suppose.
32:50Yeah.
32:50Well, thank you all for, for joining us and for answering our questions about the show.
32:56Cast of the agency, everybody.
32:58Thank you so much.
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