Nothing in “The Agency” is personal until everything in “The Agency” is personal. Created by brothers Jez and John-Henry Butterworth, the American spy thriller from Showtime and Paramount+ remakes Éric Rochant’s acclaimed French espionage drama, “The Bureau” — or “Le Bureau des Légendes.” Its profoundly intimidating core cast come together as the white-hot heart of an espionage love story. Season 1’s success as a suspenseful ten-episode arc hinges on your commitment to its characters.
“The sacrifice these people make is immense,” said Richard Gere in a recent IndieWire interview with co-stars Jeffrey Wright, Michael Fassbender, and Jodie Turner-Smith, seen above. “How do you maintain relationships when you operate in this world? When you lie indiscriminately?”
It’s contradictory but still common sense that great acting comes from great honesty. That’s tough to do when the people you’re playing are professional liars — and tortured ones at that. Gere anchors the titular pocket of the super-intelligent underworld as CIA London Station Chief James “Bosko” Bradley. The actor grounded his surprisingly authentic performance by deftly managing that authenticity.
In conversation, Gere and Wright routinely connect their intense aptitude for real-world politics to their performances on “The Agency” — but Wright says it’s “not for the purpose of being overtly political or making commentary.” After the election, the two actors sat down with the creative leads for their show and insisted on helping shape their characters and this world for the fraught preset moment.
“That’s the nature of the show,” said Wright, who plays Deputy Station Chief Henry Ogletree. Ogletree is carefully shifting in his logic and yet a quietly kaleidoscopic mentor for the series’ tormented protagonist. Wright can pull emotion out of almost any scene partner, but together, he and Fassbender spark a psychological firestorm amid their struggle to maintain control.
“Ultimately, first and foremost, it’s down to the writers, to the Butterworths, to be attuned to all of that,” said Wright in ironic surrender. Dropping his German-Irish accent, Fassbender leads as a tortured CIA Agent Brandon “Martian” Colby, who returns home after a long mission in Ethiopia. He’s opposite Turner-Smith as Dr. Samia Zahir, whose reemergence in his life threatens to unravel their shared past.
“When we find Samia in the beginning of this story, she really is an idealist,” Turner-Smith said. “[She] hasn’t really been exposed to the kind of larger lies, the more dangerous lies, the more soul shifting lies. Who do you become when you have to live your life in a certain way? Those things she hasn’t necessarily experienced. So there’s certain innocence in the way that she’s approaching this path that she’s on.”
Speaking on the chemistry of the cast, Gere said, “We all got along well, and the great thing as well is each of the characters is there for a reason in this show and each of the characters brings a different energy. If you look at the character, Owen, his energy in the office as [compared] to Bosko, to Henry, to my character, it’s clever writing with characters that are there for a reason and they’re cast really well.”
He continued, “We’re all observers. We’re trained to be observers. And so there’s always a pretty extreme subtlety that goes on in all the communications here. We’re looking at each other’s body language. How is the mind working? Where’s that emotion? What’s the flick of the eyes? What’s going on? We’re reading each other all the time.”
“The Agency” is now streaming on Paramount+.
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