What's On in conversation with: The stars of Black Bag

What's On

12-03-2025

We speak to Michael Fassbender, Naomie Harris, Regé-Jean Page and Marisa Abela…
Most spy movies make the espionage career path look incredibly alluring. 'I could do that' you convince yourself, as the suavely-kempt individual on-screen slips from private jet to the non-ejector sear of an Aston Martin via the sole medium of niche blended beverages. The reality of course is far less glamourous. You're the front line of real and perceived threat prevention; scrabbling in the murky, ethically asymmetrical waters of statecraft; constantly pretending you're something you're not. I once introduced myself to someone at a bar with an Irish accent, and had to spend the rest of the evening sounding like a startled leprechaun, before being interrogated by the original mark's Irish friend about where exactly in Dublin I was supposedly from. It was all incredibly stressful, I unravelled immediately, and as far as I know, an international incident was never even on the cards. Although the accent was pretty bad. 3 of 12
(L to R) Regé-Jean Page as Col. James Stokes, Naomie Harris as Dr. Zoe Vaughn, Michael Fassbender as George Woodhouse, Cate Blanchett as Kathryn St. Jean, Tom Burke as Freddie Smalls, and Marisa Abela as Clarissa Dubose in director Steven Soderbergh's BLACK BAG, a Focus Features release. Credit: Claudette Barius/Focus Features © 2025 All Rights Reserved.
(L to R) Tom Burke as Freddie Smalls and Michael Fassbender as George Woodhouse in director Steven Soderbergh's BLACK BAG, a Focus Features release. Credit: Claudette Barius/Focus Features © 2025 All Rights Reserved.
(L to R) Michael Fassbender as George Woodhouse and Marisa Abela as Clarissa Dubose in director Steven Soderbergh's BLACK BAG, a Focus Features release. Credit: Claudette Barius/Focus Features © 2025 All Rights Reserved.
(L to R) Naomie Harris as Dr. Zoe Vaughn and Cate Blanchett as Kathryn St. Jean in director Steven Soderbergh's BLACK BAG, a Focus Features release. Credit: Claudette Barius/Focus Features © 2025 All Rights Reserved.
(L to R) Regé-Jean Page as Col. James Stokes, Naomie Harris as Dr. Zoe Vaughn and Michael Fassbender as George Woodhouse in director Steven Soderbergh's BLACK BAG, a Focus Features release. Credit: Claudette Barius/Focus Features © 2025 All Rights Reserved.
Director Steven Soderbergh on the set of BLACK BAG, a Focus Features release. Credit: Claudette Barius/Focus Features © 2025 All Rights Reserved.
This is the world waded through by Steven Soderbergh's Black Bag , hitting UAE cinemas on March 14. It's a mille-feuille of malevolous motivations, of shadows and mistrust, love, lies, conspiracies, loyalties and lust. Shot in that trademark, visually vacuumous, hauntingly-framed Soderbergh fashion, Black Bag follows a small cadre of interconnected Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) operatives. It's a 4D whodunnit played out on a rigged chessboard, Arch spy and stoic mole-hunter, George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) must uncover a rogue element within an umbral ring of fellow agents that includes his wife, Kathryn St. Jean (Cate Blanchett).
007 problems
A mysterious digital weapon, Severus, has gone missing, it has the potential to cause a pretty hefty death toll – and more worryingly for SIS direct reports, red-faced politicians. Also implicated as potential Black Bag rats, are agents Clarissa Dubose (Marisa Abela) – her partner and veteran spook Freddie Smalls (Tom Burke), the agency's rising star Col. James Stokes (Regé-Jean Page) and his (HR would have a meltdown) current squeeze, the office shrink, Dr. Zoe Vaughan (Naomie Harris). An incestuous viper's nest indeed.
The dialogue in Black Bag is another one of the movie's most compelling components, perhaps most concisely demonstrated at a dinner party held towards the start of the film. George and Kathryn host the other two Cluedo couples in what becomes a tense exchange of barbs, recriminations, and intoxicated muck flinging. George, the human polygraph, scrutinises each guest methodically. Was it, Col. Stokes in the meeting room with an encrypted thumb drive? Or perhaps the ambitious Madamoiselle Dubose in the surveillance suite with the satellite imaging? The Scarlet wife, Kathryn St. Jean, with a steak knife right through George's heart? And how exactly do you uncover the truth from a highly trained unit of professional bloggers? How do these professional liars stop telling tales in their personal lies, when it's what they do all day long at work? These are poignant questions in a post-truth world.
Dual lives
It's not just real life spies that have it rough. Spy roles have to be amongst the hardest to get right in the acting profession, because not only are you portraying a character's cover story, but you're also obliged to give away subtle flickering of authenticity and agenda beneath. On this subject, Marisa Abela who plays Clarissa told What's On : 'I think everyone has two versions of themselves. One that they present to the world, and one that's the most authentic version of themselves. In this [the movie's] world, maybe the one they present is much more fully formed, and they're better at hiding that vulnerable person.'
'Clarissa hasn't been doing this for long enough to be that good at hiding who she really is and what it is that she really wants. So I think Clarissa is probably, more than any other character, the most authentic version of who she is'.
Micheal Fassbender (George Woodhouse) phrased it this way: 'I think we all do it, you know, and we learn from a young age how to do it. With George … he's just observing and gathering information. And I think because he is, as stated in the script, so hard to read. Whatever response he is having to something or what his emotional content is, It's so hard to read from him. He's just a consistent analytic mind and that's all he's doing.'
'He's truth-seeking. these aren't spies that are out in the field that have to have a cover story, keeping their own identity to the side. But I think, having spoken to people a bit about this, as close as you can make it to yourself in some respects that the lie will be easier. Obviously, the more lies you tell, the harder it is to keep track of them all.'
Service secrets
People are naturally keen to draw comparisons between actors and spies, after all both groups of people have to inhabit cultivated personas. So is acting a transferrable skill? Could there be a market for 'thespianage'? Micheal Fassbender had this to say: 'I would make a terrible spy, but I think the ability to compartmentalise is probably a good one to have. I can do that to some respect. I'm very good at doing one thing. I'm not very good at multitasking I don't know if spies need to multitask probably But that compartmentalisation I think is a key one.'
'But not telling anyone what I actually do for a living would be completely bizarre. I don't think I could do that. I can't imagine not telling my partner, or my mom, or my brother.'
'To be able to think clearly in very stressful scenarios and to think differently than most people would think, you know, to come up with a solution to a situation that seems counterintuitive. I remember hearing a story about a woman that got recruited during World War II and there were German planes flying over this train and obviously, because the train was moving – they were targets. And this one woman went around each carriage and started smashing out all the lights on the train. Because you can't see it in the dark from above. That's the kind of thinking that's like, okay you know, you're interesting. You know how to operate under a high-stress scenario and think of a solution.'
Down to the wire
The job of portraying these characters is undoubtedly made easier by having a killer script to read from. Writer David Koepp – the scribe behind Jurassic Park (in collaboration with Michael Chrichton), Carlito's Way, Panic Room, Spider-Man, Presence and an upcoming as-yet-untitled Steven Spielberg project set for release in 2026 – crafted such an airtight piece of art with Black Bag, that when asked about how much ad-libbing went on, Regé-Jean Page had this to say: 'Not none, but very little. Not none, but yeah, yeah. Very tiny targeted ad-libs.'
'I think throughout the cast, everyone was in awe of how well written the movie was to begin with, and so you're very, very reticent to, to adapt that in any way because there are enough subtleties within the way it's written that you can play every line ten different ways and still come out with something incredibly rich.'
'And then very occasionally you might get something in a reaction, it'll be the tiniest thing. It makes life a lot easier. Because all you have to do is get outta the way of the script. Yeah. Let the script through. The better the script, the easier your job is.'
No stranger to the 'IP' in ripping spy yarns, Naomie Harris (Miss Moneypenny in the Bond franchise, Gail MacKendrick in Our Kind of Traitor) explained: 'It's so rare to get a script like this. When I read it, I was so excited to be part of it because to get so many layered Characters and that have so much depth, it's a true ensemble piece. Everybody has their moment.'
'Everybody has their story and a different agenda and that's really unique. To have a lead with that level of depth is rare. So to have that in so many different characters in the movie, that's what makes it so rich and incredible. Watching the level of conflict in George, and then getting to interact with that and try and push his buttons is a rare treat.'
Black Bag might not be your average spy thriller, but it is an incredibly rewarding watch. It's beautifully shot, forensically studied and masterfully told. Available to watch in screens across the UAE from March 14, 2025.
Images: Provided