Black Bag Stars Michael Fassbender, Regé-Jean Page Reveal Their Favorite Scenes from Spy Film
Stars of Steven Soderbergh's sexy new spy thriller share what they'd like to hide away in their own "Black Bag," and what scenes most spoke to them.
Here's a winning formula for constructing a compelling spy thriller: Assemble a cast full of incredibly gorgeous and talented actors, create a screenplay full of verbal sparring between enigmatic characters, set the piece in London and lean into the city's sleek, sexy vibe.
Voila! Black Bag, the new Focus Features drama directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by David Koepp, hits all those points and more in this modern mystery that juxtaposes a mole investigation amongst agents and staffers at the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
In the center of it all, married spies George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) and Kathryn St. Jean (Cate Blanchett) find themselves testing the trust bonds of their relationship.
Black Bag — which opens in theaters only on Friday, March 14 — also features Regé-Jean Page (Bridgerton), Marisa Abela (Back to Black), Naomie Harris (Moonlight), and Tom Burke (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga) as the couple's colleagues and friends who prove to be scarily adept at keeping all kinds of secrets.
In NBC Insider's chat with Fassbender, Page and Abela, the actors share the scenes that most revealed their characters' true nature, and the real life things they'd most like to disappear into a "black bag."
Black Bag unfolds like a classic spy thriller, with six elite intelligence colleagues from the NCSC under scrutiny for sharing secrets out of turn. Expert interrogator George Woodhouse is tasked to discover if any of them are guilty. He does so through a variety of encounters, including a dinner party hosted at his home where conversation gets tense, and through a series of individual encounters with each suspect.
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NBC Insider asked Fassbender, Page and Abela what scenes involving their characters felt the most revealing to play during the production.
Fassbender, Page, and Abela share their favorite Black Bag scenes
Fassbender said he found the dinner scenes that bookend the film to be the most fun. "They're so crucial to the movie," he explained. "So, they would have been my favorite, because we were all together. Sometimes, we did just a whole long take which was like 12 pages in that first scene. And that's always fun to do... having everyone together on set."
Abela agreed and said, "It's really rare that you're in a situation where you're doing a 12-page long scene with that many actors, and it's just flowing, and it's fun. Also, we weren't doing it over and over and over again from beginning to end. We'd kind of beat it, and honed in on those specific moments. The first one in particular was so fun, and it was just a great way of getting to know everyone's characters."
However, Page countered that Soderbergh also constructed the film so every character had a more intimate confrontation with George too and that allowed for plenty of interpersonal fireworks.
"I liked the contrast between those big ensemble pieces, and then you go into these duets," he said. "Everyone has these really strong scenes that break out."
RELATED: Why Cate Blanchett Said Yes to Black Bag Before Even Reading the Spy Film's Script
Page cited the one-on-one between Abela and Fassbender in her character's home as a personal favorite to watch. "Those are the more revealing scenes. You get to see how people act professionally in the group scenes, and that's fun to play as an actor. But then you get the revealing truth in the movie, usually in the twos. Like, my scene with Naomi was one of the most fun days that I've ever had on set. We really kind of laid into each other and found some fun, unexpected explosions in the text."
Black Bag actors reveal what they'd like to ignore in real life
In Black Bag, it's revealed that whenever spies can't share information for secrecy reasons, they can just say "black bag" to immediately close the topic in respect of their work. It's quite the heady power to throw on the table, especially for George and Kathryn when they get assigned to cases they can't discuss with one another outside the office.
RELATED: Is Steven Soderbergh's Black Bag Movie Based on a True Story and Real Spies?
NBC Insider wondered which topics the stars might like to "black bag" in real life, and the actors went rather low key with its application.
"Anytime someone tries to make me talk about something, like admin-y in my life," Abela revealed as the subject matter that would most tempt her to use the phrase. "You know what I mean? Like [someone says], 'If you have time, we really need to start talking about this thing that...' And I'd say, 'Yeah, no. Black bag.'"
Fassbender quickly agreed, adding he'd use it on, "Anything to do with the organization of anything in life, living in the real world."
Page laughed, adding, "Everything that is not on a movie set should be in the black bag."
Black Bag opens in theaters only on Friday, March 14. Click here for tickets!
