Steven Soderbergh's new movie, Black Bag is a gripping spy drama about intelligence agents George Woodhouse and his wife Kathryn, played by Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett.
When she's suspected of betraying the nation, George faces the ultimate test – loyalty to his marriage or his country.
Brit talent, Maria Abela is also in the film alongside Michael and they told us about being on the edge of their seats whilst reading the script and how Michael wants to support independent film by being involved with more small movies.
Black Bag is out in cinemas on Friday 14th March. Report by Jonesl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
When she's suspected of betraying the nation, George faces the ultimate test – loyalty to his marriage or his country.
Brit talent, Maria Abela is also in the film alongside Michael and they told us about being on the edge of their seats whilst reading the script and how Michael wants to support independent film by being involved with more small movies.
Black Bag is out in cinemas on Friday 14th March. Report by Jonesl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00I was just remember thinking, oh, my God.
00:01So I had like sheets here and there and everywhere.
00:04We just sort of talked a lot of nonsense.
00:06Guys, good afternoon or good morning or good evening.
00:09I'm not sure where you are.
00:10What time is there?
00:11But hello.
00:13Congrats, congrats on this film.
00:14This job feels so much easier when it's really good.
00:18Like as a journalist, when you really love the movie.
00:20It must be a hell of a lot easier for you guys when
00:23when you know it's come together as well as it has as well.
00:25Yeah. No, you know, it's it's already exciting.
00:28You know, when Steven Soderbergh comes to you and wants you to be part
00:32of something he's doing and then, you know,
00:36David's job on the script was, you know, exceptional.
00:40And then this cast just started to form.
00:42So it was it was exciting from from the get go.
00:45And it all happened really fast
00:47in terms of talking to Steven and then actually being on set and shooting.
00:51Yeah.
00:52And so, yeah, I really
00:54feel privileged to be part of it and work with him again.
00:59It kind of feels it feels to me like I had a similar reaction to Conclave
01:03when I saw it, when you've got like this really, really well casted film
01:07with a brilliant script and everything shot perfectly and nothing's labored.
01:10And it all just kind of fits together like so sweetly.
01:14And I guess you guys don't really know that until you see kind of the edicts.
01:17I'm sure you've filmed stuff before,
01:18which you thought would be much better or worse than it turned out to be.
01:20But like the people I spoke to afterwards, well, I could have watched that
01:25for another 10 minutes.
01:25I could have watched that for another 20 minutes,
01:27which is kind of a sign of something that's it's great.
01:29Yeah, I think you could see around the table, especially when we were all together
01:33as an ensemble at the dinner table scenes, the different personalities
01:38at the table, the different energies that were, you know, at work there.
01:41And you're like, oh, this is cool.
01:43Each person was very sort of individual.
01:47And and that was exciting to see,
01:49because a lot of the rest of the time we were all, you know, paired off
01:53or, you know, whatever it was.
01:54But to be collectively at the table for those tension scenes as well.
01:58It was cool.
01:58Those scenes were absolutely immaculate.
02:02Like Steven Soderbergh's known for kind of his non intrusive direction,
02:05directing style traditionally was was that the case on those those scenes?
02:09Did he kind of just like wind you guys up, then like leave you to it
02:11to kind of play for a while?
02:14Like, how did that how did that energy kind of come about?
02:17They were the only scenes that we rehearsed, actually, the two dinner scenes,
02:21because they were the scenes that were keeping him up at night
02:24in terms of how he was going to film it, you know, how he was going to,
02:29you know, differentiate between the one, the first dinner scene
02:34and then the second one where he was going to put the camera,
02:37how he was visually going to tell the stories. So.
02:41For us, it wasn't really any different, but for him, you know, that was
02:45that was important for him to get in there
02:47and for us to rehearse on site to see, you know, where he was going to put the camera.
02:52We just sort of talked a lot of nonsense.
02:54Yeah. Speaking about talking a lot of nonsense.
02:57I mean, you guys together probably shared my favorite secret scene outside of that.
03:01And it's taken everything within me not to ask whether you're tightening
03:04your anal sphincters right now.
03:07Like there must be times you've read a lot of scripts in your life,
03:09but there must be times when you do kind of lose it.
03:11When you read out that scene for the first time, you go, that's just
03:15I cannot wait to sit down and try and put this on camera.
03:19And did it take like a while?
03:20You know, was it difficult to actually get through that with with straight faces
03:24and in character?
03:25It was just difficult for me to get through it,
03:27because the way it was written in the script, I had learned it a certain way.
03:32And then Stephen was like, no, I'm going to shoot them like all through.
03:36And so the chronological order of what I was saying was changed.
03:41So I was just remember thinking, oh, my God.
03:43So I had like sheets here and there and everywhere
03:46just to sort of keep on track where I was supposed to be.
03:49In the end, I didn't have to worry because the camera wasn't really on me.
03:52It's more like that's the other thing that's great about the way Stephen shoots.
03:56It's like when he decides to go to the person.
04:00Who you're looking at for a reaction or somebody who's listening,
04:03as opposed to the person that's talking, you know, it's so good
04:06the way he does that in this movie.
04:08But yeah, reading that scene, I was like, that was funny.
04:10And then the other scene that we have, which was one of my favorites,
04:13where I go around to Clarissa's house and surprise her.
04:19You know, there was there's, you know, really funny moments in that as well.
04:23Very quickly before they before they took me out.
04:25I mean, we we've had an interesting place in independent cinema at the moment.
04:29I know Soderbergh was kind of known as a bastion of that.
04:31I know this is a studio movie, but the success of kneecap
04:34and then the success of kind of Sean Bakerton or the Oscars.
04:37What's your take on this?
04:38Are we are we in a good place for kind of independent cinema?
04:42And these kind of smaller stories being told at the moment, Michael?
04:46Yeah, look, I think, you know, the budgets that you have just sort of,
04:50you know, is either you get a sort of twelve million
04:53is kind of the cap for an independent film, really.
04:56You know, the the odd person like Steven Soderbergh can get that middle range,
05:01which, you know, is the films that I sort of always sort of loved,
05:04which is like 30, 40, 50 million.
05:06But not many people can get that.
05:08That's kind of the barren area of film at the moment.
05:11It's, you know, the independents get capped off around 12 million, like I say.
05:15And then you've got the big tentpole ones, which are like 200 million.
05:20But that that that area in the middle, I think, is it still suffers?
05:25Well, I'm hoping that this grabs imaginations the way it grabbed mine,
05:27because I'm completely in agreement.
05:29Those that kind of ballpark movie for me is what we need a lot more of at the moment.
05:33And it's when it's done like it's done in this movie is it is like joyful.
05:37It's so it's so fun to watch.
05:39Anyway, guys, can't take up too much of your time.
05:40Congratulations.
05:42I'll see you on the next one and all the very best on this one.
05:46Thanks, Charlie. Thanks, guys.