Exclusive interview: Hollywood actor Michael Fassbender on loyalty, paranoia, and love in gripping spy thriller Black Bag

Dubai: Michael Fassbender has never been an actor who chases noise or stardom.

The German-Irish star, known for his blistering performance in Shame, his chilling calm in 12 Years a Slave, and the magnetic depth he brought to Magneto in the X-Men franchise, has built a reputation for delivering intensity with restraint. Whether he’s playing an android in Prometheus or a conflicted genius in Steve Jobs, Fassbender doesn’t perform from the outside in—he implodes quietly, drawing you into his characters’ inner chaos.

In Black Bag, releasing in UAE cinemas this Friday, April 18, Fassbender returns to form as a top British intelligence officer and delivers a performance that simmers with controlled desperation. He suspects his peer and wife, played by Cate Blanchett, could be double-crossing his country.

Directed by Steven Soderbergh, the film also starring Rene-Jean Page of Bridgerton fame, Marisa Abela of Back To Black popularity, and Pierce Brosnan of The Thomas Crown Affair, is a sexy ensemble thriller, intelligently made, where espionage, emotional warfare, and long-held secrets intersect.

At its heart is the slow, disintegrating marriage between Fassbender’s MI6 agent George and his wife Catherine—played with chilling elegance by Cate Blanchett, all grace and ice.

“George likes to cook, he fishes, he’s solitary,” Fassbender said during an exclusive press roundtable.

“There’s a meditative quality in his routines. But then there’s Catherine—her chaos disrupts his order. He can’t help but clean up after her. That contrast told me everything."

George is a man of habit, silence, and structure. But as suspicions mount around his wife’s possible involvement in an intelligence breach, George is torn between duty and desire—between the job he’s trained for and the person he can’t let go of.

“Regardless of what he finds out about her, I feel like George would still choose her,” Fassbender said. “That’s his person—maybe his only person. His soul mate, his best friend, maybe even his only friend.”

Rather than dissecting the role through theory, Fassbender’s process is rooted in rhythm and instinct.

“I don’t like to intellectualise too much,” he admitted. “I look for the clues in the script—how he behaves, what’s said about him. Then it’s just repetition until things start to ferment. And in George’s world, paranoia isn’t the enemy. It’s survival.”

Soderbergh’s approach—minimal takes, stripped-down direction, often shooting with one camera—can be daunting. But for Fassbender, it’s part of the thrill.

“He gives you the space, but it’s scary,” he said. “You’re not going to get ten takes to figure it out. You’ve got to show up ready, because what you bring on day one might be what ends up on screen.”

One exception: a sprawling, pivotal dinner scene featuring the film’s full ensemble cast.

“It was the one scene that kept Steven up at night,” Fassbender recalled. “Six people at a table, and he had to make it visually electric, emotionally alive. We actually rehearsed that one, which never happens with him.”

Black Bag may be a spy film on the surface, but beneath the layers of surveillance, tradecraft, and high-stakes deception is a devastating look at how love erodes when trust vanishes.

And in Fassbender’s hands, George becomes not just a man trained to detect lies—but one who’s terrified of the truths that might live closest to him.