Gabriel Basso back for more political thrills in ‘The Night Agent’
Once “The Night Agent,” a twisty, paranoid, politically-tinged thriller, surprised Netflix by becoming a global smash, its star Gabriel Basso was instantly anointed Hollywood’s newest action star.…
Once “The Night Agent,” a twisty, paranoid, politically-tinged thriller, surprised Netflix by becoming a global smash, its star Gabriel Basso was instantly anointed Hollywood’s newest action star.
Basso, 30, returns Thursday as CIA Night Agent Peter Sutherland. Where S1 put Sutherland in a White House basement waiting for a phone to ring, its fantastical, violent plotting saw the president imperiled and this newbie tested. This new season, however, is not more of the same.
“Peter knew what he was doing in S1, but the skills required and the pressure he was under was unnatural,” Basso noted in a Zoom interview.
“Whereas before he was in over his head, in S2 he’s definitely pushed morally beyond. The problems come not with his skills or capacity to handle the job, but with his mind — where his mind is and what he values.”
That could also be said for Basso. “I was acting from 13 on and off, to 18 when I quit.” He returned to acting at 25, “and was just thrown back into it with ‘Hillbilly Elegy’” — he played JD Vance – “and then ‘The Night Agent’ happened.
“So acting has not been this crazy thing I’ve always been doing. It’s not necessarily even something I want to continue to do.
“My life hasn’t really changed, because I don’t really do a lot that would affect me outside in society. Other than walking through airports where people recognize me every once in a while. But it’s not changed my outlook on life at all.”
Was it a hard decision, deciding to act again?
“What was difficult for me coming back, and quitting to begin with, is because I know this isn’t what I want to do for the rest of my life, really.
“I’m enjoying it. I’m doing it to the best of my ability. I’m taking the opportunities that are here now. But there is something that feels empty about this business — in terms of what it is and how it’s pushed on people and society now. How elevated actors are in society.
“When we’re told what to say. We’re told where to stand. And we’re told how to say. Yet people look to us for advice and stuff! It feels very backwards to me.
“So I don’t think I belong in this environment and,” he said with a laugh, “it sort of drives me nuts.
“I’ll probably get my toes in and out of this business. Because I do enjoy the creative collaborative process. Storytelling has always been intrinsic to the human experience. But for some reason now, it all just feels kind of whack.
“So I won’t,” he predicts, “go through it for the rest of my life.”
“The Night Agent” Season 2 streams on Netflix Jan. 23