Jodie Turner-Smith Still Gets 'Nervous' Before Each Role But Felt 'Empowered' Filming New Show with Michael Fassbender (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Jodie Turner Smith as Samia Zahir in ‘The Agency’.Photo:Luke Varley/Paramount+

Luke Varley/Paramount+

Jodie Turner-Smithhas had a huge year.

The British actress, 38,made her Star Wars debut inThe Acolyte, played the witchy Dragon Queen inBad Monkeyand now stars as a complicated love interest toMichael FassbenderinThe Agency.

She shot the first two shows “two years ago,” she tells PEOPLE, butThe Agency,whichfilmed only months ago, is already approaching its Nov. 29 premiere.

“It’s happening so quickly, so that’s different,” she says of the Paramount+ espionage political thriller, a new take on the French dramaLe Bureau des Legende,which Turner-Smith calls a “splashy project.”

She remembers thinking, “This is pretty excellent,” when reading the scripts, and the opportunity to work with Fassbender, 47, didn’t hurt either.

“[He is] someone I was so wanting to work with for a very long time,” she says, adding that she’s been a “long-time fan.”

Michael Fassbender as Martian and Jodie Turner Smith as Samia Zahir in ‘The Agency’.Luke Varley/Paramount+

Her character Samia — a secret love interest of Fassbender’s from his covert operation in Ethiopia and a professor — drew her in, too.

“She’s extremely intelligent. She’s an academic, she speaks Arabic, which is one of the most beautiful languages in the world. And she’s complicated.”

Still, Turner-Smith isn’t shy to admit that joining the show, which also starsRichard GereandJeffrey Wright, was daunting. “I’m always nervous, before every job. I feel like it’s a good thing. Because if you’re not nervous, I don’t know, maybe something’s a little bit dead inside.”

Jeffrey Wright as Henry and Richard Gere as Bosko in ‘The Agency’.Luke Varley/Paramount+

The “love story” between Samia and Fassbender’s character, Martian, who Samia knows as Paul, was an exciting one to bring to life.

“I think every character that I play, there’s always some place inside myself that I relate to,” she says. “I felt like it’s such a basic experience to love somebody deeply, and I think many of us have experienced loving someone deeply, and it being someone that we’re sort of star-crossed lovers with. It feels like it can’t work. It’s not meant to work. And what are we ready to risk it all for?”

Jodie Turner Smith on Sept. 22, 2023 in Milan, Italy.Rachpoot/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

Rachpoot/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

The Paramount+ series follows Fassbender’s character, a covert CIA agent, after he is “ordered to abandon his undercover life and return to London Station,” per the official synopsis.

But when Samia (Turner-Smith), the “love he left behind,” appears in London, their romance “reignites.”

“His career, his real identity and his mission are pitted against his heart; hurling them both into a deadly game of international intrigue and espionage.”

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The first 2 episodes ofThe Agencypremiere Friday, Nov. 29 on Paramount+.

source: people.com