Jodie Turner-Smith Still Gets 'Nervous' Before Each Role But Felt 'Empowered' Filming New Show with Michael Fassbender (Exclusive)
The British actress tells PEOPLE it was "exciting" to finally work with Fassbender on the new political thriller 'The Agency' after being a 'long-time fan'
The British actress tells PEOPLE it was "exciting" to finally work with Fassbender on the new political thriller 'The Agency' after being a 'long-time fan' Luke Varley/Paramount+ Jodie Turner Smith as Samia Zahir in 'The Agency':max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/The-agency-jodie-turner-smith-112124-4af74fe6b01440169eb234ed7f77d5b3.jpg "Jodie Turner Smith as Samia Zahir in The Agency, episode 2, season 1, streaming on Paramount+")
Jodie Turner-Smith has had a huge year.
The British actress, 38, made her Star Wars debut in The Acolyte, played the witchy Dragon Queen in Bad Monkey and now stars as a complicated love interest to Michael Fassbender in The Agency.
She shot the first two shows "two years ago," she tells PEOPLE, but The Agency, which filmed 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 drama Le 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." Luke Varley/Paramount+ Michael Fassbender as Martian and Jodie Turner Smith as Samia Zahir in 'The Agency'
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 stars Richard Gere and Jeffrey 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."
"I still constantly feel like I'm just so at the beginning," she continues. "I feel like I've been doing this for all of two seconds. I have so much to learn, and so much I want to learn. I was definitely nervous. And I feel like I was just so affirmed by how kind and generous this person that I got to do so many scenes with was, Michael Fassbender." Luke Varley/Paramount+ Jeffrey Wright as Henry and Richard Gere as Bosko in 'The Agency'
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?" Rachpoot/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images Jodie Turner Smith on Sept. 22, 2023 in Milan, Italy
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 of The Agency premiere Friday, Nov. 29 on Paramount+.
