Michael Fassbender loved the character-driven story of 'Black Bag'.

Michael Fassbender enjoyed the premise of Black Bag

Michael Fassbender enjoyed the premise of Black Bag

The 47-year-old actor stars in Steven Soderbergh's spy movie as intelligence agent George Woodhouse - who is assigned to investigate his wife Kathryn St. Jean (Cate Blanchett) when she is suspected of treason - and admits that the flick's original premise held considerable appeal.

Michael told IndieWire: "It was a fantastic collection of characters. And it falls into a film demographic that we just don't see a lot of these days. That it was going to get made was exciting. It's hard for film companies to support films in that budget category, there's not many $30 to $40 million films anymore, unfortunately."

The 'Next Goal Wins' star continued: "As I started reading the script: 'Wow, this is smart and funny'. And it moved at a click. The pace at which I was propelled forward by these characters was exciting.

"And we were in the spy genre: the story wasn't motivated by action set pieces, it was psychological warfare going on between these fascinating and intriguing characters.

"There are a couple of visceral moments in the film that are quite violent, for sure, but what's propelling it forward are these crackling scenes of dialogue and intellect between these characters."

Michael admits that he enjoyed working with Soderbergh as the 'Erin Brockovich' helmer brought a "relaxed" atmosphere to the production.

He said: "Steven Soderbergh sets up a relaxed atmosphere on set.

"It's fun to watch him come into a room, look around, light it, be the DP (director of photography), operate the camera, be the director, and then go home and edit whatever we shot that day. We move fast. He'll operate 95 per cent of the time.

"You're always trying to develop a rapport with the person behind the camera, because you're going to be doing a dance with them throughout. He has a lot of confidence in the way he casts it. It's a choice of his not to interfere with whatever the players are bringing."

There are two major dinner party scenes in 'Black Bag' and Fassbender admits that they were a lot easier for the cast - which also includes Marisa Abela, Tom Burke and Naomie Harris - than the director.

He said: "For us, it was an opportunity to all be together in one scene. You don't have to figure out any blocking. It was finding the rhythm between each other.

"He (Soderbergh) said those two scenes were keeping him up at night. It was where he was going to put the camera, the different angle he was going to find, keeping those scenes dynamic.

"If handled the wrong way, it could just become flat and lose that tension that is so necessary."

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