Editor’s note: This interview was conducted ahead of the announcement of The Night Agent’s season 2 renewal.
The Night Agent has all of the twists and turns that you’d expect from a political thriller and then some.
Gabriel Basso, Luciane Buchanan and Hong Chau broke down some of the season’s big moments with Shadow and Act and teased some things they’d like to see in season 2.
Perhaps the biggest twist throughout the series was that Chau’s Diane Farr, the character who had vouched for Basso’s Peter and served as a mentor of sorts for him, was the mole inside the White House and was actually sabotaging Peter and Rose (Buchanan).
“With Diane Farr, the writers, Shawn Ryan and I, discussed at length about what her motivations were,” Chau said during our conversation. “I think we all came to the same agreement that she really believed the president and her agenda and her ability to make the country better. I think that was what was really driving her. I don’t think it was just some blanket loyalty. It was beyond the person it was and something bigger than the individual. And I think that’s what was really motivating Diane. Unfortunately, she found herself in some impossible situation where she was really backed up and couldn’t maneuver her way out of it. She’s obviously a very savvy political strategist, except for this oe time, and I thought it was really sad in the end, actually.”
The series’ moral gray area is illustrated at its best with what it does with the Diane character.
“I think she wanted to do so much, and [to the question if] she’s good or bad, I really can’t say that she was either of those things,” she continued. “It was just a series of yes or no questions she just had to hope for the best in every scenario, and ultimately it didn’t work out. I think if she could have gotten ahead of it, there’s no way she would’ve signed up to do what she had to participate in. But it was interesting to get to play, for sure. I think it was helpful to have the writers there on set to sort of remind me of who knows what information at what point and what the stakes were in any given situation, because that’s something that’s really entertaining for the audience, but it’s kind of hard for the actors to keep track of when we’re shooting things out of sequence.”
“I guess Rose always had her eye on Diane Farr,” said Buchanan. “I don’t know why, but she was just like, ‘There’s something about her,’ and I guess looking at the relationship with Peter, she’s like…this is weird [laughs]. I know in the book it was a little bit different with who’s who, but I love the way in the show that it kind of fooled me that she was kind of pulled into it very late in the game. So it’s actually someone else, [and] I like that little twist.”
Basso added, “I think just having all these moral gray areas was cool because in this sort of day and age of protagonist and antagonist and it being so hero and villain-y, it was nice to have things that were sort of subtle and [having] ends justify the means motivating a character. But then, this character over here is motivated by something else entirely, so it was kind of nice to see how they all interacted and no character in this show was superfluous. Everybody served a purpose and every character that was introduced merged into other people’s storylines.”
Basso and Buchanan also gave their thoughts on what could be explored in season 2, with the first season ending on a cliffhanger with Peter going off on an unknown assignment.
“I think as a Night Agent now at the end, because I don’t start off as one, I think what brought them together was circumstance,” said Basso. “I think what made their relationship special was situational. I feel like for me to kick my feet on the bed and call her again would be putting her in jeopardy or maybe putting her in danger that I didn’t have to. Regardless of how Peter feels about her, to reach out to her might be putting her in danger. So I don’t know how he’d navigate that. It’s above my pay grade [laughs], but I think character-wise, what made that so sad and is with everything they did, now it’s like ‘I don’t know when I can call you next.’
Buchanan joked, “Rose is going to track him!”
The Night Agent season 1 is now streaming on Netflix.
