Still running: Michael Fassbender finds even more intrigue in ‘The Agency’

“It doesn’t really let up,” he says of the series written by Jez and John-Henry Butterworth. Cast as a CIA officer, his Martian, as he’s called, has to protect family and friends as he tries to make a life outside Africa. In the process, he needs to find a way to protect his love, Samia (played by Jodie Turner-Smith), who’s in the crosshairs of enemies.

“The last couple of episodes in Season 1 carry that sort of anxiety all the way to the last episode in Season 2,” he says. “All those characters come to the forefront and they’re there for a reason. There’s no fat on the bone with this series.”

Martian gets to evolve in the second season and, says Fassbender, watch as the “walls close in on him. It becomes more reckless in this season, out of necessity, and then to try and understand where he’s at mentally.”

That analysis intrigues the actor.

“Is he losing his mind? Are genius and insanity bedfellows? I wanted to play around with that a little bit because you know he’s always three, four moves ahead,” Fassbender says.

Turner-Smith, who’s often shooting away from Fassbender, says it’s great to get to work with him.

“He comes on set with a great attitude … it’s very inspiring,” she says. “We find Samia in captivity this season, and we don’t know if they’re going to be (together). People are going to be longing for the two of them to be together.”

Martian, meanwhile, is a sociopath, Fassbender says.

“Whether that’s come about through his line of work or it’s something he had at a younger age, it sort of suited the job quite well — the idea of dislocating truth and lies to maneuver between both with ease and sleep well at night,” he says.

The relationships with Samia and his daughter, Poppy, “were like the battle for his soul and actually giving him some conflict in terms of where he’s at now, morally," Fassbender says.

Fassbender wondered, initially, what kind of person would go into this line of work.

“It’s so isolating and there’s so much sacrifice they make,” he says.

As he set foot in the second season, Fassbender realized “the performance is basically down to the objectives. His primary objective is to get Samia to safety. So, every decision he makes will be based in that. And I also think he’s smart enough to know there’s no turning back. He’ll just keep digging until he comes out somewhere.”

Key to playing Martian is looking for connections that provoke audiences.

“That’s really what I think part of my job is — to provoke audiences and ask questions," Fassbender says. "Just to have characters that are complex and not black and white. They’re definitely operating in the gray. For sure he has done things that are beyond questionable. Once you cross the line, it’s easier to cross the line the next time.”