Black Bag (2025)

Cate Blanchett as: Kathryn St. Jean

Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Selected Cast: Michael Fassbender, Naomie Harris, Tom Burke, Regé-Jean Page, Marisa Abela, Pierce Brosnan
Written by: David Koepp
Release Year: 2025
Genre: Thriller | Drama
MPAA Rating: R

A gripping spy drama about legendary intelligence agents George Woodhouse and his beloved wife Kathryn. When she is suspected of betraying the nation, George faces the ultimate test – loyalty to his marriage or his country.

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Behind the scenes; Actor StudioRelated Videos

The last video is a playlist of selected interviews, just click on the playlist icon/thumbnails to see the other videos in it.

Quotes from Cate Blanchett

“I’d already agreed to do it before I read the script, because obviously when you know David Koepp is writing it and Steven Soderbergh is going to direct it, you know it’s going to be a great adventure. So, then when Steven said he wanted Michael (Fassbender) to play George, I went, “Oh, that’s perfect.” But I was surprised by just how elusive their relationship was, but also how the absolute bedrock of their relationship is that they would die for each other. I find that deeply romantic, and particularly after they’ve been together a long time. They’ve clearly decided not to have children and they’re devoted to their work. But the only thing they’re devoted to more is each other. So, I think that there was an intensely romantic thing at the heart of this film, which was not something you necessarily associate with a texture in the movies that Steven makes.” (Moviefone, March 2025)
On whether she tried to speak with real spies in preparation for her character: “I suppose if I could find one, she probably wouldn’t be doing her job very well. But Kathryn wasn’t based on any one person. This is more a portrait of their marriage and they happen to be in espionage.” (NBC, March 2025)
On Steven Soderbergh: “Steven’s got amazing panache and range as a filmmaker,. He doesn’t stay in the same lane. He understands the outsider’s perspective these characters have, the way they can move almost panther-like through the world.”

Quotes from Others

Steven Soderbergh:
— On needing an actor for the part who was not only an impressive actor, but who could pull off old-fashioned Hollywood glamour: “Cate [Blanchett] just has both these qualities.”
— On casting Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender: “This was the first thing I had that, that I felt, I’m going to go to them with this. [I] really imagined them as a great on-screen couple. It was a tricky ask, because it was designed to be a bit of a glam fest. And so you need people who can embody that, who look good in clothes, and have all those angles that you want if you’re making a kind of Hollywood star-driven movie. But then you need, obviously, the skills underneath all that.”
David Koepp:
— “Black Bag is about a pair of married spies who have to decide if the marriage is more important than loyalty to their country. I thought of this idea thirty years ago – the longest I’ve ever gestated anything. I was in the middle of writing the first Mission Impossible, doing a lot of research, and I was talking to a CIA guy about his personal life because I found that to be much more interesting than the spy crap, and I remember him telling me it was impossible for intelligence agents to sustain a relationship because it’s too easy to have an affair and cover your tracks.
I knew immediately that I wanted to see that in the context of a marriage rather than someone trying to date and find the right person, because by definition a marriage is meant to be a settled relationship. By introducing this element, where these married spies are limited about what they can talk about with each other, it causes uncertainty.”
Michael Fassbender:
— “It [screenplay] said Kathryn is the head of the table, wherever she sits. Cate [Blanchett] also brings something that I didn’t see on the page. There’s a lot of ambiguity in her performance. Kathryn has built a sturdy exterior wall even for George, but there is vulnerability within her as well. As their colleague Freddie says, the one thing that you can count on is that they’ll do anything for one another.”

Trivia & Facts

Filmed in the UK and Switzerland.
The film premiered in New York on 9 March 2025.
Steven Soderbergh and Cate Blanchett first worked together on The Good German (2006).
Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender worked together in Song to Song (2017) but their scenes did not make the final cut.
As of April 2025, the film is the highest-rated film for Cate Blanchett, Steven Soderbergh, and Michael Fassbender with 97% on Rotten Tomatoes.
In an interview with Parade, Michael Fassbender said that his wife, Alicia Vikander, made a playlist for the film and was credited as DJ Vicarious.
David Koepp said that he has had the idea for the film for 30 years.
Steven Soderbergh offered the role of George and Kathryn to Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett at the same time.
Steven Soderbergh not only serves as the director for the film but also as editor and cinematographer.
In some interviews, Cate Blanchett and Naomie Harris mentioned that they were supposed to be working together on another film with Steven Soderbergh but didn’t happen, Cate said in one interview that other film is complicated to make.
Cate Blanchett ad-libbed the line, ‘Yes, it’s amazing what you can afford if you don’t have children.’, when Naomie Harris’ character commented how beautiful Kathryn and George’s home is.