The Agency's Jodie Turner-Smith on unsexy sex scenes, playing queens and her friendship with Daniel Kaluuya

When Jodie Turner-Smith and Michael Fassbender were getting into presumption to movie a enactment country for their caller TV show, The Agency — a George Clooney-produced American instrumentality connected the hugely fashionable French spy series, Le Bureau des Légendes (The Bureau) — things were feeling a spot awkward.

“It's wholly unnatural. It's not sexy,” she says, sitting crossed from maine successful a brightly lit country of Embankment’s prestigious Corinthia Hotel, flanked by assorted staff, unit and publicists. A roar mic hangs supra america successful mentation for aboriginal filmed interviews.

It’s the nonstop benignant of situation successful which Turner-Smith is usually asked to simulate enactment with different actor. One who, successful this case, she’d lone conscionable started moving with. Unsexy makes sense.

“You're being precise intimate with the idiosyncratic who’s not your intimate partner,” she says, “and Michael and I did our intimate scenes, like, consecutive out, earlier we got to get to cognize each other.”

Then, arsenic manager Joe Wright gave instructions connected precisely however the brace should beryllium positioned portion having sex, Fassbender turned to Turner-Smith. “He said, ‘Like 2 beetles’,” she recalls, earlier falling into fits of laughter. “I couldn't adjacent bash that instrumentality due to the fact that I was just, like, crying with laughter.”

Turner-Smith and Fassbender are each other’s main country partners successful The Agency, wherever they play lovers caught up successful the covert satellite of espionage. Fassbender is “Martian”, a agelong word undercover spy who gets yanked retired of Ethiopia to instrumentality to the CIA basal successful London astatine a moment’s notice, portion Turner-Smith is Sami Zahir, the astute, patriotic, concealed Sudanese woman he’s been hiding from his employers.

“He's an aggravated actor, but he's not a ace aggravated person,” Turner-Smith says of Fassbender. “He's a truly down to earth, comic person. He's truly unserious, honestly.”

The 38-year-old Peterborough-born actor’s breakthrough relation was Angela ‘Queen’ Johnson successful 2019’s Queen & Slim, other Daniel Kaluuya, playing the portion of Ernest "Slim" Hines.

The movie follows a day that goes from atrocious to life-threatening arsenic Turner-Smith and Kaluuya’s characters are pulled implicit by a racist bull connected the mode home. After a tussle, the duo accidentally termination the serviceman and spell connected the tally to evade capture, uncovering existent emotion connected the way.

This concern came casual to Turner-Smith, who inactive counts Kaluuya arsenic 1 of her adjacent friends. She was astatine his statue unveiling successful Leicester Square past month, on with her parent and four-year-old daughter, who she shares with her ex-husband, the histrion Joshua Jackson.

The statue, which depicts a country from deed movie Get Out, was voted successful by fashionable demand. “People marque a batch of atrocious choices. But you cognize what? They made the close 1 there,” she says. When Get Out was archetypal released successful cinemas, Turner-Smith went to spot it 3 times. ‘I would beryllium like, [to her friends], ‘Have you seen it? Let’s spell spot it. You haven’t seen it? Let’s spell close now.’”

It’s wide that Turner-Smith is simply a immense instrumentality of Kaluuya’s. “There's not a idiosyncratic that is much deserving of having everything that this beingness has, everything that is good, than Daniel Kaluuya. He is simply a bully person,” she says.

Six months aft Queen & Slim was released, George Floyd was arrested by Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, who detained Floyd by kneeling connected his cervix for 9 minutes, sidesplitting him. Floyd’s execution ignited the Black Lives Matter question and prompted protests crossed the world, successful scenes not dissimilar to the ending of Queen & Slim. “I watched the video and I privation I hadn't done it,” Turner-Smith says. “The mode that helium cried retired for his parent arsenic helium was being murdered, conscionable sat with maine successful this way…”

Turner-Smith had conscionable fixed commencement to her girl the period earlier Floyd’s death. “When you’re nursing you tin consciousness however everything energetically is passing from you to the child,” she says, “and I was trying to support her from feeling that grief, anguish, anger, that pain.” It was due to the fact that of this that Turner-Smith didn’t articulation the protests, which didn’t beryllium good with immoderate of her friends. “I retrieve having friends of excavation who didn't recognize wherefore I wasn't going connected the streets. I fell retired with immoderate people.”

After Queen & Slim, Turner-Smith picked up a wont of playing queens, by sanction oregon by nature. “I emotion that typecasting,” she laughs. In 2021, she was formed arsenic Anne Boleyn successful the AMC miniseries astir the last months of the Tudor queen’s life. And earlier this year, she played a witchy, pseudo-magical quality known arsenic Dragon Queen successful Apple TV+’s Bad Monkey, alongside Vince Vaughn.

Turner-Smith is presently surviving successful Los Angeles with her daughter. She and Joshua Jackson person shared custody of her since their divided successful 2023, which made headlines aft Turner-Smith abruptly filed for divorce, shattering the representation of their five-year-long, picture-perfect, blessed relationship.

When I inquire if, similar her quality Sami successful The Agency, she would bash thing for love, she answers enigmatically: “[Sami is] married, truthful she knows however it goes erstwhile you could emotion idiosyncratic and past that abruptly goes away. But beingness goes on.” It’s unclear whether Sami is the lone idiosyncratic we’re talking astir here.

On the mode to her starry beingness successful Los Angeles, Turner-Smith lived successful immoderate considerably little stylish locations. First Peterborough, wherever she was calved and raised until she was 10, past Gaithersburg, Maryland, wherever she moved with her mother, member and half-sister aft her parents divorced.

Aged 18, Turner-Smith enrolled astatine the University of Pittsburgh, wherever she studied concern successful mentation for her post-graduate occupation astatine a bank. “I thought I was gonna person a truly unchangeable life,” she recalls, “when I was successful banking, I knew instantly that I didn't privation to bash that.” She remembers looking astir and seeing her co-workers enjoying themselves. “And I was like, ‘It's imaginable to bask your job?’”

Then came a accidental gathering with rapper-producer Pharrell, who Turner-Smith was introduced to via a communal friend. “He was like, ‘Fuck that! You request to beryllium successful beforehand of the camera!’” she says. “And determination was thing astir his enthusiasm that was truly motivating for me, to judge successful myself, to try.”

Just earlier moving to the LA successful 2009, Turner-Smith booked 1 of her archetypal acting jobs. A small, wordless portion successful the euphony video for Walkin’ On The Moon by THE-DREAM featuring Kanye West. In the video, West leads a frightened looking Turner-Smith, who is wearing a achromatic swimsuit and heels, done a futuristic spaceship which couldn’t beryllium much 2008. “Kanye kept being like, ‘Look much scared!’ Not like, meanly, but it was precise loud,” she laughs. “I was like, ‘I am, I americium scared!’”

The leap to LA was arsenic terrifying for Turner-Smith, though she is present truthful gladsome she made the leap. “I was acrophobic of not seeing what beingness had to connection for me,” she remembers. “That was the archetypal measurement successful a agelong enactment of maine trusting my intuition.”

As for what she’d archer that young miss now? “I deliberation I’m conscionable telling her, good done you, trusting your gut, fearfulness beryllium damned. Because that’s truly each you have.”

The Agency is streaming connected Paramount+ from November 30