SPOILER ALERT: The story includes details about Season 3 of Netflix‘s The Night Agent.
In Season 3 of The Night Agent, Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso) has to live with the consequences of making a deal with shadowy intelligence broker Jacob Monroe (Louis Herthum), getting him intel that saved Rose and thousands of others but likely swayed a Presidential election, handing the victory to Governor Richard Hagan (Ward Horton).
Peter’s feeling of guilt only grows deeper as he, along with intrepid reporter Isabel (Genesis Rodriguez), uncover the extent of Hagan and the First Lady’s (Jennifer Morrison) dealings with Monroe as part of a dark money network.
The banker behind the network sends an assassin, The Father (Stephen Moyer), after Peter and Isabel. They engage in a game of cat and mouse until The Father captures Peter and interrogates him with the help of a truth serum-type of drug.
In an interview with Deadline, Basso speaks of Peter’s moral agony throughout the season and filming the interrogation scene, which series creator Shawn Ryan described as “the best work that [Basso] has done as an actor on our show.”
He also addresses Peter’s “Sir, FU” reply to the President after the latter ordered him to stand down, bringing up Peter’s accused-of-treason father, and why it may resonate with people. Basso, whose character Peter has been a semi-regular presence at The White House, also reveals whether he has been inside the real building himself and whether he has gotten an invitation from current Vice President JD Vance whom the actor portrayed in Hillbilly Elegy.
Additionally, Basso talks about the biggest stunts he performed in Season 3, including one that involved a large water tank in the Dominican Republic, and shares his surprise preference for the type of partner he would like for Peter after Deputy Director Mosley (Albert Jones) revealed in the Season 3 finale that he would be getting one.
For Basso and Ryan’s take on how Rose’s (Luciane Buchanan) absence was felt in Season 3 and whether she could return in future seasons, you can read Deadline’s story on the subject.
“It’s tough, but I think it removed an element of hesitancy for him; now he’s able to fully be this, and he’s figuring out that the demand is high,” Basso said about her departure.
DEADLINE: Peter has been agonizing over “the deal with the devil,” as he put it about his arrangement with Monroe. Talk about the torment he went through this season.
BASSO: Yeah, it’s the law of volitional consequence. He made a decision, and now he’s got to deal with the consequences. I think he made that decision to help a lot of people and to save Rose. But that doesn’t mean because it was a good decision, everything is fine now. It’s weighing on him, the consequences, and he’s doing a tough job. It sucks, but he’s doing it, he’s moving forward.
DEADLINE: It all culminated in that interrogation by Stephen Moyer’s character, which felt like catharsis for Peter, with things he had bottled up for years, including the issues with his father, coming out. How was it filming that scene?
BASSO: I was talking to our technical advisors on how that drug actually works. How they explained it was if you were very drunk and went to your buddies and were crying about how you guys get along. He’s in the ‘I love you, man,’ ‘I love you, bro’ drunk phase. Everything is, the minute it pops up into his head, it comes out of his mouth. Some of it is not coherent, some of it is, but I think that he probably won’t remember that that happened. He’ll probably be emotionally exhausted, but having that raw nerve exposed and having someone pick at it until something comes out is a really exhausting experience, I think.
I feel like he woke up like, oh, I feel better, something feels better. But I think it’s very important to articulate, to expose what it is that motivates Peter and how he feels about those things. We didn’t get through all of it, there’s more in there, but I think it’s a very important scene for Peter.
DEADLINE: Was it fun to film with Stephen Moyer?
BASSO: Yeah, Moyer’s great, he crushed it. It was great. A majority of our stuff was just chasing each other, so to have an actual scene where we got to sit down and act together and Hiro [Kamata], the director for that block, absolutely crushed it. That was a really good experience for me, it was one
of the highlights of Season 3, for sure.
DEADLINE: Speaking of highlights, there was one line when Peter tells the President, “With all due respect, Sir… f*ck you.” How did it feel saying it?
BASSO: It felt good. I think the President in the show views himself as above — like a majority of the politicians nowadays on both sides view themselves above the law. And I think to recognize corruption and recognize deception and lying, and be able to call him and be like, ‘Hey, FU’ is good, I think a lot of people will appreciate that.
DEADLINE: Have you ever been to the White House? Peter certainly has.
BASSO: We did House of Dynamite, we visited outside, but I’ve never been in the White House.
DEADLINE: JD Vance has not invited you?
BASSO: No one has and that’s the good thing. I don’t want to go in there.
DEADLINE: What kind of partner would you like to see for Peter who would balance him out and help him?
BASSO: I think, ironically, someone who’s more intense than he is I think would help Peter see the logical end result of him being always switched on. I think having a character that is Peter dialed to a 100 would force Peter to go, whoa, I’m this, this is what it’s like to work with me?
I think the writers want to attach him to characters, like, tether him, and I think doing the opposite, and having a buddy that, two adrenaline junkies, and one of them is like, no, let’s do it like this, and the other one’s like, Whoa, dude. I think that would be more interesting to me then having someone who’s like, Peter, you got to slow down, Peter, you need to value your personal life. I think it’s more interesting to have someone who’s like, No, dude, screw her, screw having a family. We’re going to do this tomorrow, and we’re going to do this, and come with me on this. Like, that sounds more intense than the alternative.
DEADLINE: Speaking of adrenaline junkie, what was the craziest stunt you did this time? We saw you hanging from the back of track. Was this the highlight?
BASSO: That was pretty nuts. But I think that a craziest one in terms of risk was the reverse 180 in Istanbul that I threw because that was going about 30-ish miles an hour, cobblestone, the little crappy Renault. I had about a 10-foot window to throw that in before I was into a thinner lane and concrete.
That was the riskiest stunt. But in terms of most exhausting, I think it was the water fight. It was because we were in that tank for about eight or nine hours just doing that level of a fight from all different angles, from underwater, from above the surface. It was a lot, the demand was high.
DEADLINE: Peter did not get romantically involved with Isabel this season. Do you think he is not going to have relationship for the rest of his career to focus on his job and not put anyone at risk?
BASSO: He still loves Rose. I don’t think he is this character that’s like, oh, Rose isn’t here, so I’m gonna do this. I think he wants a relationship, but at this point in his life and how important he sees this job and rooting out corruption and doing the right thing, I think that ultimately is more important to him than having a relationship. But I think if anyone, he would probably try to find Rose again and track her down and see what happens with that.
Gabriel Basso, whose ‘Night Agent’ character frequents the White House on whether he has been to the real one: