Photo: Dan Power/Netflix
Gabriel Basso is a scene-stealer in Netflix’s latest action thriller seriesThe Night Agent.
Speaking with PEOPLE, Basso says he was first drawn toThe Night Agentafter hearing Ryan’s vision for the series.
“What made me want to do it was talking with Shawn and hearing how grounded he wanted to make it,” he says. “I don’t like when violence is sort of romanticized and made to be this like, ‘Oh, I’m smoldering through a punch.’ So I’m glad that his vision for this show was really grimy.”
No stranger to acting, Basso first got his start with minor film roles in 2007, before his breakout roles in Showtime’sThe Big Cand J. J. Abrams' science fiction adventure filmSuper 8.
Most recently, he gained critical acclaim forhis role as J. D. VanceinHillbilly Elegy, based Vance’s 2016 memoir of the same name.
From his acting inspirations to how he prepared forThe Night Agent, here’s everything to know about Basso.
He got his start as a child actor
Two of Basso’s first film roles were in 2007 when the St. Louis native was a teenager. He had minor roles inMeet Billstarring Aaron Eckhart andAlice Upside Downstarring Alyson Stoner before moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting.
However, Basso tells PEOPLE that he eventually got “overwhelmed with the lack of sovereignty” in the business and “being pulled in all different directions.”
“Fatigue was a big thing for me,” he adds. “Creative fatigue, but also, just everything felt like a pseudo experience. I wanted to play football, and they said, ‘Well, you could be in a football movie and you can score the winning goal.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, but that’s a pseudo experience. I don’t get to actually do the thing.'”
“That’s a big emptiness a lot of people who are child actors who remain in this business face,” he says, “is looking at all these preconceived ideas that people have about them, that they’re badass and they can fight if they’re an action star — and they’ve never been in a fight before.”
He continues, “There’s just hollowness in there of knowing that about yourself, but then having people tell you that you’re a badass and there’s this voice that’s like, ‘No, you’re not.’ That’s what I was afraid of experiencing. So when I quit, I did it as much as I could.”
Hillbilly Elegywas his big return to acting
Lacey Terrell/NETFLIX
After taking a hiatus from acting, Basso says a friend of his convinced him to give it another go and set him up with one of his agents.
“When I met with my now-agents, they told me they weren’t going to represent me because it had been seven years since I had done anything,” he recalls.
“They didn’t know if I could still act or not. But they set me a meeting with Carmen Cuba, who was the casting director forHillbilly Elegy. That was my first [return to acting], and then it snowballed from there.”
He didn’t readThe Night Agentnovel to prepare for his role
Despite the Netflix series being based on a book, Basso says he didn’t actually read it to prepare for his role. “I was told not to,” he reveals. “Because it was so different … I was just told to take each script as it came in.”
As for how the book compares to the show, Basso says Ryan and the writers wanted to make everything very “character-driven” for the screen. “A lot more emphasis is put on the characters and what they’re going through and how the situation affects them as opposed to the overarching sort of freedom that Quirk probably had in the novel.”
He didn’t want hisThe Night Agentcharacter to feel like a “superhero”
In forming his character, Basso says he talked a lot with creator Ryan, who he says was “most adamant that it remained as personable and real as I could make it.”
“So I was always trying to check myself before scenes to make it fresh for people,” he says. “I think having Peter remain a person throughout the show and not become a superhero, where nothing can affect him and phase him was a big thing for Shawn and me.”
He did most of his own stunts for the show
Dan Power/Netflix
The Night Agentfeatures a lot of action-packed scenes, many of which Basso filmed himself. “I did all the fighting,” he reveals. “But if it ever got down to some really gnarly stuff, [stunt performer] Matthew Mylrea would step in and do some line rigging and falls.”
Some of his biggest acting inspirations are Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood
When it comes to his own acting inspirations, Basso says he has always enjoyed Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood’s roles, and how “genuine and grounded” their characters felt “regardless of the circumstance they were in.”
“You never got the feeling that they weren’t real people going through that,” he adds. “I thought that was kind of special, that you could have somebody in such terrible fight choreography, but it doesn’t feel ridiculous watching it. You’re like, ‘Wow, I’m somehow invested in this.'”
In addition to Eastwood, Basso adds that he’d love to work with legendary actors such as Anthony Hopkins, Nicolas Cage and recent Oscar-winner Brendan Fraser.
“Working with one of the older legends would be pretty cool, just from before the age of social media. Getting to talk with some of [them] about the business … just to hear and learn from them. I think there’s a lot of arrogance in youth now where younger people think they know a lot more than older people, and I don’t believe that. I think we have a lot to learn. Learning from these people is something I’m excited about.”
He’d love to get into directing
Speaking of his career aspirations, Basso says he’d love to potentially direct one day. “I’m writing a bunch, but directing was always cool to me,” he says. “Directing something that I’ve written would be really cool.”
He thinks hisThe Night Agentcharacter should eventually die
The Night Agentis filled with many twists and turns in the first season, but Basso thinks a potential second season should have the biggest twist of all: His character’s death.
“I think he has to die to remain fixed in his morality and values,” he explains. “I think that’s a collision course for making an enemy of the government and their willingness to bend morality. To me, fighting an entity that has limitless resources, is a losing battle. Having the willingness to do it is an admirable trait, but that would lead him to a sort of death.”
The Night Agentpremieres on Netflix on March 23.
source: people.com
