[This story contains major spoilers from the Zero Day finale.]
Former Vice President Kamala Harris came close to becoming President of the United States but fell short. Angela Bassett doesn’t in Netflix’s new series Zero Day, where she plays President Evelyn Mitchell. The drama series currently streaming is a political conspiracy thriller starring Robert De Niro as former President George Mullen who is tapped by President Mitchell to lead a Zero Day Commission to uncover the forces behind a cyberattack that downed dozens of systems for a full minute, resulting in the deaths of 3,000 people and causing other harm.
Bassett’s President Mitchell stands by Mullen even as public opinion, stoked on by a Joe Rogan-type figure in Evan Green (Dan Stevens), wavers around his actions and mental acuity. But she does walk a tightrope to do it. What Mullen uncovers is a homegrown attack involving Big Tech billionaire and CEO Monica Kidder (Gaby Hoffman), as well as elected officials of the U.S. government that include Speaker of the House Richard Dreyer (Matthew Modine) and, surprisingly, Mullen’s own daughter Rep. Alexandra Mullen (Lizzy Caplan).
Zero Day’s intensely realistic feel is an intentional one from its creators Narcos and Painkiller’s Eric Newman, former NBC News president Noah Oppenheim and New York Times journalist Michael S. Schmidt. Newman and Oppenheim spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about how they dialed up the authenticity for Zero Day and why. (The prescient series, meanwhile, wrapped filming before Harris joined the ticket.)
Because Zero Day revolves around De Niro’s character, Bassett has limited appearances. Yet, her presence is a necessary one. “With Angela, you needed a current president who had the self-confidence to hand the reins over to somebody else in this moment, and who had so much else going on. She has an agenda in the show that is not immediately clear. When she hands over the investigation to President Mullen, she has the reasons that she states openly for doing so, and then she has the reasons that she’s holding back from him and from the audience,” Oppenheim told THR.
“That is somebody who immediately when you see them in the Oval Office behind the desk you think, ‘this person belongs there,’” he continued, adding that De Niro and Bassett were “incredible in all the scenes they have together, you feel like you have two titans going head-to-head.”
Bassett has played some pretty weighty roles. There are of course her Oscar-nominated performances playing the iconic Tina Turner in the late singer’s 1993 biopic What’s Love Got To Do With It and Queen Ramonda in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s 2022 sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Currently she’s ruled as Athena Grant, a high-ranking LAPD officer, on the hit series 9-1-1 about emergency responders that originated on Fox and ran for six seasons before switching to ABC, where it it’s in its eighth season. This, however, is her first time playing a President.
The first and last time she and De Niro shared the screen was in the 2001 film The Score where their power dynamic was extremely different. He starred as Nick Wells, a master safecracker and the focal point of the heist film, which is also the only time De Niro and Marlon Brando shared the screen together, and she was his girlfriend, Diane. THR spoke to Bassett about Zero Day, beginning with her thoughts on its conclusion with Mullen backtracking on his agreement with her President Mitchell about not revealing the full truth of his commission’s findings, which he does in a dramatic confession before Congress as the American public watches, as well as tackling her role as President Mitchell and wrapping her head about the series releasing amid current times.
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At the end of Zero Day, Mullen reveals the full truth to America about how deep the conspiracy goes, which is not what he and President Mitchell agreed upon. So where does President Mitchell go from there? How do you see her moving forward?
I really haven’t thought about that, where she’s going to go. She’s hoping to get another four years, most definitely. I don’t think she’s encountered anyone with as much integrity as she sees in Mullen. So when they stay in their day and time, that’s pretty unique. She may have to take a lesson to see what the fallout for something like that would be. It might be some damage control, some management that has to go on, but hopefully she’ll get another turn, like she said, another chance to get it right, because I think she has the best intentions for the nation and also for herself.
We see her do this dance. She’s the president, but she also has to establish her authority with Mullen in this crisis. How does she negotiate that space?
Sometimes, instead of waiting for someone to walk across the room to you, you walk directly to them. You outstretch the hand. You can take over if you want, but you don’t need to. It’s a delicate little dance. It’s one that you thought about as we’re doing this scene, like, how would I approach it? It’s not written in the script so it’s there to be developed, to be thought about and to be handled, and some things just feel right to do. I imagine that when she went through schooling, education, negotiation, internships, interfacing with men in power, having advocates and the support of other women in power, being the chosen one at that given time in history to reach the level that she’s reached to be able to sit behind that desk. You know she has to have an iron will and steel track of a mind, memory, powers of negotiation, reconciliation with others, making people who feel comfortable, but not too comfortable. It’s been a dance for her to get there.
How did you prepare to play her? Was Kamala Harris a prototype? She wears a Stanford shirt, so maybe Condoleezza Rice as well?
I certainly did all those things. There was a documentary of Shirley Chisholm that I was able to watch, Unbossed and Unbought, looking towards Stacey Abrams and the work that she does in Georgia, the races that she’s won, and those that have not come through but she continues to fight. Barbara Jordan, Sojourner Truth, all these are blueprints of what leadership looks like in those political spaces.
Of course, first and foremost, there’s a script. You have to delve into that: What is she saying? What does she want? Where does the journey take her? And, fortunately or unfortunately, we had a strike in there. So I was able to spend more time with the script. And [was] just like, “Okay, this week, I’m only going to concentrate on episode one.” But I wanted to know it all, which I’ve never done. I wanted to know every script, all my work, before I show up, almost like a play — beginning, middle and end — as opposed to just my parts, because we do tend to do it out of order. So spending time on the specificity of the lines of the office. I didn’t feel I had any allowance to improvise. I don’t know that much about that political area of the president, so I put a lot of faith and trust in my writers, who have spent a great deal of time there. They know what that relationship is between president and president, that mutual respect, that small, intimate club of about five living presidents.
It is interesting you say you read the entire script because one of the things that was most impressive about President Mitchell is how, though she is not seen often, much like a lot of presidents in real life, when she is seen she has an impact. Every time you come on the screen, we don’t forget President Mitchell. How did you project that?
Oh, thank you for that. I remember in reading it I noticed that initially also. The story is that I need him to head this commission to get to the bottom of who the perpetrators are. And yet, at the same time, I’m going to take a step back because of what my political aspirations continue to be [because] I don’t want everything to blow up.
I remember having a conference meeting with the writers and them saying she has to be smart. We have to know that she is smart to sit in that seat. It’s his story, but she has to be smart. When we see her, she just can’t be a tool for him to be used: You don’t have to be in every scene but, when [she does] show up, she has to make that be as impactful as she can be.
You and De Niro have worked together before, but a while ago. Now as a former president and a president, how did you guys negotiate that powerful dynamic as actors?
I think a lot of it is unsaid. He’s had longevity in his career. He’s a legend, absolutely. And I’ve managed to stay around long enough. I think the individual journeys and experiences we’ve had have been significant and respected and revered. Then I was the young actor just new to L.A., and he was already at the pinnacle there. So I [was] learning. I continued to learn. That was very early on in that process for me. Now I feel very comfortable with who I am and what I’ve done and how far I’ve come, and what it’s taken. I’ve had the opportunity to support and inspire others and be an advocate for others. So I think we meet on a more level field now as colleagues in the industry, and that translates into the characters of being a sitting president and former president. We both understand the lay of the land, so a lot of things don’t have to be explained. It’s understood.
I’ve had experiences with a long running series [where] actors have gone on and then they’ve returned, but they assert that they were there first and it was theirs, and it’s not yours. So sometimes you just sit back, and you observe human nature. And it’s like “oh, that’s only ego” and butting heads doesn’t serve anything. But I find it very interesting, not that it’s good, not that it’s great.
Do you find this series triggering at all? It’s almost like a mirror. It’s scary because we can imagine a Zero Day scenario.
When you think about the malware attacks and infiltrations that happen, it seems monthly. Then we see this and it’s really in the realm of possibility. I hope not to this degree, because it would be disastrous. But it’s not as if we don’t see signs of this. We’re so dependent on our devices, our lives are so invested in them. So the vulnerability I think that we feel really keeps us on the edge of our seats when we’re watching this series.
Would you welcome resuming the role of President Mitchell?
Sure.
Interestingly, it’s hard to recall if anyone calls her Madam President.
No, maybe [Mullen] does. I think he did say Madam President when they first meet face to face.
The reason I noticed it is because it seems like her presidency is a legitimate thing in that her gender nor her race plays no role in it. It seemed more like she was comfortable and accepted by the public and all in charge as the President.
I think so too. Yeah, I agree with that.
And curiously, where did you guys shoot the White House?
We had a wonderful recreation of the actual Oval Office, and it was shot here in New York City.
I imagine you have been to the White House.
I’ve been to the White House, but I’ve not been to the Oval Office in reality. I’ve been to the Oval Office a couple times on set (laughs).
And, finally, did you ever dream of playing the President of the United States?
No. Never. I’d never seen it in reality. Never thought about it. And I was excited and jazzed about playing the head of the [Secret Service Lynne Jacobs in Olympus Has Fallen] and the CIA [Erika Sloane in the Mission: Impossible film franchise, a role she reprises in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning‘. I thought that was pretty spectacular. All these positions have for decades been white male-oriented positions so to see it change up, I welcome that. I like that and I hope people will appreciate that representation.
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Zero Day is now streaming all six episodes on Netflix. Read THR’s interviews with star Robert De Niro and co-creators Eric Newman and Noah Oppenheim.
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