Caitríona Balfe opens up about possible prequel to her new spy film and Irish action heroes

'We should have an Irish action hero, shouldn't we?'

The movie sees Oscar-winner Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody) play Charlie Heller, a brilliant but deeply introverted techwiz and decoder for the CIA whose life is turned upside down when his wife (Rachel Brosnahan, James Gunn’s Superman) is killed in a London terrorist attack.

When his superiors (led by Holt McCallany, Mindhunter) refuse to take action against the people behind the murder, Charlie uses his access to CIA intelligence to blackmail his bosses into giving him training, cash and a new identity. This is so that he himself can trek across the globe to find and kill those responsible.

Balfe, meanwhile, plays the enigmatic Inquiline - a long-distance acquaintance of Charlie from Russia, who winds up helping him on this quest.

We here at JOE enjoyed The Amateur - writing that it mined plenty of thrills from its tantalising premise, which is basically: "What if Q from the James Bond films went into the field on a vengeance mission?"

Another great aspect of the film is Inquiline, a character that Balfe describes to JOE as both a "hero" and a "champion".

Without spoiling, over the course of the story, the character reveals herself as being not what people expect of her at first. This is as the audience comes to learn her fascinating backstory about how she came to be involved in hacking and spycraft.

As such, when we spoke to the Irish actress, we had to ask if there could ever be a prequel film or series about Inquiline if The Amateur is a success.

To this, Caitríona Balfe replied:

"I mean, who knows right? You've said it now so maybe, we'll just have to have words in somebody's ears. But yeah, it would be cool to see her whole backstory.

"It's somebody who when you meet her, you realise that there's been a whole life there and it sounds very interesting. So, you never know."

Also, given Balfe has played a Russian action hero in The Amateur and a British action hero in the hit series Outlander, JOE had to ask if we will ever see her play an Irish action hero someday.

"Oh, I mean, we should have an Irish action hero, shouldn't we? That would be fun," she responded. "Yeah, I don't know, we need to create one, don't we?"

The actress, who has also been doing more producing and directing in recent years, then added, laughing: "Maybe that's what I need to do."

The Amateur is in cinemas now.