For their roles in Margin Call, an upcoming movie about a group of traders whose firm is getting reamed by the financial crisis, actor Kevin Spacey read Too Big To Fail and interviewed people at New York investment banks to get a grip on what financial-services workers were “feeling” in the heat of the moment. Co-star Simon Baker read The Big Short and listened to podcasts from Mad Hedge Fund, and Gossip Girl’s Penn Badgley picked up some lingo from folks on the Citigroup trading floor (“like using ‘bucks’ to signify millions”). But for her role as the firm’s chief risk officer, Demi Moore was the most Method of them all.
Demi Moore was cast as a chief risk officer just before the cameras started rolling, leaving her less time for extensive research. “We got her up to speed, but she is certainly not going to be out there crunching numbers anytime soon,” said J. C. Chandor, who both wrote and directed the film.
A pre-crash chief risk officer who’s only pretending they know what they’re talking about? That sounds about right to us.
A Film That Explores Humanity on Wall Street [NYT]
A pre-crash chief risk officer who’s only pretending they know what they’re talking about? That sounds about right to us.
