Last week I got the amazing opportunity to meet one of the many talented actors from the movie "The Big Short", out in theaters December 23rd, 2015. The movie, which explains the whole financial crisis that happened in the mid-2000s in a very funny and easy to understand way, stars Jeremy Strong as Steve Carell's (Mark Baum) right hand guy. The actor talked to us about prepping for this role, about (possibly) being star struck, his love for theater, and about meeting Vinny Daniel (whom he portrays in the movie).
It was my very first time getting to interview an actor and it was a great experience actually! Jeremy made it so easy and comfortable that all my nerves flew out the window the moment he sat down to talk to me.
Without further ado, here's my interview with Jeremy Strong:
Before landing the role in this movie, how much did you know about what brought upon the financial crisis?
Actually, we were on the same boat as you, which is that none of us in the movie knew the first thing about this. So, we had to learn about it. But also, [Director Adam] McKay wanted to make a movie fun and entertaining, but that kind of broke all these concepts down into really simple, understandable terms. Going into the movie, I read the book and I read a whole other books to understand. But, Michael Lewis (author who's book the movie is based on) wrote a very compelling book that is easy to understand and it reads like a thriller. It is really fun to read. Which is really surprising because you wouldn't think that a movie about the subprime mortgage crisis would be this much fun.
Did Michael Lewis have any involvement in the movie?
No, he wasn't around at all. I mean, he's seen so many of his books get turned into movies, he is over it. But I did meet him on Thursday, the night of the premier of the movie, and we all wanted to live up to his book and Adam McKay wanted to do right by it. I think this is one of those cases where the movie almost surpasses the book because it's just bigger than the book, because it's not just about the financial crisis, but about the way we live and our country.
So, how did you get involved in this project?
I had worked on "The Producers" from Plan B (production company owned by Brad Pitt), and so I got to know them doing that and then I was told this book was being turned into a movie, and so I read it and felt very passionately about it. I am very lucky that I got to work on a lot of films that are socially minded films, that are about, for example, moments of history. And for this film I actually auditioned for like four different parts of the movie because from the moment I knew about it, I knew I had to be a part of it.
The socially conscious movies you have been involved with have been very serious, but this one is very different because it juggles almost low ground humor with some very sobering drama. How was it on the set? Was Adam always saying "it's too funny" or "reign it in"?
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