Brad Pitt Speaks About ‘The Big Short’ And How Mad He Is At Banking Industry
Brad Pitt was at the New York premiere of The Big Short Monday – a film about the credit and housing collapse in the US in the mid-2000s. Pitt, 51, walked the red carpet Monday at the Ziegfeld Theater as an actor, but also as a producer of the film The Big Short. In various interviews, Pitt told the media how mad he was about the banking industry in America.
The film is based on Michael Lewis’ bestselling 2010 book, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, and tells the real life story of a group of bankers (played by Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling and Christian Bale) who foresee the housing market crash in America that led to the financial crisis in 2008. Steve Carell and Finn Wittrock also star in the movie.
“This entitlement that you can make money off the backs of others without being responsible for what it’s doing to them or what it could do to them drives me crazy.”
He went on to say that the fact no one was held accountable for the mass failure drives him crazy, which is why he wanted the story told.
“I’m really proud to be able to tell this story.”
While he was at it, Brad Pitt also had words of advice for voters in the upcoming US presidential election. He told them to not be so emotional. Pitt told them to not see the world from their own backyard, saying people must understand that everyone has self-interest and that they are part of a community. He went on to say that people in the US are not an island and they don’t always know best, so they must check themselves.
#ENews starts right now! We’re talking to Brad Pitt & Ryan Gosling on the red carpet at The Big Short premiere. pic.twitter.com/6c6ITZwqsd
— E! News (@ENews) November 25, 2015
Pitt was also interviewed by Variety at the premiere of The Big Short and told them that, after a career spanning almost three decades, he is still as passionate as ever about acting. Pitt said he still finds performing to be a challenge and that now he is older, he is always looking for meaningful roles to play.
“Some stories and some characters are really special to me. The one we just finished is special because it has relevance and it asks, ‘What it’s going to mean in our time right now?’ Those are the stories that get me excited. I don’t know how many more I’ve got left in me so each one has to be meaningful.”
Pitt went on to say that too many people “lost their homes, their savings” and families were put out on the streets, but no one was ever held accountable for this. He said it is amazing to him and that he was shocked.
It was only when Brad Pitt read the original book by Michael Lewis that he was able to understand what went so wrong. Pitt said the story needs to be told because the experts will tell you nothing has really changed and it could easily happen again.
Pitt did lighten the mood a little when speaking to Confidenti@l. When he was asked who was the most inspiring person he had ever worked with, he winked and replied, “My wife (Angelina Jolie), that’s the truth.”
Brad Pitt’s new film #TheBigShort has opened his eyes to the housing crisis https://t.co/KXjSHCkd9i pic.twitter.com/urupA0rUEj
— People magazine (@people) November 24, 2015
The film was financed by Brad Pitt and his partners in Plan B, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner, working with filmmaker Adam McKay as director and Charles Randolph as the writer of the screenplay.
According to McKay, the banking industry needs some major reform. He said it has got to be cleaned up and, while there is nothing wrong with banking in essence, it’s when you take away the regulations that things go wrong.
The Big Short opens in theaters on December 23 and a trailer can be viewed below.
[Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images Entertainment]
