While the majority of the audience doesn’t give a second thought to the process of realization for the things they see on the screen, we always find it fascinating to get a peek behind-the-scenes. A fantastic one has arrived today, thanks to Adam McKay — a founder of Upright Citizens Brigade, former head writer of Saturday Night Live, writer-director of Anchorman, Step Brothers, and more — who stopped by Slate’s Working podcast to discuss his daily routine as a writer, producer, director.
Soon set to embark on what perhaps might be his most ambitious project yet, The Big Short, McKay also discusses the pre-production process of the drama, which kicks off shooting next month. Starring Steve Carell, Brad Pitt, Christian Bale, and Ryan Gosling it accounts the various events that led to the late-2000s housing crisis, based on the book by Moneyball‘s Michael Lewis.
Compared to his other films, McKay said the level of realism is “99.3%” and that Bale’s character of Michael Burry, a hedge fund manager who saw the housing crisis coming, is an “introvert” with Asperger syndrome. Pitt will take the role of trader Ben Hockett, a “paranoid, apocalyptic kind of guy, even though his character is brilliant.” Meanwhile, Carell will play money manager Steve Eisman, who shorted the securitized subprime home mortgages and Gosling is taking the role of Deutsche Bank trader Greg Lippmann, a key figure in the housing collapse. McKay, a fan of dramas and foreign films moreso than comedy calls the project “not really a stretch” for him.
Also discussing how Funny or Die was created and rose to prominence on somewhat of a whim, an amusing story from the set of Talladega Nights, and more, check it out below.
The Big Short will likely be released by Paramount later this year.
What did you think of the conversation? Are you looking forward to The Big Short?