One of the most impressively star-studded independent movies at this year’s Sundance Film Festival puts audiences in the highly polished shoes of sweating Wall Street investors the night before the 2008 financial crash.
“Margin Call” starring Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Demi Moore, Stanley Tucci and several more big names depicts the final 24 hours at a financial investment firm before the 2008 financial collapse.
First-time feature film director J.C. Chandor wrote the script because he had special insights into the personalities of Wall Street investors: his father worked at Merrill Lynch for 40 years.
Everyone wants to know more about these people were who allowed their own greed and carelessness to topple the American economy and adversely affect the financial health of nearly every family in the world, he explained.
Well, many of them were his father’s friends and under different circumstances, his father might have been one of them.
“If not me, who?” Chandor said about making the film.
Nearly every member of the highly-acclaimed cast said at a Monday press conference that they signed on because of the power of the script that humanized, not demonized, these people.
Producer and star Zachary Quinto known for portraying the young Spock in the latest “Star Trek” film agreed to make the film because he was drawn to the personal relationship Chandor had with the story.
Penn Badgley, known for his roles in “Gossip Girl” and “Easy A,” said the script does not speak down to the audience, but is “incredibly subdued, incredibly cool.”
British actor Paul Bettany, famous for his roles in “Da Vinci Code,” “A Beautiful Mind” and “A Knight’s Tale,” said actors today are starved for good lines, and “Margin Call” is full of them.
Simon Baker, star of “The Mentalist,” said Chandor left room on the page for “these people to be human.” not over-writing stage directions, he allowed the actors to create their own characters.
“We set out to tell a more personalized story,” Kevin Spacey said. “What did people in the middle of this go through?”
Spacey said that while researching his role he found many people in the industry are equally angry about what happened.
“They had to follow orders. They saw the problems coming and expressed that to their superiors and just weren’t listened to,” he said. “Not all bankers are horrible, greedy people.”
Stanley Tucci said he was struck by how stoically investors handle their jobs.
“In essence, they have to stand on ceremony,” he said. “They have to keep their jobs, take responsibility and swallow their pride without showing anything. To me that makes for a really interesting film.”
True to the independent film ethos, “Margin Call” was made for under a million dollars and filmed in about two weeks. The set was the former office of a hedge fund that went out of business located about 40 stories above Wall Street.
Because it was unrealistic for the celebrities to go up and down the elevator each time they were needed on set, they hung out together waiting for their scenes.
Bettany said they watched the World Cup and ate a lot of pizza. Moore described it as a dorm room atmosphere. The experience really unified the cast.
“We felt like a theater company,” he said.
Spacey said he hopes people learn about the personalities of the key players in the financial industry from this movie. The more we know about what happened, the more likely it is we can prevent it from happening again, he said.
The film also stars Mary McDonnell.
“Margin Call” screens Jan. 26 at 9 a.m. at The Eccles Center; Jan. 27 at 6:30 p.m. at Rose Wagner Theater; Jan. 29 at 6:30 p.m. at Peery’s Egyptian Theater in Ogden; Jan. 30 at 1 p.m. at Sundance Resort.