Greed becomes legal in “Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps,” the most anticipated drama-thriller this year directed by Oliver Stone with a plum cast starring Michael Douglas, Josh Brolin, Shia LaBeouf, Susan Sarandon, Frank Langella, Carey Mulligan and Charlie Sheen.
Twenty-three years after the director’s masterpiece “Wall Street,” which became a cultural touchstone for the cutthroat and corrupt practices of the world of finance, this is an eye opener that reveals much of what went on before the financial catastrophe that led to the current global recession. Stone examines how avarice started at the top and trickled down to affect everyone – from shopkeepers to homeowners.
Wall Street 2 is set right before the meltdown of the world’s financial markets. While Douglas reprises his Oscar winning role as Gordon Gekko, Brolin plays Bretton James, a powerful billionaire and manipulative investment banker. Brolin, an experienced trader himself tells more of “Wall Street 2” and its implications in today’s financial setting.
Q: Is your character at all like Gordon Gekko?
A: “I’m representing these guys now on Wall Street who are very different. With Gekko, you’re talking about a guy who is worth a couple of hundred million dollars. Now with Bretton James and his generation, you’re talking about guys who are worth billions of dollars. It’s a different mentality. It’s a different world.”
Q: Apart from Oliver Stone, what was appealing about the story?
A: “I’ve had my own trading business and I’ve traded for the last four years. I’ve done all the research that I needed to do in the Wall Street world. So I was quite prepared. I know because I’ve felt it on a much more amateur level when I was in front of my four screens so I know what that is like, feeling the fear and the greed while you’re watching the charts and the graphs. You are watching every movement and you say: ‘how can I make another buck or make another percent?’ The kids have not eaten and you’ve been up since 5:30 in the morning, and you say, ‘I just need another fifteen minutes, the kids can wait.’ I felt that greed when I was trading and that’s one of the reasons I stopped. I said, ‘I can’t do this anymore.”
Q: Can you describe your character? Is he a really unscrupulous guy?
A: “Well, I always try to find the humanity in everybody. Look, Bretton James got sucked into this universe he is in on Wall Street and he is swimming in the riches of his world. This is Wall Street’s Darth Vader. He will do anything. He’s willing to go to any length in order to survive. His motivation in life is to acquire as much as possible in any way possible.”
Q: How has the financial world changed between the two movies?
A: “Oh my God, I mean, look at what we are experiencing now. It is the consequence of that greed in the 80s. We obviously didn’t learn anything from that time. It is monumental compared to what it was like then. In WALL STREET they didn’t talk about investment banks and leveraging or the fact that it started with credit cards and it didn’t stop and there were no regulations, or there weren’t enough regulations. The regulations that existed were circumvented. Look at what has happened. It is so sad.”
One of Hollywood’s most consummate actors, Josh Brolin’s first movie was “The Goonies,” his other early films were “Hollow Man” and “Flirting with Disaster.” His other film credits also include “Grindhouse,” “In the Valley of Elah,” “Mod Squad,” “Nightwatch,” “Best Laid Plans, “Mimic,” “Into the Blue,” “No Country for Old Men” and “American Gangster.” Brolin was nominated for an Oscar for his role in “Milk,” opposite Sean Penn.
Wall Street 2 opens very soon in April from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.
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