The Big Short: Meet Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Christian Bale and Steve Carell's characters - exclusive
Bale's next neurotic Wall Street banker will be a lot different from Patrick Bateman
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The Big Short is a very intriguing prospect, bringing together a serious, sensitive topic (the financial crisis of 2007–2010) with a director best known for comedy (Adam McKay, the man behind Anchorman) and an eye-wateringly strong cast (Pitt, Bale, Carell, Gosling).
Today we bring you a nice little character profile on each member of the unlikely team of traders at the centre of it, who actually profitted from the bursting of the subprime mortgage bubble.
Bale is a speed metal-listening, socially-awkward former neurosurgeon with a knack for numbers, Pitt is a retired banker offering sage wisdom miles from Wall Street in the country, Gosling is a slick, avaricious people person and Carell is a fiery-tempered, neurotic, downtrodden trader (almost reminiscent of Michael Scott at times).
The film's biggest challenge, and success if it gets it right, will be, as Gosling notes, walking the line "between having a sense of humour about itself and trying to be entertaining, but also keeping to the reality of what happened."
The cast and director discuss each character in more depth below:
Michael Burry - 'The Visionary' (Christian Bale)
Jared Vennett - 'The Insider' (Ryan Gosling)
Mark Baum - 'The Leader' (Steve Carell)
Ben Rickert - 'The Mentor' (Brad Pitt)
The Big Short opens in UK cinemas on 22 January, 2016/
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments