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

Christopher Hooton
Monday 07 December 2015 13:46 GMT
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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)

Big Short character profile: Michael Burry (Christian Bale)

Jared Vennett - 'The Insider' (Ryan Gosling)

Big Short character profile: Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling)

Mark Baum - 'The Leader' (Steve Carell)

Big Short character profile: Mark Baum (Steve Carell)

Ben Rickert - 'The Mentor' (Brad Pitt)

Big Short character profile: Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt)

The Big Short opens in UK cinemas on 22 January, 2016/

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