Christian Bale Says America Should Take Money Out of Politics

He has a lot of feelings about this.

Remember Christian Bale’s epic freakout after a crew member walked into his light during an intense scene? Well, the British actor is fired up again and this time it involves American politics. While promoting his new film The Big Short, which centers on the financial crisis from 2007-2010, he ranted about today’s political corruption and why a couple of Republican candidates shouldn’t run for president.

First on the chopping block: a group of investors like former neurologist Michael Burry, who profited $700 million after predicting the housing market crash and cashed in on the bet. Bale portrays him in the film. “They were earning a fortune from the downfall of the housing market and the American economy and the world economy," he told the Daily Beast. "That’s not heroic in the slightest. But these men all knew that,” he said.

He added: It’s not just a bunch of slick dicks in their offices showing that they’re the masters of the universe. It’s about these outsiders who actually are not heroes in the slightest. There’s nothing heroic about them. But it’s an indication of how ethically questionable the whole culture had become that just people who saw the truth, and stated the truth, were deemed to be heroic even though they were earning a fortune from this!”

Bale also has a problem with two Republican presidential nominees with direct ties to the financial crisis. Jeb Bush and John Kasich both worked for the Lehman brothers—investment bankers who notoriously filed for bankruptcy just after significantly increasing executive pay, and who also contributed to the economic crisis.

 “It’s nuts, isn’t it? Immediately you should not be allowed to run for president,” he said. “You shouldn’t. You’ve got to take the money out of the whole thing. I left school at 16 and I never paid attention while I was in school anyway. I don’t have the answers, surprise, surprise. But far better brains than me should be able to figure this out. We should be able to work out what’s going wrong.”

He hopes that the film, which comes out Dec. 23, will inspire people to demand a change. “Sometimes you do a film and start to think it’s more important than it really is, but this one, you know...what if it could really change the game?”

Head over to the Daily Beast to read the interview in its entirety. 

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