Writer-director Adam McKay was known for making Will Ferrell comedies like Anchorman and Talladega Nights before he took on the The Big Short, the complicated story behind the 2008 financial meltdown, based on a book of the same title by Michael Lewis.
McKay’s decision to go in a pretty different direction has paid off in the form of five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director.
He tells us how he intentionally broke movie-making rules to create a film that defies genre, or possibly creates a new one: “traumedy.”
McKay also explains how the star-studded cast of the The Big Short came together quickly and how the film ended up coming in under budget and with an earlier release date than originally planned. He says it was actually his idea to release it at the end of 2015, rather than 2016, which ended up putting the movie in awards contention.