The Big Short - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[cameron]

In the Specials of the Blu-ray, director Adam McKay revealed that he wrote the role of Jared Vannett with only Ryan Gosling in mind.

[francisco]

The character Mark Baum was based on real-life money manager Steve Eisman. Jared Vennett was based on real-life trader Greg Lippmann. Ben Rickert was based on Ben Hockett. Charlie Gellar and Jamie Shipley were based on Charlie Ledley and Jamie Mai.

[veronica]

Vinny Daniel chews a gum in all of his scenes.

[steve]

The real Michael Burry made a cameo in the film as a Scion employee. At the beginning of the scene in which the fictional Burry's investors confront him at his office, he is briefly shown standing near the front door, talking on the phone.

[francisco]

The cast includes four Oscar winners: Christian Bale, Melissa Leo, Brad Pitt, and Marisa Tomei, and three Oscar nominees, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie.

[gabriel]

Michael Burry's cell phone number (603-320-7220) appears once in the movie. It is actually the business number for Geaux Video, LLC, owned by Zack Holmes, who served as video playback supervisor.

[dustin]

During the end of the Las Vegas trip, the transition scene ends overlooking a highway with a giant billboard of Martin Short. It is literally a "big Short."

[morris]

Jeremy Strong is currently one of the stars of the Adam McKay produced series Sucession on HBO.

[jamie]

Margot Robbie claimed that she was drinking real 20 year old Dom Perignon champagne during her scene in the bathtub, adding that the only challenge was that she did have to read her lines from memory.

[linda]

This was the second Plan B project starring Jeremy Strong. The first project was Selma (2014).

[ava]

Cars can be seen driving past outside the windows of Scion Capital, suggesting that the office is on the ground floor. In reality, Scion's suite was on the fourth floor of their Silicon Valley offices.

[gabriel]

The quotation that appears on screen, "'Truth is like poetry. And most people fucking hate poetry.' - Overheard at a Washington, D.C. bar," was written by director and co-writer Adam McKay, after unsuccessfully searching for the perfect quotation to use for that segment.

[liam]

From the Author of "Moneyball" and "The Blind Side".

[violet]

The production crew recreated the offices of failed investment firm Lehman Brothers in the lobby of the New York State Department of Financial Services in Manhattan.

[ethel]

Michael Burry named his hedge fund company Scion Capital after a favorite childhood book, "The Scions of Shannara." Christian Bale is seen reading that book in one of his first scenes in the movie.

[kristina]

In the original script, the celebrity cameos were different. Instead of Margot Robbie explaining MBS and shorting in a bubble bath, it was scripted as Scarlett Johansson standing under a waterfall. Instead of Selena Gomez explaining synthetic CDOs, it was to be Beyoncé with the assistance of her husband Jay-Z. Jay-Z was even scripted as saying losing the bet was "a hard knock life," in reference to his hit song.