‘Dumb Money’ Director Craig Gillespie Reveals How His Son’s Own GameStop Experience Led Him to Make Film (Exclusive)

I, Tonya Director Craig Gillespie returns to tackle another wild true story Stupid moneywhich chronicles the short acquisition of GameStop stock in 2021 in his familiar fast-paced and entertaining style.

Based on the 2021 book by Ben Mezrich Antisocial network, Stupid money stars Paul Dano as Keith Gill, a financial analyst who invests his life savings in GameStop stock.

When his big gamble starts to pay off, Keith finds himself at the center of a David vs. Goliath movement, where ordinary people join him in his quest to turn the tide on Wall Street. The film also stars America Ferrera, Sebastian Stan and Anthony Ramos, with Pete Davidson as Keith’s brother.

In an interview with PEOPLE, Gillespie, 56, who is also behind the Hulu miniseries Pam & Tommy, discusses the challenge of bringing real-life stories to the screen; working with Dan, 38, and Davidson, 29; and how his son inspired him to make a movie about the GameStop phenomenon.

PEOPLE: What draws you to tell these sensational real-life stories?

As someone once said, it’s seeing ordinary people in extraordinary situations, and that just fascinates me. Obviously in this case, COVID is the background of this, and I think this was a moment that was so profound for us as a society that we were all experiencing this moment. This has never happened before in our lives. There was this isolation, there was real hardship and loss with family members, and then people losing their jobs, people out of work, businesses closing, small businesses, and you could see this huge disparity in wealth that was happening, that is still very advanced and center.

Paul Dano entered Stupid money (2023).

Claire Folger

I understand one of your sons inspired you to make this?

Honestly, I don’t think I would have fully understood the intensity of it if I hadn’t experienced it. We were in quarantine due to COVID. I have two sons, but one lived with us; he was 24 at the time, he was checking the stock market, looking at different things and WallStreetBets, pretty early on, three months ahead of this build that was going on. So he was talking about it at the table, jumping and saying things.

But then it started to get very intense in that two week period and just constant updates. He would run down and say, “Elon Musk just tweeted GameStop, and the stock went up 5%, and Mark Cuban is now commenting on it.” He started to feel a movement happening and escalated from 400,000 people on WallStreetBets to 8 million in eight weeks.

Noah Centineo will star in a new Netflix movie about the GameStop Stock Saga

And as it got into that incredibly intense situation, there were always parts of the movie that I associated with where we’re sitting at the table and I was like, “What are you going to do? Are you going to sell? What are you doing? When are you going to sell?” And it’s all kind of foreign to us and we’re trying to understand the options of that and what’s been happening and its posture and intensity in those last 24 hours, checking every three minutes, when to get out, what’s happening before the market, what’s happening in the aftermarket. And he timed it perfectly, out – a huge relief.

The next day, Robinhood froze the call option, the shares were created and then [came] rage and anger and frustration at feeling that the system is inherently rigged against them. I have to feel it all and see it and the memes, all through it, and just this incredible frustration. So it’s been this incredibly emotional journey.

America Ferrera u Stupid money (2023).

Claire Folger

You coax such great performances out of every actor you work with. What is your approach?

Honestly, the interesting thing is that every actor is different, every actor has their own process, so you have to start there and see how they like to work. But beyond that, it’s really trying to make them comfortable and give them the freedom to feel safe and try things and make mistakes and they reach for it. So, fortunately, there are a lot of people that I’ve worked with over the years that I’ve had really nice relationships with.

And sometimes you have time – like in this case with Paul Dano, I was delighted to work with him. We have to sit every weekend in preparation, for six weeks, and just go through the script and through his character. And in doing so, we added five or six scenes to the film. It would be like, “Oh, now this is interesting. What was going on in the house when he lost $30 million in 24 hours? What happened when he got a subpoena?” Try to think of what that scene would be.

Pete Davidson, we tried to work together, many, many times, and then I called him and he jumped right in. But I think we all have similar sensibilities and I try to find actors who like to live in this tone that I work in, which is a dance between humor and drama.

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Enter Pete Davidson and Paul Dano Stupid money (2023).

Claire Folger

What surprised you the most about working with Pete Davidson?

This was a very demanding film for everyone, so the amount of content that he would have to go in and shoot — he was always ready, while doing his own show at the same time. We had to work it into the schedule. And the best part about Pete is also not only is he prepared, but he can go from script in a nanosecond to the best way and improvise.

And what was really exciting for me was having Paul and Pete in those scenes together, because they have such different energies and such different preparation methods. Paul is very classically trained, very methodical, he does a lot of homework, he really digs in, and of course, he’s playing this real character and he wants to get the cadence and all the mannerisms right, and we’d go through certain lines within the scenes.

And then Pete comes in — we’ll get a script for sure, but then he’ll deviate from the script and create these spontaneous moments where you can see the actors just reacting to each other and acting off each other. And seeing two actors with such different styles actually elevate each other was really fun.

Stupid money now playing in LA and NYC; opens on September 29.

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Source: HIS Education