Actor Christian Bale said Tuesday that he believes anyone who had anything to do with the collapse of the housing bubble in 2008 should forfeit their right to run for president.
The Daily Beast’s Jen Yamato, who was interviewing Bale, called out former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich for their ties to Lehman Brothers, which helped usher in the financial crisis when it declared bankruptcy. Bale didn’t actually name the two GOP presidential candidates, but his response was presented as coming after Yamato mentioning their roles in the financial crisis.
“It’s nuts, isn’t it? Immediately you should not be allowed to run for president,” Bale told Yamato. “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.”
The Oscar-winner was discussing financial issues because of his role in the upcoming film “The Big Short,” where he plays Michael Burry, a former hedge-fund manager who saw the housing crash coming and made his investors at Scion Capital $700 million before closing shop.
Bale said that if anything is to be done at a federal level to avoid another crash, the “money has to be taken out of politics” first.
“Obviously Citizens United, all the Super PACs, everything like that — oh my god, all of that has to be gone out of the way before we can even begin to think about changing,” he said. “Money has to be taken out of politics. It’s done in many other countries; it’s not difficult. This is bloody America. It can be done.”
“The Dark Knight” star, who has dual American and U.K. citizenship, hopes “The Big Short” will open a few eyes and maybe start the ball rolling on creating some tangible changes.
“In 2008 it was, ‘How could this possibly go back to business as usual?'” Bale said. “And here we are — business as usual. 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?”
