Actor Ben McKenzie on his new doc ‘Everyone Is Lying to You for Money’

[0:00] Cryptocurrency was once pitched as a path to financial freedom, but now it has evolved into [0:05] a volatile world fueled by hype, misinformation, and high risks. In his feature film directorial [0:10] debut, Everyone is Lying to You for Money, actor and author Ben McKenzie pulls the curtain back [0:15] on the industry. Let's take a look. I have a degree in economics. Surely I can figure out [0:20] this crypto stuff. No banks, no fees. Electronic gold. Good time with your Bitcoin. Take all your [0:27] money by Bitcoin. I had a few questions are I could judge you sat [0:32] down with Ben to discuss the film. Joining us now is Ben McKenzie, I'm [0:38] loving that intro, you know what I mean? Thank you. It's a fun movie, [0:41] right? It really is fun, you know, I'm saying that it pulls you in first [0:44] and then it kind of switches on you know, yeah, yeah, there's a lot of OC [0:47] jokes. Yeah, yeah, you know, people that want to make fun of me, you [0:50] know, or celebrate me as a former teen idol. Yeah, there's a lot of fun [0:55] and we use my my trip down the rabbit hole to tell the story [0:59] and and I'm just so excited for people to see it. Right, right. [1:02] And and back that you do mention a lot that, you know, obviously you [1:05] were from the OC, but you know, we know you as an actor, but this [1:09] kind of turned you into an investigator. Yeah. So what pulls [1:12] you into the world? Well, I was the pandemic and I couldn't [1:16] practice showbiz was on ice. There was no acting work to be had and [1:19] a buddy of mine came to me and said I should buy Bitcoin. But this [1:22] buddy had given me terrible financial advice before he's in the [1:25] film. Dave, I love him. Hopefully you will love him, too, if you [1:28] see the movie. And he said, you've got to buy this stuff. And I I [1:32] said, Dave, I'm not going to do that. But but I am interested in [1:35] I have a degree in economics as an undergraduate and I also love [1:38] true crime. I've always been a true crime junkie and crypto had my [1:42] favorite subgenre of true crime is what I like to call stupid [1:44] crime where the criminals are just like obviously committing [1:47] crimes. Right. And then like turning on each other kind of Coen [1:50] Brothers-esque crime. And it felt like crypto had a lot of that. [1:53] So that really drew me in. No. And you also coauthored a book on [1:57] the subject. It's called Easy Money, Cryptocurrency, Casino [2:00] Capitalism and the Golden Age of Fraud. What did filmmaking allow you [2:06] to do that writing essentially maybe constrained you? That's a great [2:11] question. It forced me in a good way to condense the story into a [2:15] piece of entertainment because that is why how I made the movie. I made it to [2:20] be broadly appealing. It is 90 minutes. It is a comedy. Believe it or [2:25] not, it is a comedy. It stars me and my much more famous wife, Marina [2:29] Baccarin from Deadpool and all sorts of other things. And Jerry Butler, [2:34] Gerard Butler did a cameo. And it's fun. [2:38] And another big part of the film is your interview with Sam Bankman [2:41] Fried before he was indicted for fraud and related charges. What stood out to you [2:47] the most from your conversations? How empty it all was. You know, he was [2:51] pitched as like king of the world. He was one of the hundred wealthiest [2:54] people in the world, according to Bloomberg. And he was, you know, this [2:59] like brilliant, wunderkind person. That was a public image. And then I sat [3:02] with him and he's like this young guy in a T-shirt and cargo shorts, hair all [3:07] askew. That's all fine. But he can't answer simple questions like what does crypto do? [3:13] Like, what's a good thing that it does? He gave an answer. I went back at him [3:17] with evidence contradicting it. And he was like, yeah, it's not working that way [3:22] now, but it will in the future. And none of the answers were satisfying. [3:26] You know, it was an hour. We cut it down to it's only six minutes in the movie. [3:30] But, you know, we got there. We got, I think, the essence of the of the [3:35] conversation across, which is it's unsettling. [3:39] And the unsettling part. I mean, you also spoke to a lot of victims of [3:44] crypto fraud. What did the human cost of this whole thing reveal about the [3:50] industry? That the industry doesn't care about the human cost. They just are [3:56] going to keep selling the story. You don't see them talking about people that [3:59] have lost money in crypto. Have you ever seen a crypto company talk about that? [4:04] I haven't. I've heard them bemoan when something bad. Oh, it's too bad that that [4:09] happened. But they're not trying to fix it. And look, if this stuff did anything in [4:16] the real world, if it was connected to any real world asset, you know, fine, [4:21] people can invest their money however they want. But crypto wants its own set of [4:25] rules. It doesn't want to be regulated like what it is, which is an investment [4:28] for regular people, because they don't want the full information to get out, in [4:32] my opinion. So I I made the movie for the 80 plus percent of the people that have [4:39] never bought crypto. But for the hardcore people out there who think that I'm going [4:42] after them, I'm not trying to protect you. And the industry doesn't want to do [4:48] that. So I'm going to try and I'm going to try to protect the rest of us from the [4:52] consequences of this, because this could this could contribute to the next [4:55] economic crisis. All right. Ben McKenzie. Yeah. Can't thank you enough. Thank you so [5:00] much. You got it. Follow at everyone is lying film on Instagram or go to [5:05] everyone is lying dot com for updates on where and when the film is playing near you.