In playing Madoff, De Niro finds fraudster 'beyond' comprehension

Robert De Niro may play the role of Bernie Madoff, the man behind the biggest stock-market fraud in history in HBO's "The Wizard of Lies," but that doesn't mean he understands him. "What he did is beyond my comprehension," the Oscar-winning actor, who has played his share of criminals, said over the weekend at a news conference in the city of Pasadena. The HBO TV film, which will be broadcast in May, features Michelle Pfeiffer as Madoff's wife, Ruth, and is helmed by Barry Levinson, the Oscar-winning director behind "Rain Man," "Bugsy" and "Good Morning, Vietnam." For nearly 20 years, Madoff, now 78, was a Wall Street superstar. He orchestrated the huge pyramid scheme that fraudulently took in anywhere between $23 billion and $65 billion (depending on whether interest is included). He never actually invested even a penny of the sums his clients entrusted to him, instead drawing on funds from new investors to remunerate the older ones. But the house of cards collapsed in December 2008 when a growing number of investors, panicked by the financial crisis, attempted to cash out their investments. Madoff is now serving a 150-year prison term. Having grown up in modest circumstances in the New York borough of Queens, Madoff "must have had some kind of very strong disdain" for the people he was swindling, De Niro believes. "He wanted to be part of that world, but he wasn't." De Niro, who said he found there to be "a disconnect somehow" in Madoff, believes his wife and children probably had suspicions as to his illicit activities. His clients, as well, may have had doubts in the face of the staggeringly high returns he offered. But as long as the money continued to pour in, they were not about to look any further. - Trust and betrayal - The film is based on a book by journalist Diana Henriques, "The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust." "All of us trust people in our lives, and only someone you can trust can truly betray you," the financial journalist said. Henriques said De Niro's performance showed "how plausible con men like this are, how utterly they can seize your trust and your imagination and make you believe." She described Madoff as "incredibly magnetic." But she also saw a darker side, saying, "I don't think you can conduct your life with such a lack of empathy for the devastation that you're causing and not meet that fairly spongy definition of a psychopath." Henriques noted that "the bulk of his victims were not 'big bank account' people, and they were just devastated," often losing their life's savings. New York-born De Niro, already the winner of two Oscars, is soon to begin filming the next Martin Scorsese film, "The Irishman," playing the title role of a notorious mobster. He and Julianne Moore are currently filming another TV series helmed by legendary director David O. Russell. De Niro is a Russell favorite: They worked together on "Silver Linings Playbook" and "American Hustle." The actor, who will also appear in "The Comedian" when the film is released next month in the United States, is himself a successful businessman, having invested in real estate, restaurants and hotels. The fall of Madoff has been brought to the screen before, notably in the ABC miniseries "Madoff." Meanwhile Cate Blanchett earned an Oscar for her role playing a woman inspired by Ruth Madoff in Woody Allen's "Blue Jasmine." The journalist Steve Fishman, who has covered Madoff for years, wrote recently on the MarketWatch site that Madoff is continuing to pursue his business interests in prison, where some fellow inmates view him as "a star" because "he stole more money than anyone in history." Fishman reported that Madoff had cornered the prison market for hot chocolate, buying every packet of Swiss Miss from the commissary and then selling it at a profit.