Matt Damon plays Mark Whitacre in Soderbergh’s "The Informant," which Warner will release Sept 18, 2009 after world-premiere at the Toronto Film Fest.
"The Informant!" is a dark comedy about corporate espionage, multinational price fixing, wiretapping, embezzlement, FBI investigations and a high-level company whistleblower. What's so funny about that? In the hands of director Steven Soderbergh, pretty much everything.
The film follows the somewhat strange and unpredictable journey of Mark Whitacre from corporate golden boy to FBI informant in the years from 1992 to 1996. "The more I learned about the story, the more I responded to the material," Soderbergh says. "But I knew there have been serious films done on similar subject matters by great filmmakers. I thought one way to do something distinctive was to play the irony of the situation. Everything fell into place once that decision was made.
Damon, who did gain about 30 pounds to play Whitacre, notes, "His face is also rounder than mine so I had little things stuck in my gums to push my cheeks out. And I wore a fake mustache. Whitacre was also bald and wore a hairpiece, but the hairpiece was so good that no one knew he didn't have hair. It's actually a great metaphor for the character. It was right there in front of everybody and nobody ever figured it out."
Damon offers, "It is absolutely exhilarating for him to have to steer conversations and try to get people to say certain words and get them on tape. And he's very good at it. He has to be really clever and Mark loves being the smartest guy in the room."
The actors agree. "When you come out of hair and makeup in the morning, Steven is ready to shoot," states Damon, who counts "The Informant!" as his fifth film under Soderbergh's direction and is no stranger to his approach. "Everybody on the set knows that you had better come in absolutely prepared and ready to go. It's one of the things l love about working with him."
