Craig Gillespie: DUMB MONEY

October 3rd, 2023 by Karen Burg

A conversation with Director Craig Gillespie
“...There's this disparity of wealth that’s happening that we're really trying to highlight, so the sets play a crucial role...”

From Sony Pictures: DUMB MONEY is the ultimate David vs. Goliath tale, based on the insane true story of everyday people who flipped the script on Wall Street and got rich by turning GameStop (yes, the mall videogame store) into the world’s hottest company. In the middle of everything is regular guy Keith Gill (Paul Dano), who starts it all by sinking his life savings into GameStop stock and posting about it. When his social posts start blowing up, so does his life and the lives of everyone following him. As a stock tip becomes a movement, everyone gets rich – until the billionaires fight back, and both sides find their worlds turned upside down.

SETDECOR: Let's talk about this “wild, subversive ride,” as you have described it in the studio notes. We especially appreciated your call out, “It was also a testament to our crew, many of whom are longtime collaborators, that we could move at such an incredible pace, while still allowing time for our actors to play.”

Director Craig Gillespie:
Well, there’s no way I could work like this if it weren't for the crew.

SETDECOR: And this was, as you as you pointed out, an unusual shoot in that you were doing these pockets, almost little separate movies all entwined.

Director Craig Gillespie:
Yes, we were doing these pockets. and had the jigsaw puzzle of figuring out when these locations could be ready, would they be available when the actors are available? We had so many locations to do! They combined places to look like different areas, so we had that kind of thing going on as well. And we actually ended up filming everything in Jersey, except for the Seth Rogen portion.

SETDECOR: Yes, the set decorator for that Los Angeles portion, Rae Deslich, is a member of the SDSA, so we were able to reach out to and get some info. Rae mentioned that they didn't get to meet you because it was such a quick shoot!

Director Craig Gillespie:
[Laughs] That's how fast we were moving!

SETDECOR: That also describes what the movie is, a moving mosaic, it's constantly in flux. And thankfully, the sets help the audience keep track of where they are, where we are, at the moment.

Director Craig Gillespie:
Yeah, very much so, and then, obviously, there's this disparity of wealth that is happening, and we're really trying to highlight that, so the sets play a crucial role in that, because they're always part of the character, you know...they show the scale of it...they add the detail, particularly, in terms of the work of our key set decorator Paige [Mitchell], as well as Rae.

It's like every great set, it's all in the details. You want to be able to walk in there and see a life. You look at America Ferrara’s [Jenny’s] apartment, and just how layered it is with kid’s toys and clutter, clothes on the floor, and all the writing on the fridge. It's the same with Paul’s [Keith & Caroline Gill’s] house.

Spearheaded by Scott Kuzio [production designer], the level of detail really grounds the working class, it feels authentic. You know, a lot of times, it can be decades in these homes because people don't move constantly, and there's this texture of layers, whereas most of the wealthy class settings are usually austere and clean and it’s likely that an interior decorator has done the house for the family, so there's a certain lack of humanity involved in it. That juxtaposition was really wonderful.

SETDECOR: We love that you emphasize the importance of detail, because of course, that is the set decorator’s purview. In terms of your vision for the film, and for the sets, did you basically go on location scouts, choose them, and then step back and let the team do everything? Or were there some specific elements that you wanted to have included?

Director Craig Gillespie:
I come from the commercial world, so I'm very used to working in real locations. And there's something I actually love about real locations, because partly, I might come up with something on the day, and there's a room that we can go to...it's like, the set doesn't end. So, there's a definite advantage to that.

Like, when we were shooting Seth in Los Angeles, and we had that mansion [for his character, hedge fund manager Gabe Plotkin's Florida home]. It’s our last day, and we're going to shoot this scene of him working with his PR people upstairs in his office. But I walked in, and we've got this living room downstairs with this incredible view. And, of course, it's filled with camera equipment and a ton of media, because we're supposed to be shooting upstairs...and I'm like, “You know what, I think we want to shoot this scene here, in this room.”

And they say, “No problem. Okay guys, we’re moving everything. The trucks are going...we can see three trucks out this window.” And they just jump on it.

And then because that highlighted the disparity of wealth, to see him sitting in that oceanside living room, and sitting in front of a wine collection...that was like an example of being on location and being able to adapt to it.

But to answer your question, it's this combination, you know, like the Robin Hood [stock trading app company] location. We needed tech space. We had this building with an amazing exterior, and we were looking at another building for the interior tech space, that was probably a better location for that, but we didn't have time to move. So, we find this beautiful window downstairs with this courtyard outside, and I turn to Scott and say, “You need to turn this into the Robin Hood location, because we’ll shoot here and then just go right outside.”

And they transformed it...the palette of it, and the mural...they did a beautiful job. And it's just that combination of like, ‘How do we avoid moving? How do we keep the time in front of the camera, and not on these costly moves that spend three hours of our day, when the locations are right here?”

SETDECOR: And, going back to the Malibu house used for the Plotkin Florida home, Rae was saying that, thankfully, it was up for sale, so it had been somewhat staged for that situation. Thus, they could take advantage of some of the items that were already there that they wouldn't have had time to bring in. And that's another great rule that we seldom mention about the set decorator on location, it's not just bringing in things, but it's also making use of what is there. This was a classic of that combination, and it's a perfect example of what you mentioned.

Plotkin living room, Florida. Inset: Seth Rogan as hedge fund manager Gabe Plotkin. Set Decorator Rae Deslich SDSA gives an insider perspective: “The challenge was decorating a house at a level of luxury that few people even see, and on such a short schedule. Gabe Plotkin lives in a $40 million dollar house and it would be decorated appropriately. I definitely leaned into the nicest and newest furniture that LA vendors have, like Bridge Props and Prevalent Props. The horizontal wall art is from Art Pic, most of the art is, as well as some from Nest and Bridge. The driftwood is from Nest, as are most of the smalls. The mosaic coffee table was WB Collection, a lot of the side tables are from Bridge, the small console table on the right and the Barcelona bench are from Bridge. The lamps flanking the fireplace were WB Collection.” Photos by Lacey Terrell ©2023 CTMG. All Rights Reserved.

Director Craig Gillespie:
It is that. Honestly, like with everybody, the way that the business works, it's always so hard, you never have enough money. So, within every department, how do you do an incredible job as cheaply as possible? That's a dynamic of reusing things and figuring things out, being really smart, because they go hand in hand. We’re all trying to get as much on the screen as possible, and dealing with the limited funds. And it’s like if someone's over, they’re taking from somebody else, you know.

Plotkin’s son’s bedroom, Florida. From Rae: “As usual, our local promo companies saved me by providing our production with high-end consumer products. Everything from artisanal foods to leave out onthe kitchen island, every kitchen gadget one could imagine, high-end liquor for the liquor cabinet, small-brand toiletries for the master bathroom. The Razor RipStik skateboard pictured here was provided form Front Row Media.” Photo by Lacey Terrell ©2023 CTMG. All Rights Reserved.

SETDECOR: Love that phrase “Get as much on the screen as possible.” Because sometimes people go a little extreme and it’s all close-ups of the actors, and you don't see this information about the character that's actually going to help.

Director Craig Gillespie:
Yeah, exactly, so much so. And it's interesting, my DP Nicolas Karakatsanis and I approached this movie very differently from CRUELLA, and I, TONYA that we had also done together. We very consciously decided to do lock-offs, because there was this pressure cooker feeling to this that we really felt we had to create in the edits. So, we have the wides, but then there are these extreme macro shots of cameras and fingers on type-boards, and hands jiggling and knees jiggling.

So you get all these details as well within that set, and some of that's inspired, like, when you see them sitting and she's got a jigsaw puzzle. [The day of shoot] I come in, I see the jigsaw puzzle, I'm like, “Oh, we need an insert of this cat in the jigsaw puzzle, it’s going to go great with the transition.” Downstairs in the basement there are various Christmas bits, little Christmas trees and ornaments and decorations...this wealth of stuff that you can pop around and grab inserts of.

SETDECOR: Speaking of that basement, not only is there Christmas stuff crammed into the corner, but also a little shelf with the trophies that he won for track. And we have this whole thing going on throughout the film with his running the track daily and his obsession with it, and then this subtle, never-mentioned little background visual.

Director Craig Gillespie:
If you do your job well, nobody notices. There you go. If it's looking authentic, looking real, the audience is not going to think about it. It only takes them out of the film, when something feels off. And I loved it. The basement is so simple. We looked at some locations, and they had more architectural interest, with beams in the ceiling and so forth. But at the end of the day, this felt like the most honest, just that stairway coming down, and the gray walls and then the box of Christmas stuff in the corner. And yeah, that's, the trick sometimes, that restraint to just keep it authentic, keep it grounded.

SETDECOR: Including just the two chairs. There was his gaming chair, the Secret Lab with the roaring lion logo, and the easy-chair rocker that she sits in with the baby. It was like this little triad, with the three humans in a fairly empty basement space, not a homey den, but they felt at home there, as did we.

Director Craig Gillespie:
I think that happens as sort of a collective unit... Paige and Scott put more in there than we need, to give us options. And then it's about stripping stuff out of there, to get to that final look. It's very much like a communal conversation...maybe there was a foosball table in there at one point, and maybe it's just too busy, too many things. Again, that's part of the characters, they’re newly married, they've got a newborn. They don't have a lot of junk yet to shove into the basement.

SETDECOR: And then there’s his parents’ house, a long-standing family home...

Director Craig Gillespie:
Yeah, Scott had found this house from a project he had been doing previously that they didn't use. It's tiny, but there's so much history to it. It's like a family had lived there for a long time, with a very small kitchen that hadn't been renovated. All these cues that you look for, you know. They give you a backstory. The dining room was tiny, but it has great angles on it, you can see into the kitchen, you can see the living room, you get all of these stories in the background of who these people are. You get to choose the kind of furniture that would have been there for 30 years, the amount of photographs on the wall, and all those details. They did such a beautiful job.

It's funny I'm from Australia, and Australia doesn't really have this small-town sensibility like here, where so much of America is from small towns and people coming to them from large cities. 97% of Australians live in six cities. My introduction to small town America was my wife, whom I've been with for 37 years. She grew up outside of Philly...Italian and Polish! Thanksgiving would be like 45 relatives all coming over. And that's how I have this touchstone of knowing what feels authentic and real and layered and lived in. These guys did such a beautiful job on this, I'd walk in and it would be all there. It's all those details, it just feels authentic. [16:54]

SETDECOR: And, as you mentioned before, the layers of time...they have things that they had when they first got married years ago, and accumulated throughout. And although it was probably a real pain to shoot, the small dining room encompassed that duality of symbolism of the family close together and the family closeness.

And then there is the vast space of the Plotkin house! And yet, I think Rae mentioned losing electricity?

Director Craig Gillespie:
We lost power and then got it back at the wrong time. That house had an unbelievably complicated electrical system, and we're scrambling to get that billion-dollar scene where Gabe’s wife asks, “How much did we lose?? And he says, “A billion dollars.” [An intimate twilight scene]...And the lights come on in the middle, like we’re in a nightclub and it’s closing time!

SETDECOR: Speaking of complicated electricals, Rae said that they had a real Bloomberg terminal, which gives multiple on-screen coverage of the stock markets and securities.

Gabe Plotkin’s home office, Florida. Filmed in Malibu, Rae gives details, “The Bloomberg terminal is a specific monitor & hardware setup integrated with software from the Bloomberg corporation. It basically allows traders to see very specific views of the market, and make large transactions very quickly with few keystrokes. These normally live in brokerage offices, but since the story was set in early pandemic times and everyone was working from home, Gabe had moved his Blooomberg terminal from his New York office down to his Florida mansion so that he could manage his company's portfolio from home. Production hired an actual Bloomberg terminal technician to come out and install it. It was cool to see the real thing!” Photo by Lacey Terrell ©2023 CTMG. Photo by Lacey Terrell ©2023 CTMG. All Rights Reserved.

Director Craig Gillespie:
Yeah. Because it's an obvious part of that advantage, it’s quite a premium to have that and have access to all of that information. And that's just so important for us to have those layers in there and in the background.

SETDECOR: It's like in the 1930s movies where the guy has a ticker tape in his home office.

Director Craig Gillespie:
Exactly! Exactly.

SETDECOR: That's really cool. And of course, it's so impressive with all the colors and then the whole array in front of that spectacular oceanside view.

Director Craig Gillespie:
Yeah, and we had to get the exposure right, because the sun was going down!

SETDECOR: It seems that much of the thru line for all these characters is kitchens and dining rooms, the heart of the home, whether the characters are eating or standing and talking...Keith and Caroline or Jenny in their kitchens, Gabe at his massive kitchen island, or hedge funder/owner of the NY Mets, Steve Cohen at his huge Thanksgiving dinner or in his designer kitchen with his pig, or Marcus’s family’s kitchen table in their tenement apartment...

Director Craig Gillespie:
Yes. That's what was wonderful about this...because they were all individual characters, we could go find the perfect set for them, because they didn't have to coexist with somebody else.

So we found the location for Jenny’s with effort, I think that was only one day in that set. It was a walk up, which was a nightmare, but just the proximity in the space of having a kitchen that opens up to the living area and a very small balcony. [All in camera] And you want that tightness there.

The other apartment I loved was Anthony Ramos’s apartment, you know, his character Marcus living with his parents in that tenement housing...to be able to show the diverse areas in which people live. And, again, I found the tenement housing exterior that I loved, and said, “Guys, we need to find an apartment in here.” So there we go...and I love all the detail in that and all the prescription medications on the kitchen table where they're sitting and eating. It's like all that stuff piled up...and it's funny because I walk in and it instantly looks familiar because of my family experience here living in the States. You don't necessarily think to do it. But these guys do.

SETDECOR: And then the college kids...the quad room, the lecture hall, the corridor and especially, the dorm room.

Director Craig Gillespie:
The amount of posters and photos and backstory they had for that bed...I mean, again, it's like a dream for a set decorator because you've got two different kids living in a dorm room. You get to show their whole lives and how they work together and their whole personality. So, actually, that wall of art that ended up behind them is one of the things I always think about in terms of sets.

SETDECOR: And we can’t forget the pig, or the manse where it resides...that beautiful office, and the kitchen and the huge dining room, all belonging to hedge fund monolith, owner of the NY Mets, Steve Cohen, played by Vincent D’Onofrio.

Director Craig Gillespie:
Well, that's the tricky thing. You know, the hard part of doing an independent film and being tight on budget is when you try to show opulence, it gets very expensive. We did really luck out with this house in New Jersey, because it had some very grand rooms to it to stand in for his mansion in Greenwich. In the 11th hour, I asked if we could have a pig in there, walking through the house.

Each week, I would get to turn my focus on that character for that week. So a couple of days beforehand, I tried to do a little of my own homework on top of everything else that we have investigated. I just Googled Steve Cohen, and pretty quickly found this article that stated they had a Peppa Pig for 10 years that would wander around the house...So I called the writers. I'm like, “Let's make this scene with a pig.”

SETDECOR: Well, at least the pig wasn't last second, right?

Director Craig Gillespie:
No, it was the day before.

SETDECOR: Hah! Lots of time! What a team you have!

Director Craig Gillespie:
We had a pig that we weren't going to have in the house. We read that he bought a pig as a piece of art that was tattooed, so we were planning for that pig to be delivered in a scene. And then I thought, “You know what, it'd be more interesting to have the pig walk through the whole house.” Because, again, you get to see the display of wealth. You know, they take him from the kitchen through the house, into the office. The same with Seth [Gabe], we have him walking from the master bathroom all the way downstairs into his kitchen with gorgeous views. So you see the juxtaposition of these worlds with Paul’s [Keith’s] tiny kitchen and basement, and all the others’ lives.

SETDECOR: And, yet, in this time and place, the little guys win. Thank you for bringing that true-life story to the big screen and audiences everywhere.

Director Craig Gillespie:
Thank you, it was lovely to talk with you.

*Editor’s note: SDSA Business members who were essential for the Malibu sets depicting Gabe Plotkin’s Florida mansion for which Set Decorator Rae Deslich SDSA was responsible: Advanced Liquidators Office Furniture & Studio Rentals | Art Pic | Bridge Furniture & Props | Dell Electronics | Eclipse Worldwide | Faux Library Studio Props | Front Row Media | Gil And Roy Props | Hollywood Branded | Hollywood Trophy | Lennie Marvin’s Propheaven | Nest | Objects | Omega Cinema Props | Pinacoteca Picture Props | Prevalent Studio Rentals | Town & Country Event Rentals | Universal Studios Property | Warner Bros. Studios

Craig Gillespie: DUMB MONEY

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