Speaker unverified: belief

Transcript context

…We have these business moments in our culture that we're like Rorschach tests. There's Michael Lewis' Liar’s Poker, there's The Social Network which we've talked about, where maybe written or created intending one thing and then get received. Joe, responding the confidence in your thought that people will like Travis more than you might think. How much was that in your mind making this? Brian, you can speak to this, but it was one of the first things I think I brought up with you guys. How can we make sure that we don't inspire a new generation of young entrepreneurs to be [...][6] ? I do think it is a concern. Does Scarface inspire people to be criminals? Does the Wolf of Wall Street inspire people in the financial sector to be crooks? Maybe some. When you're talking about large audiences, all sorts of people are going to take any given movie or show all different ways. But I think because this show is so unflinching in shining light on the protagonists’ shortcomings and dark moments, I would hope (at least) that the majority of the audience will come away understanding this as a cautionary tale as opposed to a glorification of bad behavior. 100%. When you watch the last three episodes of the season, it's not impossible, but you'll have some empathy for Travis, or sympathy for moments, or think he, in some micro moments, was treated wrongly by people who aren't really his equal in the field of war or whatever. But there are moments in the fifth, sixth, and seventh episodes that the lens changes, who were seeing the story through changes, and the point of view shifts in a way that makes certain things clearer. Also, I would say this. There's a waveform to this, which you all know a lot more about than I do about how things like waveforms work—I just know what they look like—but over time, you're going to understand that Wolf of Wall Street's not glorifying Jordan Belfort, like you just are. In the moment, people might be taken with Leonardo DiCaprio. In the moment, people might think that this guy is a master of the universe. But even now, if we watch that movie and we see the end when he's pathetically selling the pens, telling the people, sell me a pen, when it's the real guy. You apprehend that, you understand the emptiness, you understand the cost. In the moment, there's a lot of glitter. But if you actually look at it, it's really clear what they're talking about. I have a lot of confidence in people over the long-term understanding of these things that we make as artists. We can only be attracted to the things that call us, that ask these questions, and we have to tell those stories as rigorously and with as much truth as we can. We have to raise the questions that we find compelling. We have to imbue it with our most personal thoughts on the matter. And then we have to trust that eventually, if we do our jobs well, that thing will be received. We can't do anything other than that and think that we're engaging in art. That's the only way I can answer it. I can't be concerned about what the small group of people are going to be like, I want to be just like that [...][7] guy. There will be those people, but I think we're trying to shine a light on what it means to be that kind of [...][8] guy. What we're saying as a society when we prop up people who have incredible verbal acuity, great math skills, and the ability to galvanize, in a way that serves us, because we all take Ubers. But in a way, that serves that individual more and that does a disservice to huge swaths of people that we're not thinking about as we get into the back of the Uber. If you get in the back of the Uber and you're like, that guy's cool, but for one moment, you think about the person in the office who maybe wasn't treated right, or the driver who thought he was going to have a fleet of cars because there were deals that encouraged him to buy those cars, and then suddenly those cars are being towed away, which we show, it's in the book and we show it. Maybe you'll just have a moment of empathy for your Uber driver that you wouldn't have. Maybe you won't, but maybe you will.…

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