In “99 Homes” Andrew Garfield ("The Social Network,""The Amazing Spider-Man") plays Dennis Nash, a father living in Orlando who is evicted from his home in the midst of the 2010 housing market collapse and finds himself working for the real estate broker who evicted him, Rick Carver (played by Michael Shannon), when he can't find any other work.
The film, directed by Ramin Bahrani (“At Any Price,” “Goodbye Solo”), is a modern day “Wall Street” with the e-cigarette smoking Carver as its Gordon Gekko. It’s also an infuriating look at what many families, particularly in central Florida, endured during the harshest times of the financial crisis.
To find the reality of the situation for the story, Bahrani and his actors spent a lot of time in Florida shadowing brokers and meeting people who were directly affected by the housing crisis. In one instance, Garfield found himself in a somewhat frightening situation.
This clip, given to Business Insider exclusively, gives you sense of the high-stakes the movie explores.
“There were so many scams [during the crisis] it was just mind boggling,” Bahrani told Business Insider. “The combination of these scams and the violence, I realized I was making a social film in the guise of a thriller.”
The film showcases the shady document forging that went on to cause foreclosures, and schemes to make a quick buck like stealing air conditioners from vacant homes. But Bahrain also couldn’t escape the violent aspect of the setting, as every real estate broker he met or shadowed was carrying a gun.
“Every single broker I met,” Bahrani said in amazement. “It was a real shock to me and a revelation that it was because they were scared. They were scared to knock on doors.”
Garfield's research proved why brokers were scared. To get into character, he would tag along with a broker serving eviction notices. In one instance, Garfield and the broker knocked on a door and a giant rottweiler leapt out of the house towards the former Spider-Man star. Luckily the dog was on a chain and was pulled back before it could get to the actor.
But for Garfield, he needed experiences like that to fully understand people’s predicament.
“A lot of them felt betrayed and not seen or taken care of by their country,” Garfield told Business Insider. “It was a really important process for me to immerse myself in those people’s lives.”
One experience that stood out for Garfield was the time he spent with a man who had been evicted and, like the Nash character, could only find work where he had to evict people. The man told Garfield that in one instance he had to evict his close friend.
“After a while they ultimately healed their relationship,” said Garfield, who still keeps in touch with the man. “But that’s the kind of situation where we’re all pitted against each other to survive. It’s a really sick, sick system.”
Shannon’s time in Florida with brokers made him realize that you can’t fault people in the position of his Carver character, who he doesn’t see as evil.
“I don’t see anyone out on the streets demanding that the laws be changed,” he told Business Insider. “So in lieu of some massive protest that brings the banks crashing down to their knees, the other option is to try to play the game. Does that make somebody evil? I don’t know. What’s the alternative? As Rick says in the movie, ‘As opposed to what?’”
Staying with the realistic feel of the movie — in which New Orleans doubled as Orlando so the production could benefit from the Louisiana tax break — Bahrani brought in people who had been displaced by Hurricane Katrina to play some of the home owners Garfield’s character is evicting.
“I asked for that,” said Garfield. “That’s how I wanted to work. Ramin was really excited about that. I didn’t want to know if someone would answer the door, or who it would be, all I wanted to know is what my job for the day is and just do it. That was one of the reasons for doing the film, the ability to be surprised and improvise and not know the next moment.”
Many things Bahrani, Shannon, and Garfield witnessed made its way into the film. One time that stood out for Bahrani was experiencing foreclosure court.
At the height of the housing crisis in Florida, retired judges were called back to the chair to preside over thousands of foreclosure cases, often kicking people out of their houses in proceedings that took less than a minute (this happens to Nash in the movie).
Bahrani sat in on the proceedings one day with Lynn Szymoniak, a homeowner who gained notoriety for exposing “robo-signing,” where banks would forge documents to foreclose homes.
“People were losing cases left and right. I remember one person couldn’t speak English and brought a translator, but the judge said, ‘If you don’t speak English I don’t have time for you,’ and in 60 seconds he lost his case,” Bahrani recalled. “I was sitting next to Lynn and I had a yellow notepad. Suddenly people started winning. After the fourth or fifth in a row I turned to Lynn and asked what was going on. She said, ‘You’re sitting next to me with a pad, he thinks you’re a journalist so he has to look good.’”
The director continued, “There’s culpability everywhere with this issue. I like to say that the villain in the movie is not just one person.”
“99 Homes” opens in theaters on Friday.
Watch the trailer:
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