Richard Dreyfuss on ‘Madoff’ and the ‘most beautiful body of work of any actor in America’

Fraudulent investment adviser Bernie Madoff had a laundry list of complaints about his depiction in the recent, two-part ABC TV movie “Madoff.� But, as Richard Dreyfuss, the man who played Madoff, jokes, none of them had to do with the performance.

Not that the Academy Award-winning actor cared about the opinion of Madoff, currently in federal prison for his role in a Ponzi scheme that is considered the largest financial fraud in U.S. history. Preparing for the role, Dreyfuss never reached out to Madoff.

“I didn’t want to talk to him,� the 68-year-old actor told The Times in a video interview. “I didn’t want to make him important. And what was he going to tell me? A Queens accent? I already have that. He was going to tell me the truth? Yeah. Right. So there was no reason for me to speak to him. He was a monster. A socio-pathological monster.�

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Having played Dick Cheney in Oliver Stone’s “W.,� Dreyfuss is no stranger to portraying reviled public figures. (“There’s a little bit of Cheney in all of us and there’s a lot of Madoff,� he says.)

Still, Madoff wasn’t hated until his fraud was finally exposed. Until then, his investors adored him.

“He had to be the friendliest, mensch-iest, most comfortable guy in the world,� Dreyfuss says. “He had to seduce bat mitzvah girls. And he did. So they gave him their millions because he was just Uncle Bernie.�

You can watch the entire interview, during which Dreyfuss says that he owns “the most beautiful body of work of any actor in America,� below. He’s definitely prepared to back up his claim.

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Richard Dreyfuss talks about playing Bernie Madoff.

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