- We've got two ginormous brains here today
at The Corner Booth.
I am sitting with Scott Z. Burns,
a screenwriter of "The Laundromat,"
and the author, Jake Bernstein,
who wrote source material, right, for "The Laundromat?"
called "Secrecy World."
- [Woman] Think of this as fairy tale
that actually happened.
- They drowned you and 20 other innocent people.
And somebody's making money from it.
- Great to see you guys here.
- [Unison] Thank you.
- 'Cause I know this couldn't have been easy
to write and to investigate.
What made you wanna take it on?
- As an investigative reporter,
it's like being a kid in a candy store.
We get this leak, which ends up being,
you know, 12.5 million documents at the end of the story.
Suddenly, you have insight into this whole secret world
that we all kind of know is out there
but you never get to see inside of.
We discover 140 world leaders and government officials.
- You understand the intricacies of such arrangements?
These shell companies, as they are called.
They are so very useful.
- It was endlessly fascinating
and that's what kept me interested
and kept me plugging away.
- How do you approach something?
Like, where does your genius come out
when you have this material
and you're looking at a blank page.
- Stephen had given me a book to read.
It was a book called "Thieves of State"
that deals with corruption all over the world.
That sort of opened the store,
could we do a movie that explores
what's really at the base of a lot of the problems
that we face as a society.
We do have a lot of money in the world,
so why don't we have better schools
and why can't sick people get health care?
- The meek, they were supposed to inherit the earth,
That doesn't seem to have worked out that way to me.
- You know, what was great about the Panama Papers leak
is it sort of opened up this world of financial corruption.
This whole sort of "Secrecy World" that he writes about,
this whole world of off-shore shell corporations
has been constructed to keep
the average person from understanding.
It's purposefully inscrutable.
It's sort of required that we turn the telescope around
and look at it from the point of view of the everyman.
And Stephen was able to get maybe the best
acting person in the world to do that.
(laughing)
- [Krista] To play that little person, Meryl Streep, yeah.
- Yeah, getting a text from Stephen saying
"Certain actress very interested in script"
and I was like,
can you tell me who it is? - Yeah.
- And I think he sent me their initials
and to think that Meryl Streep is actually
gonna say what you wrote down is amazing.
- As far as I can see, what they do is
they set up companies, not real companies,
like a hotel or a hardware store.
They sent up what they call a shell and they sell shells.
Not actual shells.
- At what point does writing a screenplay become fun?
What is your process a little bit?
- Every movie is hard, whether it's a movie like this
or a movie that is, you know, known as a popcorn movie.
I don't know of anybody who has
an easy time telling a story.
You gotta fall in love with the act of storytelling
and trying to be a better writer
and trying to tell important stories.
- How was it to see all of this research
and investigative journalism play out on screen.
- To see someone take that
and do something that was unique,
something that would reach people in ways that, you know,
my book, or our journalism could never do.
And then, of course, when you have Meryl
and Antonio and Gary and Sharon Stone
and all these, and Jeffrey Wright,
and all these extraordinary actors, you know,
it was a dream come true.
- All her companies are registered to the same law firm.
In Panama, Mossack and Fonseca.
- And you're on set too, right?
- Yeah.
- Do you do that always on his films?
- You know, I didn't go to film school.
Stephen actually didn't go to film school either.
You know, so my film school's probably been
standing next to Stephen for about
two or three hundred shoot days
over the last 10 years.
I think the most important thing I learned,
was that this is a collaboration
and that if you show up clinging to your script,
you don't get to see what Meryl Streep will bring
or what Gary and Antonio will bring.
- Mossack Fonseca agreed to have offices
in over 50 countries.
Servicing over 240,000 offshore companies
and foundations and trusts.
- Where do we find ourselves now?
- One of the most wonderful things that I heard
was someone, after seeing this movie,
say "Now I finally understand the Panama Papers."
- Mhmm.
- The great thing about Netflix
is they've got a tremendous reach
and so I think this is really going to help
increase awareness and understanding
because there's things that we can do, right?
We need to know, you know,
who are the owners of these companies, for example?
And there needs to be information exchanges
between governments, so that governments can know
if Delaware corporations are being used by criminals,
because we know they are.
- State of Delaware realized it could not attract a business
the same way New York and New Jersey could.
- So then we began writing corporate-friendly tax laws
hoping to lure more business.
- And it worked.
- And even though Mossack and Fonseca
are out of business now and that firm,
they weren't the only people doing this
and it's not just the law firms
that create these companies it's the bankers,
it's the politicians, it's the accountants,
it's everybody who doesn't do their due diligence
and then there's a host of criminals
who have taken advantage of this system for years
to launder money and hide it
in places where authorities can never find it.
- Politicians are doing it, it's not just criminals.
Bribery, corruption, money laundering,
millions and millions and millions of dollars,
and they're trying to hide the whole thing
through this company called Russell Prop,
yes, Russell Properties.
- Well congratulations, I'm so happy you guys stopped by.
You made something so complicated and so daunting
so watchable and accessible
and entertaining at the same time.
It's a pretty big accomplishment.
- Thank you.
- Thanks.
- [Erika] Thanks guys.
- [Man] First you must ask yourself
are you wealthy?