The Informant movie storyline. Based on the book “The Informant: A True Story” by Kurt Eichenwald. It was one of the FBI’s biggest secrets: a senior executive with America’s most politically powerful corporation, Archer Daniels Midland, had become a confidential government witness, secretly recording a vast criminal conspiracy spanning five continents. Mark Whitacre, the promising golden boy of ADM, had put his career and family at risk to wear a wire and deceive his friends and colleagues.
What was Mark Whitacre thinking? A rising star at agri-industry giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Whitacre suddenly turns whistleblower. Even as he exposes his company’s multi-national price-fixing conspiracy to the FBI, Whitacre envisions himself being hailed as a hero of the common man and handed a promotion. But before all that can happen, the FBI needs evidence, so Whitacre eagerly agrees to wear a wire and carry a hidden tape recorder in his briefcase, imagining himself as a kind of de facto secret agent.
Unfortunately for the FBI, their lead witness hasn’t been quite so forthcoming about helping himself to the corporate coffers. Whitacre’s ever-changing account frustrates the agents and threatens the case against ADM as it becomes almost impossible to decipher what is real and what is the product of Whitacre’s rambling imagination. Based on the true story of the highest-ranking corporate whistleblower in U.S. history.
The Informant! is a 2009 American biographical-comedy-crime film directed by Steven Soderbergh. Written by Scott Z. Burns, the film stars Matt Damon as the titular informant named Mark Whitacre, as well as Scott Bakula, Joel McHale and Melanie Lynskey. It depicts Whitacre’s involvement as a whistle blower in the lysine price-fixing conspiracy of the mid-1990s as described in the 2000 nonfiction book The Informant, by journalist Kurt Eichenwald. Released on September 18, 2009, The Informant! received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise directed towards Matt Damon’s performance and the film’s comedic yet ironic tone, although the latter has also been a point of derision by other critics.
About the Production
“Everyone in this country is a victim of corporate crime by the time they finish breakfast.”
“The Informant!” is a dark comedy about corporate espionage, multinational price fixing, wiretapping, embezzlement, FBI investigations and a high-level company whistleblower. What’s so funny about that? In the hands of director Steven Soderbergh, pretty much everything.
The film follows the somewhat strange and unpredictable journey of Mark Whitacre from corporate golden boy to FBI informant in the years from 1992 to 1996. “The more I learned about the story, the more I responded to the material,” Soderbergh says. “But I knew there have been serious films done on similar subject matters by great filmmakers. I thought one way to do something distinctive was to play the irony of the situation. Everything fell into place once that decision was made.”
Matt Damon, who stars in the role of Mark Whitacre, observes, “It’s like peeling an onion. You start with a certain set of assumptions and then realize you can’t assume anything as the situation becomes utterly ridiculous. It’s a great story and a really incredible character.”
The plot of “The Informant!” was first told in-depth in a book by Kurt Eichenwald, who also served as a producer on the movie. Screenwriter Scott Z. Burns was introduced to the story when he heard an interview with Eichenwald on the radio. He remembers, “I was on my way to a brunch and I ended up driving around the restaurant for the entire hour. I went directly from there to buy the book and spent the rest of the day reading it.”
The screenwriter recalls that when he and Soderbergh first began talking about how to adapt the book, “Steven said he wanted to make it a comedy. At first I wasn’t sure what to make of that, but as we started working on the script, I realized that most of the things that happened were pretty outrageous.”
Burns ultimately hit on the concept that became the key to finding the film’s overriding humor. Soderbergh reveals, “It was Scott who came up with the idea of the voiceover. Once that happened, it was clear which direction the movie was going.”
Producer Gregory Jacobs affirms, “One of the amazing things Scott brought to the table was the idea of weaving in Mark Whitacre’s inner monologue. Little by little it reveals what’s going on beneath the surface with Mark, and what’s fun is how it doles out that information. It’s a unique perspective and I think it’s what makes this script so intriguing.”
Producer Jennifer Fox adds, “It was a great way to show the absurdity of the situation, the idea of an unreliable narrator-the most unreliable narrator because he’s someone who has a hard time distinguishing the truth.”
In fact, as Damon remarks, Whitacre’s narration is not only unreliable, it is also not necessarily related to the scene unfolding on the screen. “It’s more of a stream of consciousness, a kind of digressive thinking,” he says. “He might be in the middle of a conversation with someone when something triggers this inner monologue that can spin off in any direction: ties, polar bears, frequent flier miles… whatever.”
Burns relates that in writing Whitacre’s voiceover, “a lot of it was just allowing my mind to wander. As a writer, it was fun for me to think of the sort of tangents someone in his position could go off on at any particular moment in the story. What came out of that generated a kind of comedy that Steven and Matt really responded to.”
From the start, Matt Damon was Steven Soderbergh’s first and only choice for the central role of Mark Whitacre. “Matt has been involved from the beginning, even before there was a script,” Jacobs confirms. “Steven always felt that he was perfect for this role and, really, Matt can do anything-action, comedy, drama…” “Matt is incredibly charismatic, which was important for the role,” Fox says. “Despite learning what his character has been doing and cringing at some of his decisions, you have to kind of love him.”
A biochemist as well as an astute businessman, Mark Whitacre is on the fast track at agricultural conglomerate Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), a company with a vested interest in virtually every aisle of the supermarket. His job puts him in a position to know, and play a part in, the inner workings of ADM…most above board but some, well, under the table. Perhaps it’s a crisis of conscience, perhaps something more, but Mark suddenly turns whistleblower, exposing to the FBI a multinational price-fixing scheme regarding the price of a new food additive called lysine. As we hear him say, “It’s all very scientific, but if you’re a stockholder, all that matters is that corn goes in one end and profit comes out the other.”
Damon describes, “He’s a successful guy-a brilliant young executive on the rise at this huge company, which raises the question about why he does what he does. It could well be for altruistic purposes-maybe he really is conflicted about the illegal price fixing-but slowly you start to realize that something is a little `off.’ That’s one of the things that made him such a fascinating character to play.”
“Matt has an inherent believability, a `nice young man’ quality that I think is very difficult to fake,” says Soderbergh. “That was crucial to the story because you have to continually believe what Mark is saying, particularly when he says, `That’s it; I’ve told you everything.’ Every time he says that, you need to believe him. Matt embodies a wonderful kind of boyish charm and optimism that allows him to pull that off.”
The director continues, “I also know he is fearless and would embrace every aspect of the character, no matter how we made him look. Whether it was his weight or his hair, I knew Matt would disappear into this character without hesitation.”
Damon, who did gain about 30 pounds to play Whitacre, notes, “His face is also rounder than mine so I had little things stuck in my gums to push my cheeks out. And I wore a fake mustache. Whitacre was also bald and wore a hairpiece, but the hairpiece was so good that no one knew he didn’t have hair. It’s actually a great metaphor for the character. It was right there in front of everybody and nobody ever figured it out.”
Whitacre’s firsthand account of ADM’s involvement in price fixing certainly gets the attention of the government, but it’s not enough to build a case against the company. In order to get the evidence they need, the FBI asks him to wear a wire. If only in his mind, Mark immediately gains secret agent status, with the state-of-the-art gadgets to prove it-Agent 0014 because he’s “twice as smart as 007.” For a man who had built his career on feeding sugar to microbes to create lysine, it was an exciting time.
Damon offers, “It is absolutely exhilarating for him to have to steer conversations and try to get people to say certain words and get them on tape. And he’s very good at it. He has to be really clever and Mark loves being the smartest guy in the room.”
“Mark could not be more excited to wear a wire,” Jacobs agrees. “I think it shows another aspect of his personality-thinking of himself as some kind of action hero. It’s thrilling for him to feel like an FBI agent, one of the guys. And for the FBI agents, it’s great that he’s willing and eager to get them the information they need.” Mark’s involvement with the FBI wasn’t something he initially sought out.
Jacobs explains, “Mark originally tells his boss that ADM is being blackmailed by a Japanese competitor who is sabotaging ADM’s lysine production with some kind of virus. For ten million dollars, they will provide the cure. We never specify whether or not it’s true, but Mark assumes ADM will simply pay the money. Instead, when the FBI gets called in, it completely throws Mark for a loop.”
Because Mark claims that the blackmail call came to his house, the FBI sends an agent out to put a tap on his home phone. But as the FBI agent is leaving, Mark’s wife, Ginger, gives a clear indication that, giving her husband an ultimatum: “Are you going to say something or am I?”
Ginger is played by Melanie Lynskey, who notes, “I’m not sure how much Ginger actually knows; I think she got only pieces of information from Mark. Ginger loves her husband; she believes in him even in the times when he is a lot more sure than she is that everything will be okay. I think she is an amazing wife and a remarkable woman.”
Soderbergh comments, “Ginger may not know everything Mark is involved in, but her attitude is, `My husband is my husband and that’s all there is to discuss.’ Melanie has a quality that makes you understand that Ginger is someone who is totally dedicated to her husband and her children. She has stuck in my mind since the first time I saw her in `Heavenly Creatures,’ and 16 years later I am even more impressed by her. She is so watchable, so emotionally real.”
Lynskey has equal praise for her director, saying, “I have always loved Steven’s movies, so I felt so lucky to be a part of this film. He was so much fun to work with, and Matt was amazing. He’s just the kindest person and a very generous actor.”
“He seems like a really good guy. I hope he doesn’t mind me calling him Brian instead of Agent Shepard. Might even try `Bri’ out.”
When the FBI has to send an agent to Mark’s house, there is no question who will get the case: Agent Brian Shepard, who happens to be the only FBI agent in Decatur, Illinois. Manning his small office, Shepard never imagines that a relatively routine assignment will lead to the biggest case of his career.
Brian Shepard is played by Scott Bakula, who acknowledges, “Brian is the only agent in town so when the investigation started, he was the guy. All of a sudden this giant case falls in his lap; it is the opportunity of a lifetime, but he has no way of knowing where it will ultimately lead. It’s complicated to begin with, never mind trying to decipher what is true and not becoming distracted by Mark’s behavior, which isn’t necessarily lining up with what Shepard expected. When you add those elements, the whole thing becomes completely bizarre.”
“Scott was perfect for the role of Brian Shepard,” Soderbergh states. “His ability to portray someone who is completely sincere and earnest convinced me we had to have him. It was wonderful to watch him transform himself into this very straightforward, honest FBI agent for whom the world is black and white. He really understood what I was looking for and what the part needed. As the film goes on, the way he plays Shepard’s frustration with Whitacre is funny, but it’s also real. He represents all the people in the FBI and Justice Department who didn’t know what to make of Whitacre after a while.”
When the government learns the scope of Whitacre’s claims about ADM’s price fixing, they immediately assign another agent from the state capital office to work with Shepard. Joel McHale, who plays Agent Bob Herndon, says, “It’s too big a case for the one guy to handle alone, so my character is brought in to help out. He stays a little more reserved than Shepard, who becomes really entrenched in the case and with Whitacre. Bob is also younger than Shepard and I’m way younger than Scott Bakula,” he teases. “I feel like I grew up watching him on `Quantum Leap’ and `Enterprise,’ so it was great to work with him.”
Taking it in stride, Bakula says, “Joel is a character. He’s very funny and we had a lot of laughs. We’re complete opposites in our approach, as are our characters. I think it creates an interesting dynamic on screen.”
“Joel had the perfect energy to counterbalance Scott because they need to be almost a comedy duo,” concurs Soderbergh. “Scott was the perfect straight man, while Joel’s energy was much edgier. They had great contrast.”
“When it’s over, the board of directors at ADM is gonna understand. They’re gonna see the position I was in and that I acted in everyone’s best interests.”
The casting of Joel McHale was part of a larger concept that Soderbergh had for the cast of “The Informant!” The director explains, “When we began casting, I started thinking about stand-up comedians and how their energy is so unique. I asked our casting director, Carmen Cuba, to start trolling comedy clubs. I wanted people who were not necessarily widely known to the public, and I couldn’t be happier with the choices we made.”
Gregory Jacobs adds, “Steven’s take on it was it’s such a crazy story and the events are so bizarre to begin with, so he thought if we cast comics-get them to play it straight but put their own mark on it-it would be a great way to go. It was such a brilliant idea and another example of what makes Steven such an interesting filmmaker. And we were really lucky to get the cream of the crop; they came in and just knocked it out of the park.”
Joining the cast of “The Informant!” are comedians Tom Papa, Tom Wilson, Rick Overton, Tony Hale, Patton Oswalt, Paul F. Tompkins and, in something of a casting coup, the Smothers Brothers.
Papa was cast as Mick Andreas, Vice Chairman of ADM, not to mention the son of ADM Chairman Dwayne Andreas and heir-apparent to the “throne.” Papa offers, “You can take any character and put him into a situation that’s absurd and, even if it’s troubling and intense, a lot of funny stuff will come out of it.”
Wilson plays ADM Head of Security Mark Cheviron, who has no idea of the major security breach right under his nose. “What’s interesting is that Steven never told me, or anyone else, to play it for laughs,” Wilson notes. “He let us do our thing. And all of the comedians, including myself, came at our roles straight on. To paraphrase Neil Simon, `You play comedy exactly the way you play drama, except you play the comedy a little more seriously.”
“Sometimes the truth is absurd and this is a classic example,” says Overton, who plays Terry Wilson, President of everything corn-related at ADM. “The glory of this story is that it is based on true events; the joke is in the circumstances.”
Comedians Patton Oswalt and Paul F. Tompkins appear as FBI Agents Herbst and D’Angelo. Tony Hale plays Jim Epstein, Whitacre’s attorney who tries to help him cut a deal with the government.
Comedy legends Tom and Dick Smothers appear in “The Informant!” in cameo roles. “It was amazing to have them on the set,” says Jacobs. “I know their fellow comedians were in awe…I think we all were. But what’s great about the Smothers Brothers is that they are so down to earth. During lunch, they did routines for the cast and crew and, of course, Tommy did a whole routine with his yo-yo. It was fantastic.”
Tom Smothers plays the all-powerful Chairman of ADM, Dwayne Andreas. Dick Smothers is seen as Judge Harold Baker, who presides over a pivotal trial in the film. “This is the first time my brother and I have been in the same movie but not in the same scenes,” Tom Smothers relates. “This is our 50th anniversary-50 years in show business-and it’s great to be in a Steven Soderbergh movie. This is a terrific opportunity for me because our career is just about over,” he deadpans. “I think it’s brave of Steven to put a bunch of comics in the movie because we’re notorious for going off script.”
“The Informant!” cast also includes Ann Cusack as Robin Mann, from the U.S. Department of Justice; Clancy Brown as ADM attorney Aubrey Daniel; and Soderbergh veteran Eddie Jemison as Whitacre’s friend and co-worker Kirk Schmidt. “Didn’t these people see The Firm or read the book? It’s all there.”
After more than two years of secretly recorded meetings and conversations, the Justice Department has all the evidence they need to move in on ADM. Naturally, when all of ADM’s ranking executives are taken down, there will be a void at the top. And, logic notwithstanding, because he would be the only one left, Mark Whitacre assumes he will be chosen to fill that void.
Matt Damon observes, “From the outside, it seems delusional to think that after bringing this company down, they are going to make you the president. But to his way of thinking, the ADM brass are the bad guys; they are doing something illegal. So why wouldn’t they reward the guy who is cleaning house and restoring the reputation of this great company? What a great signal to shareholders to have this guy running the place. Whether or not that’s a sound argument is another question.”
It’s a question even Ginger has to ask. Melanie Lynskey affirms, “There are times she has to admit that what Mark is telling her doesn’t make any sense. But he is so sure everything is going to be fine that she just puts her faith in him. She has to trust that he is telling her the truth…until it all comes crashing down around her.”
Scott Bakula adds, “Nobody really knows what’s going on inside Whitacre’s head except Whitacre. For the FBI, the `fish’ on the line is so big that they have their sights on that and just keep hanging on…even when the line begins to unravel.” With their eyes on the prize, the FBI doesn’t see that Mark Whitacre has been hiding a lot more than a wire. What they learn about their star witness ultimately calls into question everything Whitacre has ever told them. And when the other shoe drops, it’s going to come down right on the government’s entire case.
“They probably wanted me to move into Dwayne’s old house when I took this job because they’ve got it wired like in a Crichton novel.”
As he traditionally does, Steven Soderbergh took on multiple duties behind the camera, acting as his own cinematographer and, sometimes, camera operator. For “The Informant!,” the filmmaker once again utilized the “Red Cam,” a cutting-edge camera that he had first employed on his two-part biopic feature, “Che.”
A high-definition digital camera, the Red Cam is designed for convenience and flexibility. It also allows Soderbergh to use minimal or even natural lighting, which fit in perfectly with the director’s famously fast style of filmmaking. “It’s very efficient filmmaking, and it also helps to make the whole experience more fun,” says Jennifer Fox. “There is very little lag time, which just feeds everybody’s energy.”
Greg Jacobs, who has also served as Soderbergh’s first assistant director on 16 of his films, offers, “Particularly with comedy, I think momentum is important because it enables Steven to keep the actors in the moment…and on their toes,” he smiles.
The actors agree. “When you come out of hair and makeup in the morning, Steven is ready to shoot,” states Damon, who counts “The Informant!” as his fifth film under Soderbergh’s direction and is no stranger to his approach. “Everybody on the set knows that you had better come in absolutely prepared and ready to go. It’s one of the things l love about working with him.”
Collaborating for the first time with Soderbergh, Bakula says, “The great test for me was learning early on if I came up with a new idea after we shot a scene, Steven is not coming back to that. He’s already in the next room shooting another scene,” he laughs. “It makes for a wonderful atmosphere on the set because everybody’s energized, everybody’s focused.”
“The Informant!” was filmed almost entirely on location, in many cases using the actual sites where the true events unfolded: in and around Decatur, Illinois, as well as in Hawaii. Soderbergh attests, “I like to take advantage of being on location and filming in places you don’t see all the time in movies. There is always a benefit to being in the real place-shooting in the offices that Shepard and Herndon occupied, or in the hotel where the actual surveillance took place, or the house the Whitacres lived in at the time. I think something good always comes from that and, in our case, there is a look to that part of Illinois that you can’t fake. You have to be there; you have to go and get it.”
Jacobs adds, “It was great to be able to shoot in as many actual locations as possible. When we learned we would be able to film in the Whitacres’ old house, it was a no-brainer. It added so much to the flavor and authenticity.”
Lynskey reveals that she was unaware of the home’s connection to the story when she first arrived at the location. “I didn’t know it had been their house until halfway through the first day. I said, `I wonder if their real house looked a lot like this,’ and then someone told me, `This is the real house.’ It was quite surreal.”
Screenwriter Scott Burns points out that the house held certain clues that were overlooked by everyone. “When you see the house and the garage and the stables across the road, it is the physical manifestation of the story. You truly get the scope of Whitacre’s grandiosity. You begin to wonder why no one was scratching their head and wondering where all the money was coming from.”
“Looking at where the house is, there’s nothing out there but corn,” Damon laughs. “I mean nothing but a two-lane highway and a lot of corn. And he had eight cars, including a Ferrari and a Porsche. Eight cars.”
While the production was able to utilize the actual house, the décor had changed over the years. Production designer Doug Meerdink confirms, “I needed to change some of the renovations made by the current owners because the home was now too contemporary. I also wanted to infuse the personalities of Mark and Ginger into it. As I went around Decatur, everyone remembered Mark. They all commented on how he was `bigger than life,’ and, to some degree, his home had to reflect that.”
Meerdink and his team not only had to adjust for the years but also for the seasons. Snow was required for several winter scenes, but that was not likely to happen since filming took place in June. With the help of some movie magic, the citizens of Decatur were understandably surprised to find some of their streets covered in “snow” in the summer.
The production was unable to shoot inside ADM’s current offices, although some exteriors were shot outside the company headquarters and Meerdink was invited to come in and see the current offices and the trading floor. “It was very informative, but we learned that everything had since been modernized. We did a lot of research to find the right finishes, colors and styles that would have been in place when Whitacre worked there.” The designer and his team later re-created the offices of ADM in a building in Carson, near Los Angeles.
“The issue of what happened at ADM is still a big topic of conversation in Decatur,” says Soderbergh. “But the good news is that everyone was so helpful and very respectful of what we were doing.”
“It is still a company town,” Jacobs notes, “so we were concerned that there might be some minor misgivings amongst the people of Decatur that we were going to portray the city in a negative light. But everybody, including the new brass at ADM, got that this movie is about a specific time and not about ADM or the city of Decatur today. In fact, Decatur was fantastic. Everyone was very welcoming.”
For obvious reasons, the cast and crew also appreciated filming on location at the Makaha Resort in Waianae, Hawaii, where Whitacre records a pivotal meeting between ADM executives and their foreign counterparts to fix the price of lysine. “They never put the Brioni ties on sale. I should just get all the ties in Paris…shove them in a duty free bag.”
In capturing both the time and place of “The Informant!,” Meerdink worked closely with costume designer Shoshana Rubin. “There was a pretty constant dialogue between us,” Meerdink says. “We really had a great working relationship and I think her infusion of humor in the costumes was brilliant.”
Rubin relates, “In talking to Steven, I knew he wanted the costumes to add a bit of quirkiness to the characters. Because the movie is about real people and events, I was able to go back and look at old photographs. I noticed that Mark wore a lot of loud ties, so I drew some inspiration from that.”
By contrast, an FBI agent on a limited budget “would not have an extensive wardrobe,” Rubin adds, “so one of the things Scott Bakula suggested was that his character wear the same ties repeatedly. Being from St. Louis, Scott knows that area well, so he had some very helpful input for his wardrobe.”
Because the story is set in the Midwest, Melanie Lynskey’s wardrobe had to be very seasonal, but Rubin wanted to establish an overall style that fit Ginger’s taste, regardless of the weather. “Ginger wears flowing long skirts and slacks, and a lot of prints and flowers. Her look is a little innocent,” the costume designer describes. “Melanie was such fun to work with, not to mention a really good sport. I mean, who these days wants to put on a pair of high-waisted pants and tuck your shirt into them? It’s not a very flattering look, but she pulled it off beautifully.” Completing Melanie’s appearance is the character’s perfectly coiffed and somewhat conservative hairstyle. Rubin reveals, “Melanie has a very young look and (hair department head) Gloria Casny did a great job creating a hairstyle that aged her up a bit.”
Although both Meerdink and Rubin had worked with Soderbergh in the past- Meerdink as an art director and Rubin as a costumer-“The Informant!” marks their first film as designers. “It’s always rewarding to give people a new opportunity when you’ve worked with them for a while,” says Soderbergh. “I knew Doug and Shoshana were talented and ready to move up to the next level. They were excited and their excitement permeated the entire crew, so everybody wins.”
“I’ve always thought when this was over there’d still be a place for me at ADM. I’ve still got a lot of friends there.”
One of the most integral creative elements of “The Informant!” is the score, written by Oscar®-winning composer Marvin Hamlisch and marking his first film score in more than a decade. Soderbergh recalls, “I was watching Woody Allen’s `Bananas’ and was reminded of how much I loved Marvin Hamlisch’s spectacular score. Greg Jacobs, who was watching the movie with me, must have been reading my mind because he said, `We should get Marvin for `The Informant!’ My response was one word, which is repeatedly uttered by Mark Whitacre in the film: `Absolutely!’” Already a fan of Soderbergh’s work, Hamlisch says, “I obviously knew that he was a brilliant, innovative director. But I came to learn that he also has great instincts when it comes to the use of music in film. It made the job a joy.”
Hamlisch also teamed with Alan and Marilyn Bergman to write “Trust Me,” the song heard at the end of the movie, which is performed by Steve Tyrell. Jennifer Fox says that Hamlisch’s music puts the finishing touch on “The Informant!” “Marvin’s score immediately sets the comedic tone of the film and puts the audience in the right frame of mind for this incredible story. I honestly can’t imagine the movie without that music now.”
Matt Damon concludes, “It sets an interesting tone for a movie dealing with a subject you might not think would lend itself to comedy. But the story and the way it’s told is so absurd that you can’t help but shake your head and laugh.”
The Informant (2009)
Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Matt Damon, Joel McHale, Scott Bakula, Mike O’Malley, Andrew Daly, Adam Paul, Melanie Lynskey, Tom Wilson, Rick Overton, Tom Papa, Candy Clark, Ann Dowd. Allan Havey, Joel McHale
Screenplay by: Scott Burns
Production Design by: Doug J. Meerdink
Cinematography by: Steven Soderbergh
Film Editing by: Stephen Mirrione
Costume Design by: Shoshana Rubin
Set Decoration by: Daniel B. Clancy, Curtis Maneno
Art Direction by: William O. Hunter, David Scott
Music by: Marvin Hamlisch
MPAA Rating: R for language.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: September 18, 2009
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