Wannabe actor Zachary Horwitz was desperate to make it big as a movie star. The only thing stopping him was talent. Bad Actor: A Hollywood Ponzi Scheme is a juicy true story about deception, denial, and the seductive promise of fame and fortune.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00I can't ask a pathological liar for his life story
00:03and expect him to tell me the truth, right?
00:06I know you.
00:07I'm the guy.
00:11What I knew about Zach was very limited.
00:13I had heard he was an actor.
00:14As an actor, I feel like you don't want people to know who Zach is as a person.
00:19We can just tell the truth.
00:20We can just tell the cops what happened.
00:22There are times watching this when his lines
00:24are like he's speaking directly to the story we're telling.
00:27He's going to Berlin Film Festival and Cannes.
00:30Just kind of living the dream.
00:32But of course, this is all just a huge lie.
00:37Actor Zachary Joseph Horwitz is agreeing to plead guilty
00:40to a $650 million Ponzi scheme.
00:43That's a staggering amount of money.
00:45Turn around. Get down on your knees.
00:47I was hoping that Zach would talk to me
00:49so he could tell his side of the story for the film.
00:51No. Absolutely not.
00:53He was putting money from the Ponzi scheme into the movies
00:57to get the producers to cast him.
00:59$200,000 for a small role.
01:03What? Who is this guy?
01:06Zach wanted to be famous, but unfortunately for Zach,
01:10he's a pretty terrible actor.
01:15I could tell from the beginning that it was going to be a juicy one.
01:18It was Hollywood, a huge amount of money.
01:20All for the purchase of movie rights.
01:23That weren't real.
01:24How could he possibly have done something this outlandish?
01:28It's too easy. It's just too easy.
01:30He was flying private jets.
01:32$7 million on the American Express card.
01:34$700,000 for interior design.
01:37This guy is a supervillain.
01:39Where is that money now?
01:40The FBI was on the case. The SEC was on the case.
01:43He's going to take all the money and run.
01:45He knew what he was doing from the start.
01:47Our secret, okay?
01:49You had to realize that at some point,
01:51the whole thing was going to collapse.
01:55You're nervous because it's like,
01:56are they going to find out that I'm this fraud the whole time?