This article contains SPOILERS for The Blacklist.
James Spader’s role as Raymond “Red” Reddington in The Blacklist is probably the actor’s defining career role. A criminal mastermind turned FBI informant, Red’s special talent was always getting hold of classified information and pᴀssing it on to the right (or wrong) person, even before the events of this seminal crime thriller series. Funnily enough, one of James Spader’s best early career roles also sees him play an informer, in a movie about the seedy underbelly of American finance capital. Oliver Stone’s 1987 movie Wall Street was a landmark moment for crime cinema, ushering in a new era for the genre.
The movie centers on the illegal dealings of Michael Douglas’ villainous banker, Gordon Gekko, and his stockbroking ᴀssociate Bud Fox, played by Charlie Sheen. But without Spader’s minor yet significant role in Wall Street, Gekko and Fox couldn’t have made some of their illicit billions. Spader plays his part expertly, demonstrating the agility of an actor much older than 27, his age at the time the movie came out, by adding layers to his multi-faceted character. In Wall Street, we see an early glimpse of what Spader would be capable of doing in roles such as The Blacklist’s Raymond Reddington.
James Spader Plays An Informer In Oliver Stone’s 1987 Movie Wall Street
His Character Roger Barnes Commits Insider Trading With Bud Fox
Just like Red in The Blacklist, James Spader’s Wall Street character Roger Barnes is primarily useful for his ability to provide others with information they shouldn’t be able to get hold of. He’s an informer for Bud Fox, Charlie Sheen’s stockbroker turned corporate raider who conspires with Gordon Gekko, one of the greediest movie villains of all time, to make money by inflating stock prices through spying and insider trading. Barnes is a corporate lawyer involved in the legal processes and due diligence around financial trading, so is a party to information about market changes that others aren’t.
Bud Fox bribes Barnes to share this classified information with him so that he can get ahead of market trends, and as a result, make a killing on the stock market by buying low and selling high. Their dealings start with Bud wanting Barnes to inform him about why the Fairchild Foods merger is stalling. Barnes initially refuses, aware that what Fox is suggesting consтιтutes illegal insider trading, but he soon changes his tune when asking for his own share of the profits.
The switch that flicks to turn Barnes from a straight-laced lawyer to a complicit criminal is one of the best early examples of James Spader’s acting range, particularly in his portrayal of slippery, morally ambivalent characters. We’d later see more developed forms of his Wall Street character in The Practice and Boston Legal’s Alan Shore, The Office’s Robert California, and, of course, Red in The Blacklist.
Roger Barnes Shares Similarities With The Blacklist’s Raymond Reddington
Both Are Informers To Parties With Malicious Intent
Raymond Reddington and Roger Barnes are both guilty of breaking US laws by pᴀssing privileged information onto parties with malicious intentions. In Red’s case, he pᴀssed classified data from the US military onto the Soviet Union, and it turns out that the previous idenтιтy of Spader’s character in The Blacklist was actually Katarina Rostova, a Soviet spy. Barnes, on the other hand, pᴀsses confidential information about the corporate world onto high-rolling criminals committing financial corruption on a mᴀssive scale.
In The Blacklist, Red’s crimes were exposed by the FBI, whereas in Wall Street Roger Barnes is being investigated by Stock Watch.
Red is perhaps a little more ᴀssertive and sure of his actions than Barnes, but there’s no question that either character fundamentally has any moral scruples about what they’re doing. Ultimately, neither of them can get away with their crimes, either.
Wall Street Is One Of The Best Movies Starring James Spader
The Movie Gave Rise To A New Crime Subgenre
James Spader might have been near the beginning of his acting career when he starred in Wall Street, but his role as Roger Barnes, although relatively small, is one of his best. Meanwhile, Wall Street itself is a masterful portrait of machiavels who try to skew the US finance markets in their favor. It gave rise to an entire subgenre of crime movies focusing on the lives and illegal behaviors of moneymen, including American Psycho, The Wolf of Wall Street, and The Big Short.
Even financial experts have praised Wall Street for the accuracy with which the movie depicts the insider trading of corrupt billionaires, and Gordon Gekko has become known as one of American cinema’s greatest villains. Oliver Stone’s movie took on even greater significance with the 2008 financial crisis and even spawned a sequel, 2010’s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.
Michael Douglas and Charlie Sheen might be the actors best remembered for starring in the movie, but James Spader is still a standout performer in Wall Street’s supporting cast. What’s more, it’s arguably this role more than any other that determined the trajectory of Spader’s later career.
