Anthony Boyle, the Irish actor portraying Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried in the upcoming Netflix series “The Altruists,” contacted the former FTX CEO in prison via email as he prepared for the role, according to a Wednesday Vanity Fair report.
Boyle said he “promised him that I wouldn’t divulge anything,” but Bankman-Fried reportedly answered the bulk of the actor’s questions ahead of the series’ release, which is set for about three weeks from now.
“I was interested in what possessed someone to become the world’s youngest billionaire,” Boyle said, according to Vanity Fair. “I’m not really interested in money or crypto or finance. It was: What makes them do the things that they do?”
Based on a trailer Netflix released on Oct. 8, the series appears to center on the relationship between Bankman-Fried and his colleague and girlfriend Caroline Ellison, who headed FTX’s sister arm, Alameda Research.
Bankman-Fried was convicted of seven felony counts related to the misuse of customer funds at FTX and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Ellison was released in January after serving more than a year as part of a plea deal with US authorities.
Former FTX COO Constance Wang said that the on-screen portrayal of the executives made her “feel physically upset,” adding that SBF was more “socially awkward” than Boyle demonstrated.
Bankman-Fried has already been covered by several media outlets and was the subject of Michael Lewis’ 2023 book Going Infinite. Ben McKenzie’s documentary Everyone Is Lying to You for Money included a 2022 interview with the former CEO before the exchange’s downfall, but no other significant dramatization of SBF or FTX has been released on the big screen or television until The Altruists.
