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Have you ever been watching a movie and all of a sudden you see the face of the current Secretary of the Treasury? No? Well then you haven’t seen 2016’s Rules Don’t Apply, available now on HBO Go and HBO Now.
Writer, director, and star Warren Beatty portrays the eccentric and reclusive Howard Hughes, in the film that is really about the tycoon’s driver (Alden Erenreich) and an aspiring actress (Lily Collins) falling in love. Collins was even nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance in this film that is mostly decent, if not a little slow at times.
However, there’s a disturbance in the film about halfway through, when a group of investors insist on meeting with Hughes before they can lend him money. He, of course, isn’t so keen on the idea of an in-person meeting, but the group, led by Oliver Platt, is annoyed to say the least. The two other men in the room are Geoff Pierson, known for roles on 24, Dexter, Castle, and most recently, Designated Survivor, and…Steve Mnuchin. The current US Secretary of the Treasury. Why.
The actual answer is that Mnuchin serves as a producer on the film. OK. But he’s produced dozens of other films, and he’s held back on the urge to claim his 15 minutes of fame there. Perhaps it was necessary for him to jump into this film because literally all he had to do was sit there and not speak at all to pick up his first acting credit. Or maybe he just loved the irony as being credited as “Merrill Lynch Executive”, after he worked for Goldman Sachs for nearly 2 decades. Wherever the true desire for him to appear in this film comes from, it’s simply distracting and annoying to see his smug face there, really for no reason.
Did you know that Reese Witherspoon is a producer on Gone Girl and Brad Pitt produced Moonlight? Yet neither of them felt the need to get their beautiful faces in front of the camera for those films. Plus, Mnuchin has produced much more high-profile films, including The Lego Movie, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Intern, How to Be Single, Suicide Squad, and even this year’s humongous hit, Wonder Woman, and at no point did he insist on being on-screen for those. Even the times he’s appeared on-camera as himself have all been government-related.
Oh, and that’s not the only role he pulled some strings for. His third wife Louise Linton also plays a woman named Betty in the film. The Scottish actress has a few more credits to her name, popping up in Cabin Fever and CSI: NY, before making headline news with her wardrobe this past summer. One role it remains unclear if Mnuchin had a hand in casting was that of Bob Maheu. You see, that one was played by Alec Baldwin who probably had yet to portray Mnuchin’s boss on Saturday Night Live when Rules Don’t Apply was being filmed.
At the time, it was probably just a fun thing for Mnuchin to do for a day and brag to his friends about. It is also worth noting, he seems to get some extra, rather useless reaction shots (providing no real reaction in them), just to rack up those additional seconds on-screen. But now, despite how brief his scenes are, it unnecessarily entangles the film in current politics. It also proves that some rules do apply to producers: step aside and let the actors do their jobs.
