Actors Talk About Playing Scammers

Hollywood loves a good scam. From slick Wall Street sharks to fake heiresses in designer sunglasses, con artists have become some of the most compelling characters on screen. But while audiences get to enjoy the chaos from a safe distance, actors have to climb inside the minds of people who lie, manipulate, and exploit others for a living. That can be thrilling, disturbing, and surprisingly educational all at once.

In recent years, hit projects like The Wolf of Wall Street, Inventing Anna, The Dropout, Hustlers, and The Company You Keep have given performers a chance to explore real-life scammers and fictional con artists in depth. Many of them have spoken openly about what it takes to portray these characters truthfully without glamorizing the damage they caused. Their stories reveal a lot about acting, ethics, and why audiences can’t look away from a good scam.

Why Hollywood Keeps Coming Back to Scammers

Scam stories are natural drama machines. They combine ambition, deception, high stakes, and an inevitable crash. For actors, they’re irresistible because scammers are rarely one-dimensional villains. They’re charming, funny, persuasive, and often genuinely convinced they’re the hero of their own story.

That mix of charisma and moral bankruptcy is exactly what draws performers in. Many actors who’ve played scammers say the roles forced them to think about how ordinary people can slide into fraud one rationalization at a time. Instead of playing “the bad guy,” they focus on playing the human being who wants money, love, status, or power so badly that they’ll justify almost anything to get it.

It’s also just fun. Scam characters live in heightened worlds: private jets, luxury hotels, VIP clubs, and boardrooms where billions move with a signature. Actors get to wear wild costumes, deliver rapid-fire speeches, and play out audacious schemeswhile knowing no one is actually losing their life savings this time.

Getting into the Scammer Mindset

To play a scammer convincingly, actors have to walk a very strange line. They need to understand what the character believes, even if that belief system is deeply flawed. That means research, interviews, and sometimes face-to-face meetings with the real people behind the headlines.

Julia Garner as “Fake Heiress” Anna Delvey

When Julia Garner signed on to play Anna Sorokinbetter known as Anna Delveyin Inventing Anna, she wasn’t just learning a new role; she was learning a whole new way of moving through the world. Garner has explained in multiple interviews that Anna’s psychology was wrapped up in entitlement and performance. Anna wasn’t just lying; she was constantly managing an image, selling a fantasy of wealth and exclusivity.

Garner visited Sorokin in jail, studying not only what she said, but how she said it: the pauses, the posture, the way she used silence as a weapon. She also spent time perfecting that now-famous accent, which mixes Russian, German, and the clipped cadence of New York socialites. Getting the voice right mattered, because Anna’s speech patterns were a big part of how she disarmed people and made them feel like they were in on something special.

Playing Anna forced Garner to balance two truths at once. On one hand, she had to show the thrill and confidence of a woman who could talk her way into five-star hotels and private clubs. On the other, she had to honor the real people who were left with huge bills and broken trust. The result is a performance that never lets you fully hate Anna, but also never lets you forget that she left financial and emotional wreckage behind her.

Amanda Seyfried as Elizabeth Holmes in The Dropout

Amanda Seyfried’s turn as Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is another example of how actors approach scammers from the inside out. Seyfried has said that taking on the role was both exciting and “a little bit harrowing” because Holmes is still a very recent, very public figure. The world knows the story: bold claims about revolutionizing blood testing, a company once valued at billions, and then a spectacular collapse when the technology failed to work.

To build her version of Holmes, Seyfried studied hours of video footageinvestor pitches, conference talks, and interviews. She copied Holmes’s famously low voice, her intense stare, and her oddly mechanical gestures. But she didn’t want to do a simple impersonation. Seyfried has said that she was more interested in the disconnect between how Holmes saw herself and what she was actually doing: a woman who believed she was destined to change the world, yet ignored every warning sign that her dream was built on sand.

Seyfried has also talked about finding empathy for Holmes without excusing her. From an acting perspective, you can’t play “evil”; you play need, fear, and desperation. In The Dropout, you can see the character’s anxiety rising as the lies pile up and the stakes get higher. That tensionbetween confidence and panicis what makes her such a compelling scammer to watch.

Glamour vs. Responsibility: The Ethical Tightrope

Because scammer stories are often stylish, fast-paced, and darkly funny, actors and filmmakers know there’s a risk of glamorizing the people behind them. After The Wolf of Wall Street came out, Leonardo DiCaprio addressed criticism that the film made fraud and excess look too appealing. He defended the movie as a cautionary tale, arguing that showing the full, unfiltered madness of Jordan Belfort’s world actually exposes how grotesque it is beneath the surface.

DiCaprio also pointed out that audiences are smart enough to recognize satire. The film doesn’t cut away from the victims or the legal consequences; it simply refuses to lecture. For him as an actor, the job was to fully commit to Belfort’s point of viewto show how intoxicating power feels to someone who has no intention of stopping, even when the FBI is circling.

Jennifer Lopez and the Ethics of Hustlers

Jennifer Lopez took on another kind of scammer in Hustlers, playing Ramona, a veteran stripper who leads a ring of women drugging and defrauding wealthy Wall Street clients. Lopez has said that the role scared herphysically, because of the demanding pole-dancing scenes, and emotionally, because Ramona is both magnetic and morally messy.

In interviews, Lopez has described Ramona as a protector and a predator at the same time: someone who genuinely looks out for the women around her but also pushes them further into illegal schemes when money is on the line. The film is inspired by a real group of women, and at least one of them has publicly objected to how the story was told. That tension is part of what makes the performance so tricky. Lopez has to lean into Ramona’s confidence and warmth while never losing sight of the harm she’s actively causing.

This is where many actors say they rely heavily on the script and director. Their job is to bring the character to life honestly; the overall project has to handle the bigger ethical framing. But most still feel a responsibility not to turn scammers into aspirational figures, especially when real victims are still recovering their finances and trust.

Building the Performance: Voice, Body, and Costume

Playing a scammer isn’t just about psychology; it’s incredibly physical work. The way a con artist walks into a room, shakes a hand, or holds eye contact can be more revealing than any line of dialogue. Many actors talk about using voice, posture, and wardrobe as tools to unlock who the character really is.

Julia Garner has said that Anna Delvey’s accent was a key piece of her performanceit’s almost a scam in itself. It sounds vaguely European and upper-crust, but it’s slippery enough that people don’t quite know where to place her. That ambiguity helped the real Anna pass as a mysterious heiress. For Garner, nailing that sound gave her a way to access Anna’s confidence: once the voice was right, the attitude followed.

Amanda Seyfried went through a similar process with Elizabeth Holmes’s famously low voice and stiff, almost robotic movements. Those choices weren’t just quirks; they were part of Holmes’s branding strategy, a way to project authority in rooms dominated by older male investors. By recreating those mannerisms, Seyfried highlights how Holmes deliberately crafted a persona designed to be taken seriously in Silicon Valley.

Milo Ventimiglia, who plays a charming con man in the series The Company You Keep, has talked about the importance of making his character look like the last person you’d suspect. Unlike flamboyant scammers, some con artists survive precisely because they blend in. For him, the performance becomes about subtle shiftsa soft smile, a casual shrug, a slightly too-long pausethat suggest he’s always calculating even when he seems relaxed.

On the comedy side, Melissa McCarthy’s work in Identity Thief shows how physicality can make a scammer both outrageous and oddly sympathetic. Her character is greedy, yes, but she’s also lonely and insecure, stuffing every awkward moment with jokes and over-the-top behavior. The comedy lets the audience enjoy the ride while still acknowledging that stealing someone’s identity is a serious violation.

The Emotional Toll of Playing People Who Hurt Others

For many actors, the hardest part of playing scammers is not the research or the technical transformation; it’s living for months inside the mind of someone who does so much damage. Amanda Seyfried has described the experience of filming The Dropout as emotionally intense, especially scenes where Holmes is confronted with the human cost of Theranos’s failures. It’s one thing to mimic a deep voice; it’s another to inhabit the denial and rationalization that allowed real patients to be misled about their health.

Julia Garner has also talked about the emotional weight of playing Anna Delvey, especially after meeting her in person. When you look someone in the eye who has been branded a con artist in global headlines, you’re forced to see more than just the crimes. You see the stubbornness, the ambition, the fear of being ordinary. That complexity can be creatively rewarding, but it’s also exhausting. Actors often rely on a strong off-set support systemand sometimes a palate-cleansing project afterwardto shake the character off.

Jennifer Lopez, meanwhile, has spoken about how Hustlers made her think about money, morality, and survival in a new way. Ramona is a response to a world that exploited her and her friends for years; the movie never pretends she’s a saint, but it also doesn’t let audiences forget the power imbalance between Wall Street guys making questionable money and women trying to pay rent. For Lopez, that made the role feel less like simple villainy and more like a probing question about who gets to bend the rules in America.

What Actors Learn from Playing Scammers: On-Set Stories and Lessons

When actors talk about playing scammers, they almost always circle back to one big idea: these roles change the way they look at trust. Spending months reenacting cons, manipulations, and emotional traps leaves them hyperaware of how easily people can be fooledand how quickly they themselves might overlook red flags if the right person asked in the right way.

Julia Garner has mentioned that portraying Anna Delvey made her more attuned to how we respond to status signals. In the show, a designer outfit, a confident walk, and a few name-drops are enough to get Anna comped hotel rooms and access to VIP spaces. Playing those scenes over and over, Garner couldn’t help noticing how often characters ignore practical concerns (“Who’s paying for this?”) because they’re dazzled by the performance of wealth. It’s a reminder that scams don’t just exploit greed; they also exploit our desire to feel important and connected.

Amanda Seyfried has reflected on the Silicon Valley culture that Elizabeth Holmes emerged fromthe endless buzzwords, TED Talk optimism, and pressure to “fake it till you make it.” By stepping into Holmes’s shoes, Seyfried had to understand how a smart, ambitious person might convince herself that cutting corners and hiding data were temporary shortcuts on the way to a world-saving breakthrough. That doesn’t excuse the fraud, but it does show how dangerously thin the line can be between startup hype and outright lying.

Actors working on scammer projects also become unofficial students of modern fraud. Ventimiglia’s work on The Company You Keep, Lopez’s on Hustlers, and the casts of various scam-focused shows and films often involve consulting with journalists, law enforcement, or even scam victims. They hear real stories of romance fraud, corporate swindles, and long-term confidence games that ruin lives. Many say they leave these productions with a new respect for basic safety checks: verifying emails, questioning “too good to be true” offers, and talking openly with loved ones about suspicious situations instead of hiding out of embarrassment.

Several scam-centered projects have even crossed over into public education territory, inspiring podcasts and documentaries that blend entertainment with practical advice on how to spot a con. As actors promote their shows, they’re frequently asked what viewers can learn from these stories beyond the drama. Their answers are remarkably consistent: pay attention to patterns of manipulation, not just individual lies; be wary of people who isolate you from your support system; and remember that scammers thrive on shame. The more we talk about scams, the harder it is for con artists to operate in the dark.

And then there’s the purely human side. Many performers say that after playing scammers, they have a sharper sense of how fragile identity can be. A scammer is, in many ways, a professional storyteller. They create a narrative about who they area rich heiress, a visionary CEO, a romantic soulmateand then sell it so hard that even they start to believe it. For actors, who make a living stepping into fictional lives, that can hit uncomfortably close to home. It invites the question: what parts of ourselves are authentic, and what parts are carefully curated for social media, work, or relationships?

Ultimately, actors talk about playing scammers as a strange mix of guilty pleasure and moral workout. The roles are juicy and fun, full of big speeches and flashy scenes, but they also demand serious thought about harm, responsibility, and the stories we tell about success. If there’s one thing they hope audiences take away, it’s not a desire to run the next big con. It’s a deeper curiosity about how scams workand a little more compassion for the people who get caught in them.

Conclusion: Why We Can’t Stop Watching the Con

Scam stories aren’t going anywhere. As long as people want quick money, instant status, and shortcuts to power, there will be real-life griftersand movies and series about them. For actors, these roles are an opportunity to explore some of the most extreme corners of human behavior: entitlement, desperation, charm, and self-delusion all rolled into one.

When actors talk about playing scammers, they rarely brag about how cool the character is. Instead, they talk about the responsibility of telling the truth, the emotional toll of living with that mindset, and the surprising empathy that comes from understanding how someone got so lost. They remind us that behind every wild headline is a complicated human beingand a trail of people trying to rebuild their lives.

So the next time you watch a con artist strutting through a penthouse in couture, remember: somewhere just off camera is an actor who spent months figuring out how to make that charm look effortless, that lie sound convincing, and that downfall feel inevitable. They’re not asking you to admire the scammer. They’re asking you to pay attention to the storyand maybe to double-check that “urgent” email from your bank when the credits roll.