Rieder: Journalist ready for her close-up in Madoff film

If it were a movie, you probably wouldn’t believe it. Journalist writes well-received book on disgraced financier Bernie Madoff. HBO decides to make a movie based on the book starring Robert De Niro and directed by Barry Levinson.  Author is, amazingly, asked to take a couple of screen tests. She hits it out of the park, and she ends up being cast to play herself in the movie, making her film debut at age 66.

"Ya got the part, kid," De Niro tells her after the second screen test.

Improbable, yes, but entirely true. It's the story of Diana Henriques, the longtime New York Times financial reporter and author of Wizard of Lies, the definitive account of Madoff's record-setting Ponzi scheme that swindled customers out of $65 billion.

I've known Henriques for a long time, since she worked for me at the Trenton Times in New Jersey, where I was the managing editor and she was an ace investigative reporter.  Her intelligence, tenacity, drive and ability to develop sources made her a formidable force -- she broke numerous stories for us about Abscam, the corruption scandal depicted in the Bradley Cooper/Jennifer Lawrence film American Hustle. I'm hardly surprised she became a New York Times star and a successful author. But I can't say I saw the movie actress thing coming. Then again, neither did Henriques.

"It's flabbergasting," she says. "It's out of the blue. Not in a million years did I think this would happen. It's very cool."

So how did Henriques complete the journey from the mean streets of Trenton to the screen? She walked me through it in a recent telephone interview.

There was Hollywood interest in making a movie based on Wizard of Lies immediately after the book came out in 2011. And De Niro's Tribeca Enterprises had the most interest. In an early conference call, De Niro told Henriques, "I am Bernie Madoff." "It was clear he wanted that role," Henriques says. HBO Films wanted to make the film, and within three weeks there was a deal, in which Henriques would serve as a consultant.

But things slowed down quite a bit after that lightning-fast start. The script went through a number of revisions; the deal was extended several times and was due to run out early this year. "It's been a roller-coaster ride," Henriques says.

Which takes us to January. Henriques was doing research for her next book, about the 1987 financial collapse. She checked her cellphone and there were 18 messages. "HBO had gotten the script back, and they could see how to make this a movie," says Henriques, who pronounces herself thrilled with the script. "I'm the only happy adapted author in America," she says.

Things have moved swiftly since then. Levinson — director of, among many other movies, Rain Man, Wag the Dog and four magnificent Baltimore movies starting with Diner — signed on to direct. Last week Michelle Pfeiffer joined up to play Madoff's wife, Ruth.

To learn more about the man he would soon be playing, De Niro wanted to talk to Henriques about Madoff, whom she had interviewed in prison. Over coffee at the Four Seasons in New York City on June 15, they talked about the master con man for two-and-half hours. Soon the author was asked to come in for a screen test — De Niro's idea. At first Henriques thought it was a joke. But on July 21, there she was, reading the part of Diana Henriques at HBO's New York offices with casting director Ellen Chenoweth playing Madoff and Levinson looking on.

De Niro watched the video and liked what he saw. He wanted Henriques to do it again, which she did two days after the first screen test, this time with De Niro playing Madoff.

"One minute in, he dropped out of his own head and into Bernie's," Henriques says. "I felt like I was interviewing Madoff."

Soon the part was hers. Shooting starts this month. Her role, she says, is far more than a cameo. She has about seven scenes and does all the voiceovers, "a Greek chorus kind of thing."

While clearly excited about her film debut, Henriques freely admits she is not a "movie maven" — she's more into books. Despite her Abscam heroics, she hasn't seen American Hustle, although she says it's on her list. She assures me she won't be joining me at any Quentin Tarantino movies — "gory and bloody are not for me." Her taste runs toward "biopics, smart sassy movies."

So will we soon be seeing Henriques showing up on red carpets? Will we be reading about her exploits in the tabloids? Maybe not.

"I'm working on the road to Black Monday," she says, "and that's not compatible with the places the tabloids write about."