Prince sees himself as an ethical billionaire. Is there such a thing?

It’s an open question. There are billionaires who definitely do great things with their wealth, and their companies generate wealth for others, and they may be good people. I think the show is actually more interested in … There’s the cliché “Behind every great fortune is a great crime.” The other side of that is what the great fortune does to that person — what the power and wealth and resources do to a person’s soul, for lack of a better word.

In terms of my own opinion of it, it takes a big leap for me to imagine having that kind of wealth and hoarding it, keeping it for myself and doing whatever I have to do to grow it. I find it very hard to put myself in the shoes of someone like that. I understand greed and covetousness as much as anybody, but on that scale, I find it really difficult to conceptualize what would keep you underpaying your workers when you already have tens of billions of dollars.

I interviewed actor Corey Stoll about his role as Mike Prince, Billions‘ new antagonist/co-protagonist, for the New York Times. This should be in the print edition too sometime soon, so keep your eyes peeled!