With its fresh, irreverent take on one of the most widely covered stories of the century, comedy great Steve Carell has no qualms that his latest title, The Big Short, will rattle a few cages.

"If I were at a cocktail party and someone asked me what this movie is about, I'd say, 'Do you remember when subprime mortgages went bust and all these companies went out of business and not one person went to jail? Do you remember that? Do you remember how everything just exploded? And then the government came in and bailed everybody out and everything seemed OK? That's what this movie is about. It's a horror movie and way scarier than the way I just described it'," the actor teases.

Not the kind of small talk you may anticipate over a canape or two, but an honest explanation from one of the film's big stars nonetheless.

Helmed by director Adam McKay (renowned as the mastermind behind absurdist comedies like Step Brothers and Anchorman), The Big Short - an adaptation of Michael Lewis' bestselling book of the same name - transforms a dark chapter of American history into a riveting cautionary tale, shot through with black humour and quirky characters, in a way that's very Wolf Of Wall Street-esque.

If you're questioning just how 'riveting' a financial biopic can be, try celebrity cameos that clarify core concepts for the audience (Margot Robbie and Selena Gomez both feature), an ensemble cast of Carell, Brad Pitt, Christian Bale and Ryan Gosling, plus five Oscar nominations out for size.

When four outsiders see what the big banks, media and government regulators refuse to - namely the impending 2008 collapse of the global economy - they have an idea: The Big Short.

Their bold investment leads them into the dark underbelly of the modern banking industry, where they soon find they must question everyone and everything.

At the story's moral centre is the rage-filled hedge fund manager, known in the movie as Mark Baum (Carell), who runs Morgan Stanley subsidiary FrontPoint - and who fascinated the actor on multiple levels.

"Mark has a very strong moral compass, yet at the same time he's immersed in the world of Wall Street, so in that way, I think he's tortured," says 53-year-old Carell, celebrated for his iconic roles in the American version of The Office, The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Foxcatcher (for which he was Oscar nominated).

"Mark believes he's this knight in shining armour, even though there are chinks in that armour. Shorting the housing market starts out as a kind of screw-you to the banks; he's going to prove these guys wrong. But in the end, what does that victory mean in terms of human collateral? Who is really hurt?

"Mark is conflicted because he makes a ton of money from the banks that are screwing over ordinary middle-class people. That's a tough thing for him to resolve."

Carell, who reveals that a big part of mastering Baum was gaining 20-25lb and getting his 'big hair' just right ("Baum told me the reason his wife married him was because he had a huge mop of hair!"), says he found it beneficial to have met the real person behind the character.

"It's very generous when anyone avails themselves to something like that - to talk to you, knowing that you're going to depict them, or a version of them," he says. "And it's also a little weird, as you don't want to feel like you're dissecting them; you don't want them to feel odd in any way, that they're being observed of every hand movement, gesture, how they drink coffee...

"You don't want to feel like you're being disrespectful, but it is helpful to get a sense of who that person is."

Helping Baum in his crusade are indispensable analysts Danny Moses (Rafe Spall), Porter Collins (Hamish Linklater) and Vinny Daniel (Jeremy Strong). Away from Frontpoint, the film's colourful 'outsiders' include Dr Michael Burry, a San Jose-based neurologist-turned-money-manager with a penchant for showing up to work barefoot (Christian Bale); slick Deutsche Bank deal-maker Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling), and fresh-faced money managers Jamie Shipley and Charlie Geller (Finn Wittrock and John Magaro), who are helped by banker-turned-environmental-doomsayer Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt).

"I am still pinching myself that I'm in a film with Christian Bale," pipes Carell. "He's a phenomenal actor and such a good guy; I didn't get to meet him until we started doing press and he's so smart, funny and self-deprecating. He's unbelievably good in the movie too. I'm a huge fan.

"Bale's a consummate perfectionist," he continues. "Before I started filming, I talked to Adam McKay on the phone about character stuff and Christian had already started. He was talking about how great he was doing, how everyone loved him and how he had this fully formed character. I thought, 'Oh my gosh, I'm going to get on set and just stink comparatively'. It's intimidating to be in a movie with somebody like that."

Incredibly genuine and unassuming, Carell - a father-of-two and husband of 20 years to his wife Nancy Walls - does little to deter from his moniker of Hollywood's Mr Nice Guy, and insists that, despite his impressive repertoire, he never "expects" recognition for his work.

"I don't feel like I deserve any of it. It's a weird way to go through life, feeling like, 'Oh yeah, give it, give it to me'. I am just grateful."

The Big Short marks the latest of several collaborations with McKay, whom Carell first met when they were both performers in Chicago's Second City improv troupe and later re-teamed with in the Anchorman movies - each of which he claims has been "equally fun, but in completely different ways".

"Anchorman is so silly that you're laughing all day and you're just trying to think of silly, fun things to say or do.

"It's interesting working with the same director on a movie like this, because it's still really fun, but it's much more about character and what's going on internally with somebody, and how they're interacting with everybody else," says Carell, before adding with a laugh: "There's not a lot of character development in a movie like Anchorman."

:: The Big Short is released in UK cinemas on Friday, January 22