Kevin Washington chewed tobacco and spit into a cup; Tobey hated that, said Curtis. Buy 9.99. The guys included billionaires who had everything but fame. He lost $5 million [of his investors' money] in the game and they came after all of us. Like the time film producer Rick Salomon infamous for starring in a sex tape with Paris Hilton grilled Affleck about Jennifer Lopez, the actors former fiance. Wow, they are swingin, huh? he said, looking down at me. [DiCaprio] is a guy worth $80 million and he didnt want to put up the $5,000 buy-in. That led to bankruptcy attorneys going after players to recover his ill-gotten gains, and the game imploded. "Ultimately, it got to $250,000," Molly Bloom said during an interview on Ellen. Bloom also wrote that Maguire "was the worst tipper, the best player, and the absolute worst loser. And that was when I crossed over and broke a federal law. Maguire and Curtis arranged things with club co-owner Darin Feinstein. A half-century ago, Pink Floyd unleashed a classic that still lingers on the Billboard charts and in college dorms to this day. I wouldnt lie to you, man.. Oops. The stakes were so high, Curtis told The Post, that winning $20,000 felt like losing.. The $3,000 in tips comes straight from her memoir. A big part of that was knowing that her mother had put her house up to help her pay her bail and legal fees. Its telling that in her book, Bloom is careful not to take shots at other celebritiesbut she lets Maguires actions speak for themselves, and its all quite horrifying. Poker was blowing up big and we found young, wealthy guys who wanted to play with Tobey, said Curtis. The film follows this storyline, giving narrative shape to the wild tale. Please enter a valid email and try again. Like in the film, she tried to learn as much as she could about poker through internet and personal research. Her brother, Jeremy Bloom, was a two-time Olympian freestyle skier who was also a professional football player for the Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers. Shannon Lewis is a features and news writer on Screen Rant. Im not going to bark like a seal. The truth is, Player X is less of a collection of stories relating to different celebrities, and more of a stand-in for one star in specific. My face was on fire. In Mollys Game, it is called The Cobra Lounge, while the real-life poker games took place at The Viper Room, found on the Sunset Strip. Ski Team Athlete (uncredited) Synopsis Molly Bloom, a young skier and former Olympic hopeful becomes a successful entrepreneur (and a target of an FBI investigation) when she establishes a high-stakes, international poker game. She had trained for years to become an Olympic skier, but was injured while trying to qualify for the Olympics. I know! he said. Hey, yo, did that Jennifer Lopezs ass have cellulite on it, or was it nice?. -Vice, In 2014, Bloom, who was 36 at the time, was cleared of a number of the charges she was facing and was sentenced to one year probation, 200 hours of community service, and a $1,000 fine. Cmon, he said, holding the chip above my head. "Molly's Game " (2017) Cast: Jessica Chastain as Molly Bloom Idris Elba as Charlie Jaffey Kevin Costner as Larry Bloom Michael Cera as Player X Jeremy Strong as Dean Keith Chris O'Dowd as Douglas Downey J.C. MacKenzie as Harrison Wellstone Brian d'Arcy James as Brad Bill Camp as Harlan Eustice Graham . (Lalibert did not return requests for comment.). Washington D.C. 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That is, until the 2017 release of the crime-drama Molly's Game. Everything portrayed up until Molly moves to LA in Mollys Game is extremely accurate of the true story. Learn more about the full cast of Molly's Game with news, photos, videos and more at TV Guide. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, 'Babylon' review: Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie dazzle in this familiar showbiz tale, Comic book insider reveals John Malkovich as villain in canceled 'Spider-Man 4', Spider-Man fans respond to homophobic line cut from classic film, Andrew Garfield got stoned to Tobey Maguire: 'He's my Spider-Man'. Hailing from Queretaro, Mexico, she is a graduate of the University of East Anglia's English Literature with Creative Writing program. We ask all these burning questions, and more! She has experience in editorial working as the deputy editor for Specialty Food, an online and print magazine, curating its news section and social media. As Curtis told the Observer, he believes Maguire used his famous friend to get big fish to come to the table: Tobey was basically paying their entry fee, and using Leo as a lure to get these billionaires like Alec Gores and Andy Beal to come to the games.. Bloom herself was the one to approach Sorkin, rather than the other way around. After reaching out to many wealthy New Yorkers, Molly finds enough players for several weekly games. Molly earns large sums of money in tips alone. To me, his actions were in really bad taste. She became known as the "Poker Princess.". Yes. In real life, Bloom wrote in her memoir that Tobey Maguire once offered her a $1,000 tip to bark like a seal that wants a fish and then stormed off when she refused. Her dealer convinces her to begin taking a percentage of large pots, recouping her potential losses but making her game an illegal gambling operation. Curtis alleges in the book that Maguire hated seeing Bloom taking home as much as $30,000 in tips per night. The judge, deciding that she had committed no serious crimes, sentences her to 200 hours community service, one year probation, and a $200,000 fine. The scene in the movie when he yells at Molly (Jessica Chastain) for buying "poor people bagels" is real, according to her memoir. It's for men only, and we see how men like Molly's boss Dean Keith ( Jeremy Strong ), Player X (Cera), Douglas Downey ( Chris O'Dowd ), Bad Brad ( Brian d'Arcy James ), Harlan Eustice (. [29] The film expanded wide on January 5, 2018, alongside the opening of Insidious: The Last Key, and was projected to gross around $6 million from 1,608 theaters in its opening weekend. Molly, having contacts through years of running the game, creates her own poker games. He wanted his principal plus 50 percent of Curtiss wins and no downside. "[22], Principal photography began on November 9, 2016, in Toronto. In an episode of the hit reality-basedcomedy30 Rock, in which Sorkin also has a cameo, this style has been lovingly referred to by Tina Fey's Liz Lemon as "Sorkin-esque repartee." Apart fromthe way almost allof Aaron Sorkin's movies andTV shows are either directly based on true stories or loosely adapted from the experiences of real people, Sorkin is also known for his trademark use of perfectly-written quickfire dialogue, as popularized by TheWest Wing's "walk-and-talk" scenes. When it stays close to the poker table, Jessica Chastains drama, Mollys Game, is riveting but film loses focus in its last half when the games end. Bloom read in the newspaper that the FBI had arrested close to 125 individuals in a large-scale mob roundup. Harlan Eustice, a skilled, conservative, and successful player, joins Molly's game. 7.0/10.0 for great acting and dialogue . The Molly's Game true story reveals that, like in the movie, former freestyle mogul skier Molly Bloom had never made it to the Olympics, in part due to an injury. Maguires relationship with Bloom grew increasingly toxicat one point in the book, she admits she got nervous if the actor was a dealt a few bad hands because hed take out his frustration on her (and the generous tips she was making). When you name a character Player X in a based on a true story movie, as Aaron Sorkin does in his directorial debut Mollys Game, it only invites speculation about who that character represents. But by 2008, Curtis was enduring a trifecta of problems: The value of his $3 million home had dipped by two-thirds, a $4 million TV-distribution deal went south and he had lost $100,000 in Las Vegas. "So I was extending credit to these guys. ""The feds first found out about it because a guy [hedge fund manager Bradley Ruderman] in my LA game was running a Ponzi scheme. [24], Molly's Game premiered on September 8, 2017, at the Toronto International Film Festival. The so-called "Poker. A young woman, Molly ran high-stakes underground poker games that attracted high-profile Hollywood stars and wealthy criminals and eventually got her into trouble with the law. Summary: Molly's Game is the true story of Molly Bloom a beautiful, young, Olympic-class skier who ran the world's most exclusive high-stakes poker game for a decade before being arrested in the middle of the night by 17 FBI agents wielding automatic weapons. In real life, his name was Darin Feinstein, a co-owner of The Viper Room who brought Molly on as an executive assistant. Obviously Molly Bloom did hire lawyers, but Charlie Jaffey is a fictional character. So I started taking a percentage of the pot like Vegas does. In Molly Blooms high roller poker games, Tobey Maguire was a big jerk, Leonardo DiCaprio wore giant headphones, and Alex Rodriguez just liked to watch. She says that she wasn't willing to resort to violence in order to collect, and if she was vetting the players properly, she wouldn't have to worry about not getting paid. After crashing out of the qualifiers, Molly moves to Los Angeles and stumbles into running a poker game for her day-job boss Dean (Jeremy Strong, in full Succession-pilot sicko mode). Like in the movie, her boss fired her from his game, so she decided to utilize the contacts she made to start up a poker game of her own. The Viper Room, part-owned by Johnny Depp between 1993 and 2004, was a famous celebrity gathering point; it is where River Phoenix died from a drug overdose in 1993. In 2018, the movie was nominated in the 2018 Academy Award for the Best Adapted Screenplay category. It stars Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Kevin Costner, Michael Cera, Jeremy Strong, Chris O'Dowd, Joe Keery, Brian D'Arcy James, and Bill Camp . An Olympic-level skier whose plans for law school were derailed when she fell into the world of the exclusive poker games of Los Angeles, Bloom's life became prime movie material when she got. He said, Ill have a poker room set up downstairs and get a hot piece of ass named Molly to serve drinks, Curtis said of their introduction to Bloom, then an employee of Feinsteins. Maguire agreed to loan him $600,000. Kevin Costner and Michael Cera co-star. Additionally, she contacts club and casino employees to spread the word about her games. He told me, Listen, I was never going to keep all those wins anyway, Curtis told the Observer. 21:41. . See the full list of Molly's Game cast and crew including actors, directors, producers and more. Watch Molly's Game, Jeremy Strong - "Dean Keith" SoundbitesThe true story of Molly Bloom, a beautiful, young, Olympic-class skier who ran the world's most ex. First Assistant Camera. I had to write big checks for people that didn't pay. Here's who he really is. Leo was tighter than a gnats ass.. Molly's Game is based on the true story of Molly Bloom, an Olympic-class skier who ran the world's most exclusive high-stakes poker game for a decade before being arrested in the middle of the night by 17 FBI agents wielding automatic weapons. When Maguire convinced Bloom to increase the buy-ins for the L.A. games, he promised to bring Affleck into the fold. Molly's Game. But I think he realized, like I had, that staying in Tobeys good graces was essential to staying in the game. He yanked the chip back at the last second. [10] Bloom had already approached Sorkin, as he was her "favorite writer". As based on the book by Molly Bloom, Molly's Game shows what happens to Molly (played by Jessica Chastain), . The scene in which he yells at Molly for buying poor people bagels is something that actually happened, according to her memoir. Molly is currently pregnant, and expecting a baby girl in 2022. Writer/director Aaron Sorkin even gives a nod to the Spider-Man actor at one point, with a line about "Player X" portraying a superhero. Ill try to talk to him for you, he said awkwardly. Show more 2 hours, 9 minutes Last on Sun 27 Mar. The movie changes the name of the club, though. He went into cardiac arrest during a biopsy. Molly went home and started Googling, "What kind of music do poker players like to listen to?" The table was stunned into silence before Affleck replied: It was nice.. I pulled him aside to show him the board. Something went wrong. He owed $500,000 to Salomon and the same sum to a few other players. Effinger previously worked as a Research Assistant at the University of Colorado Denver. 'American Animal' sent to prison for stealing library book Canadian teacher with size-Z prosthetic breasts placed on paid leave, What's next for Buster Murdaugh after dad's murder conviction, life sentence, Murdaugh son collapsed outside court after sitting stone-faced through dad's 6-week murder trial: source, US home prices just did something they haven't done since 2012, Harry and Meghan hold the upper hand on King Charles coronation: Source, Hated Tom Sandoval addresses Ariana Madix split amid cheating claims, Kelly Osbourne posts first photo of baby son as he hangs out with uncle Jack, Kellyanne Conway and George Conway to divorce. Based on a children's book by Paul McCartney. . She pushes herself to learn everything she can about poker so she can bring Dean's . J. But, Curtis writes, neither the movie nor Blooms own memoir tells the true story of the LA game. [28] In its first full weekend, the film grossed $2.3 million, finishing 13th at the box office. [30] The following weekend it dropped 44% to $3.9 million, finishing 11th. I laughed again, stalling, hoping he would play the joke out by himself and leave. He wanted to make her feel included, said Curtis. He could have procured much better options. When she isn't busy reading everything ever published under the mantle of Image Comics, you might find her writing fiction, rock climbing, or putting together a horror anthology with friends. There were A-list actors, the most famous people we see on television, politicians, and they're all seated around this table playing this game that I didn't know what it was, but it seemed to be super compelling to them." So when the opportunity arises to work for a "real estate guy" named Dean Keith (Jeremy Strong)-true identity: Darin Feinstein, co-owner of the Viper Room-Molly happily accepts the position in addition to her cocktail waitressing job. So in 2005, the game moved to The Viper Room, the Sunset Strip nightclub where River Phoenix fatally overdosed in 1993. Despite continuous success, she fears being unable to cover her losses when players cannot pay. The actor pressed guests to tip Meyer, a successful jewelry designer who is also the daughter of Ron Meyer, a former Hollywood power agent and now the vice-chairman of NBCUniversal. X. . She eventually moved up from assistant to game-runner, making as much as $4 million a year while servicingMolly's Game's Player X and other high rollers. Whats different about the Sixers this year? Starring Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Kevin Costner, Michael Cera, Copyright 2023 HistoryvsHollywood.com, CTF Media, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, Molly's Game: The True Story of the 26-Year-Old Woman Behind the Most Exclusive, High-Stakes Underground Poker Game in the World. "I made this mix CD with 'The Gambler' on it and other really clichd songs," says Molly, "and I had a cheese plate, and my cutest outfit, and I walked into this room and it was incredible. Mit ihrem Bekannten Dean Keith (Jeremy Strong), der sich schon mit Pokerrunden auskennt, erweitert .