But because those anecdotes are still thoroughly interesting, lets go through all of the stories behind Mollys Gamestarting with Player Xs true identity, and then touching on the stuff that didnt make it into the movie. I looked back at him, praying my face wasnt as red as it felt. Kevin Washington chewed tobacco and spit into a cup; Tobey hated that, said Curtis. In researching the Molly's Game true story, we learned that initially the buy-in started at $10,000. Born on April 21, 1978, in Loveland, Colorado, Molly was a competitive mogul skier attempting to qualify for Olympics, but an unfortunate back injury ended her career. Knowing them makes the movie a little more fun, so here are the best onesincluding Maguires most egregious moment in Mollys Game. Molly is currently pregnant, and expecting a baby girl in 2022. 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. Molly's Game. . Many famous and wealthy individuals, including movie stars, investment bankers, and sports players, are involved in Dean's game. But if you dont see it, just remember: Tobey Maguire in real life is much more like Bad Peter Parker in Spider-Man 3 than Peter Parker in the original movie. The more insane details in the movie about Mollys experiences working with Keith are relatively true to life. His protagonist, Molly Bloom, is as driven as the subjects in The Social Network or Steve Jobs. Portrayed by Jeremy Strong in the Molly's Game movie and referred to as Reardon Green in the book, Molly's boss, Darin Feinstein, wasn't the most pleasant of men. However, Bloom says that, similar to the film, her criminal attorney, Jim Walden, did vouch for her for $250,000 that she didn't have. Brad is indicted for running a Ponzi scheme; Molly is investigated and questioned as to who attended her games. When Maguire invited Curtis to the actors Hollywood Hills home for a game in which players included lawyer Jon Moonves and billionaire scion Kevin Washington Curtis played it straight and was careful not to win too much. And at over two hours long, the film still feels tight and never fails to entertain. To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. Molly's Game. Harlan Eustice, a skilled, conservative, and successful player, joins Molly's game. He yanked the chip back at the last second. The Alabama passer is one of the smallest QB prospects to be pegged as a first-round pick. -Business Insider, It's somewhat obvious that "Player X" represents Tobey Maguire, who plays the biggest part in Bloom's memoir, but there's not an exact one-to-one correlation between the two. Not only does it deal with her career shift from a sportswoman to an underground poker empress, but it also dramatises the FBI investigation into her activities. Her persistence paid off. Mollys Game is a testament to the benefit of close relationships between the screenwriter, source material, and subject. Expand your knowledge of the Molly's Game true story by watching the Molly Bloom interview below. Maguire and Curtis arranged things with club co-owner Darin Feinstein. His opponent had gotten confused. 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. He went into cardiac arrest during a biopsy. The celebrities who played in Molly Bloom's poker games included (clockwise from top left): Tobey Maguire, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Alex Rodriguez, Macaulay Culkin, Ben Affleck and Pete Sampras. I thought that was reasonable, said Curtis. Desperate to turn things around, he lost weight. I had to write big checks for people that didn't pay. 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. If what Houston told me was true, Tobey owned Houston now, and they must have both known it. She's working on developing localized co-working spaces for women in an effort to build community. After a serious injury ruined her chances of skiing at the Olympics, Molly Blooms life changed direction. This is pretty much exactly how it unfolds in the movie. Some people just didnt have the stomach for those stakes.. Molly had nothing to do with anything, Curtis said. Dean Stinchcombe. Actors like Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck, and Macaulay Culkin became known participants in the underground poker scene after a court case turned public; the bank sued Molly for the money one of her players, Ponzi scheme runner Bradley Ruderman, had lost in the game. Men, no matter what age, ilk, or net worth, idolize a professional athlete. As based on the book by Molly Bloom, Molly's Game shows what happens to Molly (played by Jessica Chastain), . -People, "The very worst time I got screwed ended up costing me $250,000, and that really hurt," says Molly. "But I wrote the checkwhat are you going to do?" Molly Bloom ran the most exclusive high-stakes poker game for a decade before the FBI arrested her. Though Player X is a memorable character on the periphery of Mollys Game, the film is very much centered on Bloom as she weaves her way through the poker scene in Los Angeles and New York, before it eventually catches the attention of the FBI. But overall, theMollys Game true story remains intact, despite this fictional person being included. Salomon is probably best known for the sex tape he made with then-girlfriend Paris Hilton in 2004, but he's a big-time poker player in his own right: He won $2.8 million at the 2014 World Series. Chastain is magneticso focusing on her character was a solid choiceand as Sorkin told The Hollywood Reporter, he wanted to make Blooms riveting true story the center of his film, rather than the celebrities that inhabited the world she created. "I saw someone lose $100 million in a night," says Bloom, "and he paid the next day." [28], Peter Debruge of Variety praised Sorkin's script, saying, " Molly's Game delivers one of the screen's great female parts a dense, dynamic, compulsively entertaining affair, whose central role makes stunning use of Chastain's stratospheric talent. Despite his earnings, the million-dollar debt was more than he could afford. Did [her] ass have cellulite on it or was it nice? Salomon asked. Mollys Game takes its inspiration from both the memoir and close work between Sorkin and Bloom herself, so Bloom was there to fill in the details between 2014, when the book was published, and 2017, when the movie hit theaters. Molly declines this deal, fearing that the information about her players would be released, and she pleads guilty. With the deal done, Curtis writes, Maguire joyfully shouted, I own you now! Dean Keith. Back to the flashbacks - after her skiing accident Molly moves to LA, wanting to take some time off before going to law school and have some fun. They met and he was onboard for turning her story into a film. There, she begins working as a cocktail waitress and then an assistant to a Hollywood insider, Dean Keith (Jeremy Strong, nice and sleazy), who soon has Molly running his weekly poker night out of . Sorkin has certainly made a name for himself in the biopic scene, having written the screenplay for award winning films such as Charlie Wilsons War, The Social Network, Moneyball, and Steve Jobs. "I had left a huge mess of my life," says Molly. "I was on the U.S. -Vice, "The trajectory that I started out, from serving people drinks, then I became a game runner and operator, and then, ultimately, I became the bank," Molly explained. She has worked as a freelance writer since 2017, writing articles, features, and profiles in a wide range of topics, from business and tech to pop culture and media. Molly orchestrated the weekly poker games for Keith Dean, who didn't know the difference between a bed sheet and a spreadsheet. The connection between the names is clear, although the movies tweak does remove some of the history from the location. ""The feds first found out about it because a guy [hedge fund manager Bradley Ruderman] in my LA game was running a Ponzi scheme. Or else Id never be invited again, he said. [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. He also makes his directorial debut, which made his choice of director of photography . The film follows this storyline, giving narrative shape to the wild tale. This prompted her to take a percentage of the pot in order to operate as the bank, a move that caught the attention of the Feds. -EllenIn 2011, the group of hedge fund investors who had been taken in Bradley Ruderman's Ponzi scheme ended up suing Tobey Maguire and other celebrities. Initially, she just served drinks and we gave her numbers to call the guys.. She often found herself being stiffed cash she was owed. Molly's Game, based on a true story, features an unnamed Hollywood actor known only as Player X, played by Michael Cera. We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. -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. I looked at him. [35] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. 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. Although Bloom kept the identities of many of her regulars a. Months later, in April 2009, godsend Ruderman got busted for running his hedge fund as a Ponzi scheme. Reading the book and watching the movie, its pretty easy to determine that Player X is actually the OG Spider-Man, Tobey Maguire. Her players included Hollywood royalty . Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic both had 40-point games after the Sixers loss against the Mavs. She becomes his office manager, and is soon involved in running his underground poker games at "The Cobra Lounge". (Independently, Bloom was sentenced to a years probation, a $200,000 fine and 200 hours of community service for gambling-related infractions in NYC.). A big part of that was knowing that her mother had put her house up to help her pay her bail and legal fees. (Lalibert did not return requests for comment.). I laughed again, stalling, hoping he would play the joke out by himself and leave. Like in the film, she tried to learn as much as she could about poker through internet and personal research. While Molly did hire lawyers, Jaffey is an agglomeration, Sorkins way of integrating his point of view into the movie. He told The Post that the actor tried making her bark like a seal [for a $1,000 chip]. [15], On February 18, 2016, Sorkin offered Jessica Chastain the lead role in the film, but the negotiations between them had then not yet begun. "I was blown away by her performance by how right it was and how deep and understood I felt by her performance. Rent 3.49. In the spring of 1945, a grim era of bitter darkness, a young man and woman struggle for survival while fighting monsters born out of human greed. He wanted his principal plus 50 percent of Curtiss wins and no downside. When she refused, a man showed up at her door with a gun. The scene in the movie when he yells at Molly (Jessica Chastain) for buying "poor people bagels" is real, according to her memoir. But, Curtis writes, neither the movie nor Blooms own memoir tells the true story of the LA game. He was crass and dirty, but he was still hot in a caveman kind of way. Molly Bloom (born April 21, 1978) is an American entrepreneur, speaker, [1] and author of the 2014 memoir Molly's Game. Keep your chip.. High in the Clouds. Maguire, who, according to unnamed sources in the books introduction, could have made up to $30 to $40 million from the games had reportedly earned $36.5 million plus back-end earnings on the Spider-Man franchise, thought otherwise. "When I took in the personal inventory after the wreckage I had caused, the story itself seemed like the most monetizing asset so that I could be closer to paying these people back." In the new movie, adapted from Bloom's book of the same name, Player X is a . 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. He also glimpsed the stars petty side. Molly's Game received positive reviews, with particular praise for Sorkin's screenplay, as well as Chastain and Elba's performances, with the former being considered one of the best of her career by some critics. Based on a children's book by Paul McCartney. Salomon is probably best known for the sex tape he made with then-girlfriend Paris Hilton in 2004, but hes a big-time poker player in his own right: He won $2.8 million at the 2014 World Series of Poker's Big One for One Drop event. 2017 141 min NR (Not Rated) Drama, Biography Feature Film. 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. But Tobey said, Dont worry. So I started taking a percentage of the pot like Vegas does. Buy 9.99. Dean asks the players to tip her at the end of the night and, just like that, she's $3,000 richer. With skiing out of the picture, Molly still felt a great deal of pressure to be successful. A Secret Laundromat Meetup, New Jersey Episode 4, and Potomac Reunion Part 2. This seems to be in line with the tasteless persona of "Player X" in the Molly's Game movie. I moved into her tiny house and a doctor [said] that my heart was functioning at 25 percent. She's also working in social media to that end as well. But Maguire wasnt comfortable having players in his house. The movie even nods at this association by stating Player X had once portrayed a superhero; Maguire famously played Spiderman in the mid-2000s trilogy. Are the Lakers dead? The movie calls him Dean Keith; Blooms memoir calls him Reardon Green. Following a move to New York, a run-in with the mafia, drug addiction, and a major court case, the FBI eventually shut Bloom down. Written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, Molly's Game is a true-life story of the Olympic standard American skier, Molly Bloom. Whats wrong? -Ellen. After writing the book, she went around Hollywood trying to find a way to get a meeting with Aaron Sorkin. But I think he realized, like I had, that staying in Tobeys good graces was essential to staying in the game. When she meets with Jaffey, he's already read her memoir. On Tuesday nights from 2005 until 2009, bold-faced names including Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio and The Notebook director Nick Cassavetes flocked to The Viper Room or Beverly Hills Four Seasons Hotel to play. Curtis met Maguire at a 2004 poker game in Los Angeles. When the other playera weak link on the table that others were feasting onfolds, Player X flips his cards over to reveal he had nothing, tossing in a very satisfied, Fuck you., I swear on my mothers life I have you beat, he had said, convincingly and earnestly. Celebrities were brought in to add glamour and, occasionally, serve as collateral damage. Curtis claims Bloom was not the mastermind she purported to be and that she was primarily there to deflect attention so that he and Maguire could win millions without spooking their pals. So it goes for weeks and months. Is he an amalgam of the poker players worst tendencies, wrapped up into one, smarmy character? Why Are American Teens So Unhappy? Whats legacy, anyway? Dean, upon seeing that Molly is becoming increasingly independent in running the games, attempts to control, and then fires her. I dont have all my money back, he said. Overall, the changes between real life and Mollys Game were minor. He told me, Listen, I was never going to keep all those wins anyway, Curtis told the Observer. 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. 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.