Playing for high stakes

> Jessica Chastain depicts the rise and fall of Hollywood’s hitherto unknown poker princess in the revealing Molly’s Game

Molly’s Game far right) stakes from her illustrious clientele, fuelled by cocaine. At her height, Bloom claimed to be making US$4 million (RM15.65 million) a year, but things fell apart when she made the mistake of insisting on a cut of the pot, rather than just making her living from tips, which pushed her activities into the bracket of organised crime. Her dealings also came to the notice of Mafia mobsters, who began demanding their own share, before one of her games was raided by FBI agents and all her possessions were seized. “To understand how she got trapped by these people, this was hard and I think I was guilty of some judgment,” California native Chastain told AFP.

“We as a society have fallen to the pattern of blaming women for things, the way they look, dismissing them, shaming them for revealing their bodies. I absolutely had that judgment before I met her.”

Valued for her discretion, Bloom was privy to some of the darkest and most valuable secrets of the rich and famous.

Bloom’s 2014 memoir shocked and amused Hollywood with its tales of A-list poker parties.

Charmed by Ben Affleck – “he’s nice to everyone,” she says – Bloom was less impressed by Spider-Man actor Tobey Maguire, describing him as “the worst tipper, the best player, and the absolute worst loser”.

Bloom wrote that the Seabiscuit star once told her to “bark like a seal who wants a fish” for a US$1,000 (RM3,912) chip. She refused.

Chastain says Molly’s Game director Aaron Sorkin may well be the best screenwriter in Hollywood.

“I studied the classics – Shakespeare, Chekhov and Ibsen – and he has this way, he has a rhythm just like Shakespeare had,” said Chastain.

“Aaron’s dialogue is like that. So if you drop the ball on that pace, you lose it. So I wanted to be word perfect on his script.”

At the heart of the Molly’s Game is the relationship between Molly and her lawyer, Charlie Jaffey (Idris Elba), who encourages her to cooperate with the police and give up her celebrity former clients.

“She gives away piece after piece of who she is, and she goes to Jaffey’s office and you kind of see this shell of this person: ‘They took all my money so they could give it back to me for all this gossip’,” said Chastain.

Bloom stopped cooperating, but avoided jail time when she was sentenced in 2014 to a year probation after admitting to being a key player in an illegal US$100 million (RM391.2 million) gambling ring.

“She goes: ‘My name is Molly Bloom – this is who I am –’ and it’s the first time in the movie she does that,” said Chastain, explaining Bloom’s change of heart.

“I don’t see it as protecting others, I see it as, for the first time, protecting herself and her integrity.” – AFP-Relaxnews

Molly’s Game is now showing in cinemas nationwide.