I had watched him stare at the cards he was holding, knowing full well he had the winning hand but suddenly unsure after Tobey’s performance. “I swear on my mother’s life I have you beat,” he had said, convincingly and earnestly. When the other player-a weak link on the table that others were feasting on-folds, Player X flips his cards over to reveal he had nothing, tossing in a very satisfied, “Fuck you.” How it plays out in the movie: Player X’s introduction in the film comes in the middle of a tense hand, during which he assures his opponent he’s not bluffing, swearing on his mother’s life. Here are some of Bloom’s stories about Maguire that made it into Sorkin’s big-screen adaptation. It’s telling that in her book, Bloom is careful not to take shots at other celebrities-but she lets Maguire’s actions speak for themselves, and it’s all quite horrifying. That is true, but Maguire, as portrayed in the book and on screen by Cera, is more than that: He’s a sinister figure who takes pleasure in, as he puts it in the film, “destroying lives” of his fellow players, and eventually Bloom herself. Maguire’s poker prowess is already lore, but those who haven’t read Bloom’s book might just assume he’s a really good player who happens to be famous. Reading the book and watching the movie, it’s pretty easy to determine that Player X is actually the OG Spider-Man, Tobey Maguire. For each section, we’ll include excerpts from Bloom’s book. But because those anecdotes are still thoroughly interesting, let’s go through all of the stories behind Molly’s Game-starting with Player X’s true identity, and then touching on the stuff that didn’t make it into the movie. In Molly’s Game, Sorkin narrows the focus of the book while letting its less impactful anecdotes fall to the wayside. 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. Is he an amalgam of the poker players’ worst tendencies, wrapped up into one, smarmy character? In her time running the game, Bloom crossed paths with A-listers like Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck, Nelly, and even Alex Rodriguez, so there are many sources of inspiration for Player X, played by a twitchy Michael Cera in Molly’s Game. And when your movie is based on the memoir of the same name by Molly Bloom, who ran a real-life underground poker scene for the wealthy elite in the late 2000s, it isn’t very hard to convert that speculation into something tangible.
When you name a character “Player X” in a “based on a true story” movie, as Aaron Sorkin does in his directorial debut Molly’s Game, it only invites speculation about who that character represents.
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