Molly's Game, based on a true story, features an unnamed Hollywood actor known only as Player X, played by Michael Cera. Here's who he really is.
The real identity of Michael Cera's Player X in Molly's Game is quite a shocking revelation. Aaron Sorkin's directorial debut tells the true story of Molly Bloom, who orchestrated a multi-million dollar underground poker game with many celebrities sitting at her table. And Player X is based on one of those actors.
One who takes a central role in Molly's Game is an actor known as Player X. While Michael Cera plays him in the film, the Scott Pilgrim star isn't the real-life player. In Molly Bloom's book, on which the film is based, she names several Hollywood stars who could easily fill the role.
Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck, and Matt Damon are just a few of the A-list names that played in Molly's games. Still, it's Tobey Maguire who people think is most likely to be the basis for Player X. If that's true, it wouldn't paint the Spider-Man star in a very flattering light. Here's the actor who Player X is actually based on and how true to life Molly's Game is.
Molly's Game: Tobey Maguire Is Likely The Real-Life Player X
In Molly Bloom's memoir, Maguire's name comes up a lot and not always in the nicest way. He was an avid player and responsible for bringing certain people to the table originally run by Molly's former boss, who in the film goes by Dean Keith, a real estate agent who hires her to be his assistant in his office and at the poker game. The Molly's Game movie also implies that Player X had a lot of power and brought heavy hitters in. In addition, when Molly (Jessica Chastain) takes over the game, it is his approval she needs to pull off the coup successfully. In the Molly's Game book, she claims that Player X (Maguire) was integral to setting up her table and even lent her his own personal card shuffling machine to speed up hands.
This detail wasn't included in Molly's Game, or the fact that the actor allegedly asked her to bark like a seal to get a $1000 chip. However, it does show that Player X stole Molly's game, something the real Molly accused Maguire of. On the page, Bloom claims the actor started getting upset about the money she was making from tips — in real life she made $3000 on her first night alone. So, he ended up telling his celeb pals to host their own game instead. In the film, Player X steals her game after Molly calls him out for running another player at her table and potentially ruining its integrity. "You're so f*cked," he tells her over the phone while she's going to the empty hotel room that should have hosted her weekly game.
Molly's Game: Other Movie Stars Linked to Molly Bloom
Aaron Sorkin says that Molly's Game's Player X isn't just one actor, that he is an amalgamation of several celebrities who Molly wrote about. It's unclear who that might be, but other big stars known to frequent Molly's poker games include Ben Affleck, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, the Olsen Twins, and Macaulay Culkin, to name a few. Outside of actors, Molly's games were sometimes attended by professional athletes and other rich socialites. However, there seems to be another nod to Player X being Tobey specifically; one of the insults Molly directs at Player X is calling him a "green-screen sh*t," and Maguire's familiarity with a green screen from his Spider-Man days is well known. The actor upon whom Player X is allegedly based has yet to comment publicly about Molly's Game.
How True To Life Is Molly’s Game?
Molly's Game sticks pretty closely to the novel, with much of the story being shockingly true. One of the main differences is Molly's lawyer — played by Idris Elba in the film. Essentially, Charlie Jaffey is a fictional character that Aaron Sorkin designed specifically for the movie. He felt that portraying another real person on film would be too restrictive for the narrative. However, her real lawyer (Jim Walden) really did vouch for the $250,000 that she didn't possess. Another aspect that changed in the narrative was the Cobra Lounge. The real poker games took place in the Viper Room, a club partially owned by Johnny Depp, located on the Sunset Strip.
Some of the more disquieting events in Molly's Game, even the actor Player X's behavior, are true in the Aaron Sorkin movie. As per the movie, Maguire reputedly called her to tell her that she "lost the game." Furthermore, how she started the poker game and her resulting addiction were factual. After getting caught by the FBI, Molly's mother genuinely put up her house to help pay for her daughter's legal battles. And in 2014, Molly was charged and sentenced to one-year probation and 200 hours of community service. The sheer amount of money that went into the poker games in Molly's Game was astounding, just as it was in real life. The most that Molly ever saw someone lose was $100 million, which was paid in full the next day. Seeing the actor represented by Player X engage in such behavior was truly appalling – especially when one connects it to real-life celebrity, Tobey Maguire.
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