Between 2007 and 2010, Molly Bloom organised and managed high-stakes poker games that attracted actors, athletes and businessmen including Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Alex Rodriguez, Andy Beal and our not-so-friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man, Tobey Maguire.
In 2013, Bloom was arrested on charges of running an illegal gambling operation. In 2014, she wrote a book about her experiences, a book that was eventually adapted to a movie in 2017, Molly’s Game, starring Jessica Chastain as Bloom.
In the movie, Michael Cera plays a douchebag celebrity, referred to as ‘Player X,’ who is shown to be the reason behind Bloom’s downfall.
Player X is Tobey Maguire.
And it turns out; he’s a real piece of work.
In both the book and the movie, Maguire is shown to be a vengeful, sinister and diabolical person who revels in destroying the lives of others.
According to the book, Maguire was unhappy that Bloom was raking in large sums of money as tips and eventually, he kicked Bloom out of the game.
Maguire changed the venue of the game without informing Bloom.
“You’re fucked,” he said gleefully.
“What does that mean, exactly?” I asked, trying not to cry.
“Arthur wants to have the game at his house from now on.” He sounded a little gentler when he heard the emotion in my voice.
It was obvious that this excluded me.
“Every week?” I asked, assessing the damage.
“Yeah.”
“Thanks for the heads-up.” I attempted to sound casual, but the words caught in my throat, and the tears were coming hard and fast.
In another incident, Maguire had brought his $17,000 card-shuffling machine to the game and forced Molly to use it and then charged her a $200 rental fee per use. He left small tips and would blow a fuse when he lost.
But perhaps the incident that best describes Maguire’s character happened earlier in the story.
It was a high stakes game - $50,000 buy-in, $2 million on the table. Affleck was there too. Maguire was having a bad night, and he decided to take it out on Bloom.
Tobey held a thousand-dollar chip in his hand. He flipped it over a couple times in his fingers.
“This is yours,” he said, holding it out.
“Thanks, Tobey,” I said, reaching my hand out.
He yanked the chip back at the last second.
“If … ” he said. “If you do something to earn these thousand dollars.” His voice was loud enough that some of the guys looked up to see what was happening.
I laughed, trying not to show my nerves.
“What do I want you to do?” he said, as if he were pondering.
The whole table was watching us now.
“I know!” he said. “Get up on that desk and bark like a seal.”
I looked at him. His face was lit up like it was Christmas Eve.
“Bark like a seal who wants a fish,” he said.
I laughed again, stalling, hoping he would play the joke out by himself and leave.
“I’m not kidding. What’s wrong? You’re too rich now? You won’t bark for a thousand dollars? Wowwww … you must be really rich.”
My face was burning. The room was silent.
“C’mon,” he said, holding the chip above my head. “BARK.”
“No,” I said quietly.
“No?” he asked.
“Tobey,” I said, “I’m not going to bark like a seal. Keep your chip.”
My face was on fire. I knew he would be angry, especially because he had now engaged the whole audience, and I wasn’t playing his game. I was embarrassed, but I was also angry.
After all I had done to accommodate this guy, I was also shocked. I had made sure I ran every detail of every game by him, changed the stakes for him, structured tournaments around him, memorized every ingredient in every vegan dish in town for him.
He had won millions and millions of dollars at my table, and I had catered to his every need along the way—and now he seemed to want to humiliate me.
He kept pushing it, his voice growing louder and louder. The other guys were starting to look uncomfortable.
“No,” I said, again, willing him to drop it.
He gave me an icy look, dropped the chip on the table, and tried to laugh it off, but he was visibly angry.
Every other celebrity is described as being friendly and gentlemanly. But not Maguire.
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