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.
