美国国家公共电台 NPR Molly Bloom And Aaron Sorkin On The Real Story Behind 'Molly's Game'

 

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

You don't have to be a movie buff to know Aaron Sorkin. You know him from movies like "The Social Network," "Steve Jobs" and "Moneyball" and television shows like "The West Wing." Over more than two decades of screenwriting, Sorkin has made a name for himself as a master of crackling dialogue, complex character study and nail-biter political drama. Sorkin's latest film has all of that and something else. It's his first time in the director's chair.

The film is called "Molly's Game." It's a fictionalized account of a real person named Molly Bloom, an Olympic-level skier¹ whose athletic² career ends in a dramatic wipeout. Looking for a change of pace and for something to occupy her time before she goes to law school, she stumbles into the world of underground high-stakes celebrity³ poker⁴ games. Next thing you know, she's in the sights of the Russian mafia and U.S. prosecutors⁵.

Molly Bloom is portrayed⁶ by Jessica Chastain. Here's a clip from "Molly's Game." It's a scene where she's confronted by one of her celebrity clients, played by Michael Cera, over control of the weekly game.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MOLLY'S GAME")

MICHAEL CERA: (As Player X) These guys want to play cards with me, not you.

JESSICA CHASTAIN: (As Molly Bloom) Be that as it may...

CERA: (As Player X) You know who the biggest winner in this game is?

CHASTAIN: (As Molly Bloom) It's you.

CERA: (As Player X) You know the second biggest winner is?

CHASTAIN: (As Molly Bloom) Look.

CERA: (As Player X) It's you. What are you taking home, 10,000 a night now?

CHASTAIN: (As Molly Bloom) That is my business - literally⁷.

CERA: (As Player X) Between you, the dealers⁸ and the servers, you're taking a lot of money out of this game.

CHASTAIN: (As Molly Bloom) Not as much as I'm bringing to it.

CERA: (As Player X) That 10,000 is 10,000 that doesn't go in my pocket.

CHASTAIN: (As Molly Bloom) Again, my money...

CERA: (As Player X) Your money is my money.

MARTIN: And Aaron Sorkin is with us now from our studios in New York. Aaron Sorkin, thanks so much for speaking with us.

AARON SORKIN: Well, thanks for having me.

MARTIN: A lot of your films have focused on larger-than-life figures like Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs. What was it that drew you to this story, the story of Molly Bloom?

SORKIN: Well, you know, I was asked to read the book by an entertainment lawyer I know socially. And then I was asked to meet with Molly. And I read the book. The book is a wild ride. It's the true story of Molly Bloom, who in her 20s and 30s ran the world's most exclusive high-stakes underground poker game. CEOs, billionaires, movie stars, sports figures, politicians would win or lose millions of dollars in the course of a night at Molly's table, sometimes in the course of one hand. And so I read the book and did not think it was something that I'd want to make a movie out of. It wasn't until a couple of days later when I sat down with Molly Bloom and saw that the book was just the very tip of a very large and complicated iceberg⁹ that I began to get interested.

What I discovered was that Molly was an honest-to-God real-life movie heroine found in an unlikely place, that this was a morality tale of doing the right thing when the wrong thing is easier, more profitable, more expedient¹⁰, that it was a story about decency¹¹ and that it wasn't a story about all the shiny objects, the decadence¹², the money, the glamour¹³, the Hollywood boldface names, the poker. That was the backdrop for a much more personal and much more emotional and much more inspirational story.

MARTIN: Was decency important to you, decency at the heart of it, was that important to you?

SORKIN: Incredibly important. I like meditations¹⁴ on decency under any circumstances. In the times that we're living in now, when you come face-to-face with decency, it's like a cold glass of water in the middle of a desert. And that's what happened when I met Molly Bloom. Molly is a brilliant woman. When we meet her at the beginning of the movie, she has a gold-plated future. Her whole life is ahead of her.

Molly was ranked third in North America in women's moguls and was on the U.S. Ski Team and is about to, at the top of the movie, run the third and final qualifying round to make the Olympic ski team. She's going to do that, then she's going to go to Harvard Law School with an Olympic medal around her neck. And then she's going to start a foundation that seeds entrepreneurial women. And she comes 100 yards from that goal, when just a fluke accident happens that sends her off course, both literally and metaphorically¹⁵, into this crazy world of underground poker instead of that perfect life that she was supposed to be living.

MARTIN: You started working on this film quite some time ago, but it's coming out now...

SORKIN: Yes.

MARTIN: ...In this moment. You know, you're telling a story about a woman navigating¹⁶ a world of powerful, sometimes abusive men who make all the rules, and she's trying to figure out her place in it. And I'm just wondering if you, you know, feel like this adds to that conversation in some way that you may not have anticipated at the time, which how could you have? But I don't know. What do you think now?

SORKIN: Well, I would happily trade the fortuitous timing¹⁷ of the movie for a world in which it wasn't quite as relevant as it is right now. Obviously, yes, first of all, let me confirm that Molly does navigate¹⁸ a world of very powerful men, that oftentimes these men are less than respectful...

MARTIN: Jerks.

SORKIN: Yeah, they're jerks. They're jerks. And moreover, when one of these powerful men feels that Molly is not sufficiently¹⁹ impressed by their power or is paying more attention to another powerful man than they're paying to powerful man number one, they ruin her. They end her. And there's a contradiction there because they're all also in love with Molly. You know, there's some misogyny going on there. So it is very much reflective of what's going on today. I think it was probably reflective of what was going on 50 years ago, too. It's just that sunlight has been poured on this for the last couple of months ever since the Ronan Farrow and New York Times exposes of Harvey Weinstein.

MARTIN: You know, before I let you go, I was reading some of the background notes for the film which, you know, the studios make available before you do an interview. They kind of tell you what the filmmaker's thoughts were, and they interview key people. And one of the things that was interesting in the liner notes for you is that it said that you didn't want to name names. You didn't want it to be a gossip film. You didn't want the audience to sit around wondering, who were these celebrities²⁰ at these poker games?

You know, now that we're in a moment where people are holding powerful people accountable for their bad conduct, I wonder, is there any part of you that regrets not naming some of those names of people who behave badly toward Molly?

SORKIN: I think that you're asking a very interesting question. So I want to - I want to answer this is as fulsomely²¹ as I can. No, right from the very beginning, I knew that I didn't want to gossip about anybody. I don't like gossip. And I think that we're living in a time of gossip. I think that social media has served as a force accelerator.

Moreover, if you're going to make a movie where your heroine is heroic because she refuses to, as you put it, name names, to gossip about people, even though it would mean that she would, you know, all of her money is taken away by the government even though it means she would get her money back, be able to restart her life, guarantee her freedom, she'd be kept out of jail - she still refuses to name names. She still refuses to talk about guys who weren't very good to her. But what you're asking is if Molly was sexually harassed²² or even, God forbid, sexually abused by one of these guys, that is - that's still a noble thing that she's keeping it to herself.

And let me try to answer the way I think Molly would answer that question. Molly would do anything to protect someone, to warn someone if they were in danger, OK, if they were about to go on a date with or have a meeting with or audition²³ for someone that Molly knew to be dangerous. But that wasn't the case here. Molly also - because I talked to her about the culture we find ourselves in now, what's going on, you know, the Me Too movement.

And Molly distinguishes and thinks it's important to distinguish between boorish²⁴ behavior, piggish behavior and dangerous behavior. So I think that's the answer that Molly would give. And I think that Molly is a more credible²⁵ source on this than I am, so I'm going to give you Molly's answer while I kind of take some time to listen to everyone else before I give you mine.

MARTIN: That's Aaron Sorkin. He is an Oscar-and-Emmy-winning writer. He directed his latest film. It's called "Molly's Game," and it is out nationwide on January 5. He was nice enough to join us from our studios in New York. Aaron Sorkin, thank you so much for speaking with us and Happy Holidays to you.

SORKIN: Thank you very much and Happy Holidays to you.

MARTIN: And we had the chance to put some of those questions to the real Molly Bloom. You can hear that interview tomorrow.

(SOUNDBITE OF EKALI AND ZHU'S "BLAME")

1 skier   

n.滑雪运动员

参考例句：

• She is a skier who is unafraid of danger.她是一名敢于冒险的滑雪者。
• The skier skimmed across the snow.滑雪者飞快地滑过雪地。

2 athletic   

adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的

参考例句：

• This area has been marked off for athletic practice.这块地方被划出来供体育训练之用。
• He is an athletic star.他是一个运动明星。

3 celebrity   

n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望

参考例句：

• Tom found himself something of a celebrity. 汤姆意识到自己已小有名气了。
• He haunted famous men, hoping to get celebrity for himself. 他常和名人在一起, 希望借此使自己获得名气。

4 poker   

n.扑克；vt.烙制

参考例句：

• He was cleared out in the poker game.他打扑克牌，把钱都输光了。
• I'm old enough to play poker and do something with it.我打扑克是老手了，可以玩些花样。

5 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

6 portrayed   

v.画像( portray的过去式和过去分词 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• Throughout the trial, he portrayed himself as the victim. 在审讯过程中，他始终把自己说成是受害者。
• The author portrayed his father as a vicious drunkard. 作者把他父亲描绘成一个可恶的酒鬼。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

7 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

8 dealers   

n.商人( dealer的名词复数 )；贩毒者；毒品贩子；发牌者

参考例句：

• There was fast bidding between private collectors and dealers. 私人收藏家和交易商急速竞相喊价。
• The police were corrupt and were operating in collusion with the drug dealers. 警察腐败，与那伙毒品贩子内外勾结。

9 iceberg   

n.冰山，流冰，冷冰冰的人

参考例句：

• The ship hit an iceberg and went under.船撞上一座冰山而沉没了。
• The glacier calved a large iceberg.冰河崩解而形成一个大冰山。

10 expedient   

adj.有用的，有利的；n.紧急的办法，权宜之计

参考例句：

• The government found it expedient to relax censorship a little.政府发现略微放宽审查是可取的。
• Every kind of expedient was devised by our friends.我们的朋友想出了各种各样的应急办法。

11 decency   

n.体面，得体，合宜，正派，庄重

参考例句：

• His sense of decency and fair play made him refuse the offer.他的正直感和公平竞争意识使他拒绝了这一提议。
• Your behaviour is an affront to public decency.你的行为有伤风化。

12 decadence   

n.衰落，颓废

参考例句：

• The decadence of morals is bad for a nation.道德的堕落对国家是不利的。
• His article has the power to turn decadence into legend.他的文章具有化破朽为神奇的力量。

13 glamour   

n.魔力，魅力；vt.迷住

参考例句：

• Foreign travel has lost its glamour for her.到国外旅行对她已失去吸引力了。
• The moonlight cast a glamour over the scene.月光给景色增添了魅力。

14 meditations   

默想( meditation的名词复数 )； 默念； 沉思； 冥想

参考例句：

• Each sentence seems a quarry of rich meditations. 每一句话似乎都给人以许多冥思默想。
• I'm sorry to interrupt your meditations. 我很抱歉，打断你思考问题了。

15 metaphorically   

adv. 用比喻地

参考例句：

• It is context and convention that determine whether a term will be interpreted literally or metaphorically. 对一个词的理解是按字面意思还是隐喻的意思要视乎上下文和习惯。
• Metaphorically it implied a sort of admirable energy. 从比喻来讲，它含有一种令人赞许的能量的意思。

16 navigating   

v.给（船舶、飞机等）引航，导航( navigate的现在分词 )；（从海上、空中等）横越；横渡；飞跃

参考例句：

• These can also be very useful when navigating time-based documents, such as video and audio. 它对于和时间有关的文档非常有用，比如视频和音频文档。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Vehicles slowed to a crawl on city roads, navigating slushy snow. 汽车在市区路上行驶缓慢，穿越泥泞的雪地。 来自互联网

17 timing   

n.时间安排，时间选择

参考例句：

• The timing of the meeting is not convenient.会议的时间安排不合适。
• The timing of our statement is very opportune.我们发表声明选择的时机很恰当。

18 navigate   

v.航行，飞行；导航，领航

参考例句：

• He was the first man to navigate the Atlantic by air.他是第一个飞越大西洋的人。
• Such boats can navigate on the Nile.这种船可以在尼罗河上航行。

19 sufficiently   

adv.足够地，充分地

参考例句：

• It turned out he had not insured the house sufficiently.原来他没有给房屋投足保险。
• The new policy was sufficiently elastic to accommodate both views.新政策充分灵活地适用两种观点。

20 celebrities   

n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉

参考例句：

• He only invited A-list celebrities to his parties. 他只邀请头等名流参加他的聚会。
• a TV chat show full of B-list celebrities 由众多二流人物参加的电视访谈节目

21 fulsomely   

参考例句：

• She chatted to them about the show and praised them fulsomely. 她和他们聊起了演出，把他们捧上了天。 来自柯林斯例句

22 harassed   

adj. 疲倦的，厌烦的 动词harass的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He has complained of being harassed by the police. 他投诉受到警方侵扰。
• harassed mothers with their children 带着孩子的疲惫不堪的母亲们

23 audition   

n.(对志愿艺人等的)面试(指试读、试唱等)

参考例句：

• I'm going to the audition but I don't expect I'll get a part.我去试音，可并不指望会给我个角色演出。
• At first,they said he was too young,but later they called him for an audition.起初，他们说他太小，但后来他们叫他去试听。

24 boorish   

adj.粗野的，乡巴佬的

参考例句：

• His manner seemed rather boorish.他的举止看上去很俗气。
• He disgusted many with his boorish behaviour.他的粗野行为让很多人都讨厌他。

25 credible   

adj.可信任的，可靠的

参考例句：

• The news report is hardly credible.这则新闻报道令人难以置信。
• Is there a credible alternative to the nuclear deterrent?是否有可以取代核威慑力量的可靠办法？