美国国家公共电台 NPR The Real Molly Bloom

 

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Yesterday, we spoke¹ with screenwriter and director Aaron Sorkin about his new film "Molly's Game." The film tells the story of Molly Bloom, a driven young competitive skier² vying³ for a spot at the Olympics whose athletic⁴ career ends in a dramatic wipeout. She decides to work as a cocktail⁵ waitress while waiting to start her next high-pressure career as a lawyer. But instead, she stumbles into the world of exclusive underground high-stakes celebrity⁶ poker⁷ games. And then she gets into the sights of the Russian mafia and U.S. prosecutors⁸. All that's in the first few minutes of the film, by the way.

But at its core, the film is about a woman trying to make her way in a man's world, where men make all the rules. That is so much of the moment right now, we thought we should ask the real Molly Bloom to tell us her story in her own words. And she's with us now from our studios in New York City. Molly Bloom, thanks so much for speaking with us.

MOLLY BLOOM: Thanks for having me.

MARTIN: For people who don't know your story yet, the Poker Princess, just give us a sense of who you were in your early 20s when all this started.

BLOOM: You know, you mentioned that I was on the U.S. Ski Team. I had a pretty horrific crash on my Olympic qualifying run. I was a very serious student and had just taken the LSATs and was in the process of applying to some top-tier law schools. And after I quit the U.S. Ski Team, there was a fair amount of, you know, grief that follows that. And I just wanted to take a year off. And I had a friend that lived in Los Angeles, said I could crash on his couch. And so I just kind of did the first really spontaneous thing I'd done in my young adult life.

And my parents cut me off, and so I needed to get several jobs. And one of them was working for a guy who had a nightly poker game. And he said, part of your responsibilities from here on out is you're going to help me with this poker game. And I walked into this room, and I looked around the table at the nine or 10 seats. And I saw some of the most famous people in today's world. I saw some of the richest and some of the most powerful. And I was a fly on the wall. And I'm privy⁹ to all this inside information about all these different industries.

I say in the book, you know, poker was this Trojan horse, this access into all these subsets of society. And at the end of the night, people were tipping me. And I made more money that night than I had made the whole month. From there, I studied the game for a year and brought drinks and handled buy-ins and everything and learned everything I could possibly, you know, Google about poker and about the language and what was happening.

And after a year, I took over the game. And I started my own games. And then I became the owner-manager, and I had a fair amount of power and influence because I was controlling this list, that everybody wanted to be a part of this game. And then ultimately, I also became - I started bankrolling the game and extending credit. And so, you know, that's a little bit about where I was.

MARTIN: What was the appeal? I mean, was it being with all these famous people? Was it a sense of power? What was the appeal?

BLOOM: I would say the appeal was financial. The appeal was access. The appeal was power. You know, I grew up in a very high-achieving family. I have a brother who's a Harvard-educated cardiothoracic surgeon. My other brother is a two-time Olympian, fifth-round draft pick for the Philadelphia Eagles and an entrepreneur and philanthropist. And so I was looking for this thing that would make me feel validated¹⁰, make me feel like someone, make me feel significant. And I sort of found it in this strange way in this world.

MARTIN: As Jessica Chastain plays you in the movie - I don't know how you feel about the movie, by the way.

BLOOM: I love the movie.

MARTIN: Do you like it?

BLOOM: I think it - I mean, I just - it's - I'm so humbled¹¹ by Aaron writing it and Jess - and all these incredible actors. And just seeing this movie, I was so honored. I find it to be an extraordinary movie.

MARTIN: But, you know, as Jessica Chastain plays you as like you have kind of ice water in your veins¹². And, you know, Aaron Sorkin has been criticized in the past for having female characters who weren't fully¹³ fleshed out or for feeling as if - there are those who say, look, these are a man's idea of what women are like, OK. And I wonder, did you feel as tough as Jessica Chastain makes you out to be?

BLOOM: You know, it's interesting. I didn't get the sense watching Jessica that she has ice water in her veins. I get the sense that she has a lot of humanity, that she cares deeply about doing the right thing and about protecting people. I really didn't experience her as cold. I experienced her as ambitious. And I think that we get our lines crossed oftentimes when we see an ambitious woman and we just label them cold.

MARTIN: I'm interested in you actually because she's made up. I'm interested in you. Do you see yourself as having, like, ice water in your veins or did you - how do you see yourself?

BLOOM: I've always been very ambitious and very determined¹⁴ and very compassionate¹⁵ at the same time.

MARTIN: There are a lot of these stories right now about power, masculinity and abuse. You wrote your book years ago. The movie was in production - has been in production long before these current stories came out. But I wonder, you find yourself worried for these women in a way - does that make sense? - in a way that you might not have a year ago before we knew what some of the other things that were going on. Does that make sense? Do you understand what I'm saying?

BLOOM: Oh, I think there's a lot of that. I want to make a pretty clear distinction here because my experience was of a different sort. It was just being disenchanted and being very sick of oppressive men and having to play by their rules. You know, there wasn't this abuse, you know, that we're seeing, but there was just this unfair sort of unjust application of power that I just constantly felt like I was coming up against, from growing up with a hard-driving sort of type A father and coaches and bosses and then players and then government.

But I also never really saw myself as a victim there because, for me, it just felt, you know, like that was a powerless situation. I tried to circumvent¹⁶ it. I tried to find my way around it. But I think it's a brave new world that we're seeing, that we really can have a voice. And we don't have to do this alone necessarily. There's clear power and progress from coming together.

MARTIN: And when we were talking to Aaron Sorkin about the film and what attracted him to your story, he said it was your fundamental decency¹⁷.

BLOOM: That's very nice of him.

MARTIN: Well, he said - quoting accurately¹⁸ - he said that, at first, he didn't want to do a gossip movie where people would be wondering like, who is this person? Who's that person? And then he realized that you had been prosecuted¹⁹ and now have a - what's the word I'm looking for here? A criminal.

BLOOM: I'm a - felony.

MARTIN: You're a felon²⁰.

BLOOM: I'm a felon, yeah (laughter).

MARTIN: You're a convicted felon...

BLOOM: I am, yes.

MARTIN: ...In part because you wouldn't name names. Why was that so important to you?

BLOOM: So this is sort of the way I looked at that. I made these choices. I profited greatly from these choices. And to turn around when I was in trouble and take people down with me felt wrong. And it felt like - when I looked at it, I believe that I have the ability to make more money. Because, you know, the Feds seized all my assets. And there was discussion that they would give the money back if I cooperated. I didn't do that. And then they took it a step farther and said there was discussion about clearing the record.

So looking at those two situations, I felt - I feel very confident that I could make money again, that I can be successful again. And I feel confident that, you know, not looking forward to it but that I could survive a couple of years of jail. The foregoing my integrity and, you know, stepping on other people and the sort of collateral²¹ damage to their families and everything, that felt like a life sentence.

MARTIN: That's Molly Bloom. She's the author of "Molly's Game." That's also the name of the new film by writer-director Aaron Sorkin which tells a fictionalized version of Molly's story. That film is out nationwide on January 5. Molly Bloom was nice enough to join us from our studios in New York. Molly, thanks so much for speaking with us.

BLOOM: Thanks, you too.

(SOUNDBITE OF CITY OF THE SUN'S "SUGAR")

1 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 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。

3 vying   

adj.竞争的；比赛的

参考例句：

• California is vying with other states to capture a piece of the growing communications market.为了在日渐扩大的通讯市场分得一杯羹，加利福尼亚正在和其他州展开竞争。
• Four rescue plans are vying to save the zoo.4个拯救动物园的方案正争得不可开交。

4 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。

5 cocktail   

n.鸡尾酒；餐前开胃小吃；混合物

参考例句：

• We invited some foreign friends for a cocktail party.我们邀请了一些外国朋友参加鸡尾酒会。
• At a cocktail party in Hollywood,I was introduced to Charlie Chaplin.在好莱坞的一次鸡尾酒会上，人家把我介绍给查理·卓别林。

6 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。

7 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。

8 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。

9 privy   

adj.私用的；隐密的

参考例句：

• Only three people,including a policeman,will be privy to the facts.只会允许3个人，其中包括一名警察，了解这些内情。
• Very few of them were privy to the details of the conspiracy.他们中很少有人知道这一阴谋的详情。

10 validated   

v.证实( validate的过去式和过去分词 )；确证；使生效；使有法律效力

参考例句：

• Time validated our suspicion. 时间证实了我们的怀疑。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The decade of history since 1927 had richly validated their thesis. 1927年以来的十年的历史，充分证明了他们的论点。 来自辞典例句

11 humbled   

adj. 卑下的，谦逊的，粗陋的 vt. 使 ... 卑下，贬低

参考例句：

• The examination results humbled him. 考试成绩挫了他的傲气。
• I am sure millions of viewers were humbled by this story. 我相信数百万观众看了这个故事后都会感到自己的渺小。

12 veins   

n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理

参考例句：

• The blood flows from the capillaries back into the veins. 血从毛细血管流回静脉。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I felt a pleasant glow in all my veins from the wine. 喝过酒后我浑身的血都热烘烘的，感到很舒服。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

14 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

15 compassionate   

adj.有同情心的，表示同情的

参考例句：

• She is a compassionate person.她是一个有同情心的人。
• The compassionate judge gave the young offender a light sentence.慈悲的法官从轻判处了那个年轻罪犯。

16 circumvent   

vt.环绕，包围；对…用计取胜，智胜

参考例句：

• Military planners tried to circumvent the treaty.军事策略家们企图绕开这一条约。
• Any action I took to circumvent his scheme was justified.我为斗赢他的如意算盘而采取的任何行动都是正当的。

17 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。

18 accurately   

adv.准确地，精确地

参考例句：

• It is hard to hit the ball accurately.准确地击中球很难。
• Now scientists can forecast the weather accurately.现在科学家们能准确地预报天气。

19 prosecuted   

a.被起诉的

参考例句：

• The editors are being prosecuted for obscenity. 编辑因刊载污秽文字而被起诉。
• The company was prosecuted for breaching the Health and Safety Act. 这家公司被控违反《卫生安全条例》。

20 felon   

n.重罪犯；adj.残忍的

参考例句：

• He's a convicted felon.他是个已定罪的重犯。
• Hitler's early "successes" were only the startling depredations of a resolute felon.希特勒的早期“胜利 ”，只不过是一个死心塌地的恶棍出人意料地抢掠得手而已。

21 collateral   

adj.平行的；旁系的；n.担保品

参考例句：

• Many people use personal assets as collateral for small business loans.很多人把个人财产用作小额商业贷款的抵押品。
• Most people here cannot borrow from banks because they lack collateral.由于拿不出东西作为抵押，这里大部分人无法从银行贷款。