STACK #159 Jan 2018

CINEMA FEATURE

visit stack.com.au

baptism on Molly’s Game. “I kept a keen eye on how he worked and ran his set. He was incredibly relaxed but at the same time, you could ask him about, for example, the degree of which this magazine should sit,” he says, lifting a magazine from the coffee table of the West Hollywood hotel where STACK shares a sofa with him. “And he’d know exactly how he wanted the magazine to be, he always knew what he wanted. But mainly what was really inspirational is that he kept a happy set. Happy set, happy film.” The Molly behind Molly’s Game is former Olympic athlete Molly Bloom, played in the film by Jessica Chastain. Dubbed the Poker Princess, she ran high stakes poker games in Los Angeles and New York – where her clients famously included Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck and Tobey Maguire – until her arrest by the FBI. Portraying Bloom’s lawyer Charlie Jaffey, a man of enormous credibility, it wasn’t necessary for Elba to pick up a poker habit, although he understands the attraction. “It’s about risk, isn’t it? I think men just have a different point of view on risk than females. To make these very calculated risks and double your wealth, that must be very gratifying, so I get that.” But we won’t find Elba at a poker table anytime soon, unless it’s to play 007. “I used to play Texas Hold ‘Em on an app, just for sh-ts and giggles,” he smiles, trying to dodge the inevitable Bond question which has swirled ever since Daniel Craig allegedly suggested Idris for the next Bond three years ago. “Doesn’t everybody want to be Bond?” he says coyly. “I have a career where I like doing everything. I do acting, directing, music, and I think once you get a character like Bond, that would probably become your life. “It would be an awesome compliment to be offered that. It’s not something I’m gonna chase down but it is definitely one of the biggest and most famous rumours that has ever been attached to me. I think I’m more famous for not playing Bond than some actors are for actually playing the character.”

ELBA’S GAME The charming and charismatic Idris Elba sat down with STACK to discuss Molly's Game, his midlife crisis, and those rumours regarding the next 007. Words Gill Pringle

W ith his 6'3" frame wrapped in crimson sweats, a broad smile punctuating his face, Idris Elba looks remarkably chilled for a guy who will later tell you how he recently survived a midlife crisis.

I look at Charlie, his face, and see how drawn I was. But I just wanted to do it. I don’t know why,” adds Elba, who KO-ed Dutch fighter Lionel Graves and promptly jumped on a plane

to the Molly’s Game set in Toronto, where his co-star Jessica Chastain was waiting. “Crazy huh?” he asks,

“I lost so much weight. When you look at Charlie Jaffey, you can see it in my face,” he says, referring to the lawyer he plays in Aaron Sorkin’s directorial debut, Molly’s Game . Prior to shooting with Sorkin, he had just completed Idris Elba: Fighter , a three-

Doesn’t everybody want to be Bond?

shaking his head. “Literally, the day after the fight, I flew to the set and Aaron’s team were like, ‘Did he win? Is

he okay?’ I didn’t have much mental preparation because of my fight schedule but when I landed, I sat down with Aaron and

part docu-series delving into the roots of Muay Thai and kickboxing – making his debut in the ring 14 months ago (October 2016) in London. “There goes that male thing about risk, you know?” he muses, rubbing his hands over a close crop, burnished in grey. “There’s something really satisfying about walking away unscathed, and saying I did it. I really got a kick out of pushing my body to its optimum. “But it was a midlife

went straight to work.” Elba, who makes his directorial debut with the upcoming gangster flick Yardie , paid particular attention as Sorkin endured his own directorial

Molly's Game is in cinemas on February 1, with advance screenings 26–28 January.

TALKIN' SORKIN Three of the best from Aaron Sorkin, the master of dialogue many have imitated, but none have surpassed.

crisis, if I’m honest: I’m 45 now and I was going through a moment,” says the actor beloved for his roles in The Wire and Luther . “I was fight-ready and the fittest I’d ever been. But I didn’t look very healthy, actually, when

A FEW GOOD MEN Jack Nicholson and Sorkin's blistering script was a match made for cinema heaven. And that's the 'truth'!

THE WEST WING Simpler times, when

THE SOCIAL NETWORK The Oscar-winning story of how we came to rely less on words and more on Likes, from the master of words. Irony much?

communication from the White House wasn't constrained by characters you could fit on Twitter.

010

JANUARY 2018

jbhifi.com.au