“Rounders” is a movie that many people probably haven’t seen. Sadly, when the film was released 20 years ago (yeah, it’s been two decades), Miramax pulled the poker drama from theaters after only three weeks. Slowly, but surely, over the ensuing years, thanks to DVDs and cable, “Rounders” has begun to get a little bit of well-deserved recognition for being a pretty great film. That recognition comes thanks, in no small part, to the two leads — Matt Damon and Edward Norton. And in a new oral history of the film, courtesy of The Ringer, you learn just how committed to the craft of poker the two actors were.
The trick to making “Rounders,” or any movie about a sport or specific skill, work is authenticity. And due to the insanely-detailed script from first-time writers David Levien and Brian Koppelman (who would go on to create the recent hit Showtime series “Billions), Damon and Norton had to become legit poker players to become believable in their respective roles as Mike and Worm.
Apparently, the two actors got so damn good at poker, or at least much better than amateurs, that they decided to test their skills in front of two of the biggest Hollywood moguls at the time, Harvey and Bob Weinstein. How would they test their skill? They’d go to a poker game at the Weinsteins’ home and cheat. That’s right, they cheated.
Edward Norton explains:
“I remember the Weinsteins hosted a poker game before [‘Rounders’] started [production]. I feel like it was right before Christmas or something like that. Matt and I … had been taught how people cheated, played partner poker, by signaling. Because they do that in their games. We had had someone show us a fairly complex system for signaling what your cards were by the way you positioned your hold chips on your cards. And so we got very good at it and we were just like, ‘Should we do it?’ And we were like, ‘Fuck it, it’s like Harvey and Bob’s game, let’s do it.’ We played that night doing sort of Mike and Worm’s signaling system. And it worked enormously well. Matt was sort of getting the cards, so then I was like pumping up the bets, and seeing what he had, then folding out. And we went out when it was all over and chopped it up.”
If you’re a fan of “Rounders,” or just how first-time writers can land such a talented cast and crew, the oral history is quite illuminating. It also reveals that the aforementioned Norton almost didn’t get the role. Not because he wasn’t good enough. Quite the contrary, in fact. The “Rounders” crew assumed Norton, who was coming off his Academy Award-nominated role in “Primal Fear,” would quickly turn down the role.
If that were to happen, the crew was already looking at Mark Ruffalo, Steve Zahn, and Rory Cochrane to perhaps take the role. Though now, it’s really difficult to imagine anyone but Norton in the role of Worm.
And it goes without saying, if you were one of the millions that missed “Rounders” in the theaters or any of the other ways in which you can view the film, do yourself a favor and check it out. Though it’s 20 years old, it holds up remarkably well and showcases two great actors right as they were exploding on the scene.