UNDERGROUND GAMBLING PLACE - NIGHT. MATT DAMON sits on one side of a poker table, JOHN MALKOVICH on the other. MATT DAMON (V.O.) You know. A wise man once told me. That if you sit on a tack. And it drives itself into your buttcheeks.then you need to go to a hospital. Rounders quotes: the most famous and inspiring quotes from Rounders. Matt Damon, Edward Norton, Paul Cicero, John Turturro, Ray Iannicelli, Gretchen Mol, Famke Janssen, Merwin Goldsmith, John Malkovich, Martin Landau, Sonny Zito, Michael Rispoli, Melina Kanakaredes, Mal Z. In 'Confessions of a Winning Poker Player', Jack King.
“Get your money in when you have the best of it. Protect it when you don't.”
Matt Damon - Mike McDermott
“I've often seen these people, these squares at the table, short stack and long odds against them. All their outs gone. One last card in the deck that can help them. I used to wonder how they could let themselves get into such bad shape, and how the hell they thought they could turn it around.”
Matt Damon - Mike McDermott
“Mike, I learned it from you. You always told me this was the rule. Rule number one: Throw away your cards the moment you know they can't win. Fold the fucking hand.” - Jo
“That's the safe play. I told Worm you can't lose what you don't put in the middle. But you can't win much either.”
Matt Damon - Mike McDermott
“- Worm: What did I ever do to that guy?
- Mike McDermott: You fucked his mother.
- Worm: [amused] Yeah but she was a good looking older woman you gotta give me that.”
Edward Norton - Worm
Matt Damon - Mike McDermott
“We can't run from who we are, our destiny chooses us.”
Martin Landau - Abe Petrovsky
“Listen, here's the thing. If you can't spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you are the sucker. Guys around here will tell ya, you play for a living, it's like any other job. You don't gamble, you grind it out. Your goal is to win one big bet an hour, that's it.”
Matt Damon - Mike McDermott
“- Moogie: Hey, lemme ask you a question. In the legalsense, can fuckin' Steinbrenner move the Yankees? Does he have the fuckin' right to just move them?
- Mike McDermott: How should I know that?
- Moogie: You didn't learn that yet?
- Mike McDermott: No, we get to Steinbrenner in third year law school.
- Moogie: Oh...”
- Moogie
Matt Damon - Mike McDermott
“- Mike McDermott: I watch the cards but I also watch the player react to the cards. That's how I knew the DA made his two pair and judge Kaplan missed the flush, I was watching their eyes when they checked their river cards, their faces tell you everything.
- Abe Petrovsky: [confused] You watch the man? I never knew you had to calculate so much...” (continue)(continue reading)Matt Damon - Mike McDermott
Martin Landau - Abe Petrovsky
- Worm: You know what always cheers me up, when I'm feeling shitty?
- Mike McDermott: No, what's that?
- Worm: Rolled up aces over kings. Check-raising stupid tourists and taking huge pots off of them. Playing all-night high-limit Hold'em at the Taj, 'where the sand turns to gold'. Stacks and towers of checks I can't even see over.Edward Norton - Worm
Matt Damon - Mike McDermott
In 'Confessions of a Winning Poker Player', Jack King said, 'Few players recall big pots they have won, strange as it seems, but every player can remember with remarkable accuracy the outstanding tough beats of his career'. It seems true to me, cause walking in here, I can hardly remember how I built my bankroll, but I can't stop thinking of how... (continue)(continue reading)
Matt Damon - Mike McDermott
“- Worm: She's really got him by the balls.
- Petra: That's not so bad, is it?
- Worm: It depends on the grip!”Edward Norton - Worm
Famke Janssen - Petra
“Why do you think the same five guys make it to the final table of the World Series of Poker every year? What, are they the luckiest guys in Las Vegas? It's a skill game Jo.”Matt Damon - Mike McDermott
“- Worm: I guess the sayings' true. In the poker game of life, women are the rake man. They are the fuckin' rake.
- Mike McDermott: What the fuck are you talkin' about. What saying?
- Worm: I don't know. There ought to be one though.”
Edward Norton - Worm
Matt Damon - Mike McDermott
“First prize at the World Series of Poker is a million bucks. Does it have my name on it? I don't know. But, I'm gonna find out.”
Matt Damon - Mike McDermott
“- Mike McDermott: What happened?
- Worm: Nothing, she closed her legs too fast!”Matt Damon - Mike McDermott
Edward Norton - Worm
Jason Bourne is opening soon so thank goodness Matt Damon is taking the opportunity to bust out an impression of John Malkovich in Rounders, the poker movie they starred in together that came out 18 years ago.
In an interview with BBC Radio 1, Damon talks about what it was like shooting with the actor. In the film, Damon plays a total good guy with a gambling addiction who loses a ridiculous amount of cash to the Russian gangster Teddy KGB, played by John Malkovich with a luxuriously overstated Russian accent. Apparently the transformation was way too abrupt for Damon’s standards, and Malkovich’s scene work really stuck with him.
Watch Damon’s impression of John Malkovich’s impression of a Russian guy below. Damon even does Malkovich’s ridiculous head movements from his portrayal of a subterranean overlord who is great at playing cards.