Half a decade before poker exploded in popularity in the United States, Matt Damon and John Malkovich starred in 1998’s Rounders, one of the best sports movies of all time (we can argue whether poker is a sport later). The movie, which you can watch for free with a Kanopy subscription, features one of the greatest gambling scenes of all time in the climax of the movie when Damon’s character Mike McDermott goes head-to-head with Teddy “KGB,” played by Malkovich.
Anyone who loves the movie knows just how insane Malkovich’s accent is as the Russian mobster. According to Damon, the Odyssey star never saw it coming, nor did anyone else.
Malkovich’s Arrival On Set Was A Big Deal
According to Damon in an interview with BBC’s Radio 1 a few years ago, everyone working on the movie was excited for Malkovich to join the production for that final scene in the final scene in the movie. The Con Air star had something up his sleeve for it, as well. When they started the first take of the scene, Malkovich unveiled his now-iconic and, let’s be real, pretty insane accent... You know the one.
Damon was immediately taken aback, telling Radio 1:
I'm sitting across the table from, like, I'm sorry. What? What? What did you just say? What? We're talking like this, and suddenly... ‘Eve, you don’t hiave my mahney.’ And the crew bursts into applause. They're cheering. They're like, wow, amazing, amazing
Damon was confused, and Malkovich sensed that Damon was confused by the scenery-chewing performance. Damon goes on:
It was literally one of my favorite things that's ever happened on a movie. So brilliant.
I’ll be honest here, I’ve never loved that performance from John Malkovich, when normally I think everything he does is brilliant. I can’t wait for his spy comedy Wild Horse Nine to hit the 2026 movie schedule in November. Still, I think it’s a pretty bad accent for the role. It’s just so off the wall and over-the-top that it pulls me out of the movie every time I watch it, and I’ve watched Rounders a lot over the years.
That said, the story about it is so great that I’ll never think about that poker game the same way ever again. In the end, I have to give the moment and the accent its props. Walk into any basement on a Friday night where friends are playing poker, and the odds are someone will eventually mimic the scene after a big loss. I’ve seen it happen countless times. At least now I know that Matt Damon and I both had the same reaction when we first heard KGB speak.
