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Jim Sturges on 21
By Fred Topel | Images property of Columbia Pictures
In real life, MIT student Jeff Ma developed a blackjack system with his buddies that won them millions of dollars. In Hollywood's version, 21, Ben (Jim Sturges) gets roped into a teacher (Kevin Spacey)'s scheme to earn money for medical school. Same difference.
Jim Sturges Plays on 21
"I'd never played Blackjack," said Sturges. "I'd never been in Vegas. We don’t have anywhere like that in England. Blackpool doesn't quite qualify. Gambling for me is basically throwing money on the horses or the dog tracks. It's just not the same kind of culture back in England. I knew Vegas obviously. It's such an iconic kind of city. We came here, I think I was here two weeks before we started shooting to just indulge in the kind of laziness that Vegas offers you as much as possible. I met up with Jeff [Ma] I think the second day I was here. He just took me out and corrupted my innocence. The rest kind of did itself."
Capturing Ben's thrill at winning was an acting dilemma. On the one hand, it was not a chance victory. On the other, it was still a system that worked. "I mean, it's the thrill of winning the money, isn't it? It's the thrill of actually creating that huge amount of cash on the table. Then when that card comes up, and you don't know exactly when that card's going to come out. You never can. You just work out the probability. So when it comes, certainly in the earlier scenes when it's a completely new experience for him and he sits down and gets his first blackjack [and wins] this kind of sh*t load of money, yes, it's a huge thrill. I unfortunately never got to experience that."
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Sturges' Vegas experience was more like the rest of ours. "I certainly know what it felt to lose a lot of money. I had one experience with winning a lot of money which was when I lost a lot of money. I was maybe like $2000 down and that for me was a huge kind of deal. I remember just before I went to bed, I found a chip in my pocket and I threw it down, thought I might as well rinse myself dry. And started coming on a kind of winning streak and pretty much won all the money I'd lose back again. So it was kind of in that one sitting I kind of experienced just the absolute disgrace of losing all that money and how detached you feel from it. It's not money at that point, it's just chips and colors. It's suddenly like, 'Sh*t, that is actually $2000' and I just sat there."
Shooting 21 was actually a better time than Sturges expected, based on the few Vegas travelogues he viewed. "Actually, the two films I watched before I came to Vegas were the two most depressing films. I watched The Cooler and I watched Leaving Las Vegas and I was like, 'Great, this is going to be fun.' I mean, from a distance, when I was coming up on the plane, yes, it sort of looked like this glamorous kind of flashing lights which is how you see it."
21 opens to theaters March 28th.
For the trailer, poster and more info on the film, go to the 21 Movie Page.
Fred Topel
Sources: Images property of Columbia Pictures
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