Aaron Sorkin on how he would write the Democratic primary for 'The West Wing.'
'Aaron Sorkin has always considered himself a playwright at heart. Now, at 58, he can definitively say he has had a theatrical success to match his achievements in television (creating “The West Wing”) and film (screenplays for “The Social Network” and “Moneyball,” among others). His adaptation of the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird,” directed by Bartlett Sher, opened in New York in 2018 to strong reviews and a correspondingly strong box office — proof that Broadway audiences are as receptive as any to Sorkin’s style, a style famously (or infamously, depending on whom you ask) marked by smart characters talking quickly and at length about ideas and issues that matter to his presumably progressive audiences. “If I can accomplish the things you need to accomplish in order to tell a story,” Sorkin says, “and have it be something that resonates with you after you leave the theater — that’s what I’m going for.”
Your characters often struggle to try to understand people and ideas with which they disagree. What have you learned about how best to dramatize that struggle? I wouldn’t want to give the impression that I’ve mastered anything, but there are a couple of things I know now that maybe I didn’t know when I was starting. To begin with, I worship at the altar of intention and obstacle. Somebody wants something, and something is standing in their way of getting it. They want the money; they want the girl; they want to get to Philadelphia. Then the obstacle to that has to be formidable, and the tactics they use to overcome that obstacle are what shows us the character. Now, to answer your question: One of the things that I’ve learned, because I’ve written some antiheroes as well — Mark Zuckerberg in “The Social Network,”1
1
Sorkin won an Academy Award for best adapted screenplay for his work on this 2010 film.
Steve Jobs,2
2
Sorkin wrote the eponymously named 2015 film about the Apple co-founder, based on Walter Isaacson's biography.
even Jack Nicholson’s character in “A Few Good Men” — is that you have to write these characters as if they’re making their case to God for why they should be allowed into heaven. When you’re successful, you get people in the audience saying, “Huh, he’s got a point” to stuff that makes them very uncomfortable. >>>
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/02/magazine/aaron-sorkin-interview.html?
