Aaron Sorkin: The Big Interview Episode Number: 01 Episode Title: Aaron Sorkin Description: First up — Oscar-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin. We sit down with Sorkin to talk about the fictional news channel he created for his latest show, The Newsroom, and his successful career as a screenwriter for both memorable TV series and movies. He opens up about something he says he’s not used to hearing, criticism. And also tells us who was his initial favorite to play the President on The West Wing. It wasn’t Martin Sheen. ACT 1: TEASE DAN RATHER (VOICE OVER) TONIGHT, A MAN BEHIND THE CAMERA WHO HAS BECOME A BIG-TIME HOLLYWOOD HEAVYWEIGHT...SCREENWRITER AARON SORKIN...THE BIG INTERVIEW... AARON SORKIN I think that we're-- becoming more and more entertained by other people falling down. It's cheap. It's easy. And I-- I think it's gonna be the quickest thing that turns us into a bunch o' punks. RATHER (VOICE OVER) TO UNDERSTAND AARON SORKIN’S POPULARITY IN HOLLYWOOD, CONSIDER THIS. WHEN HBO BEGAN PROMOTING THE SECOND SEASON OF THE NEWSROOM, IT DIDN’T JUST SEND OUT THE SHOW’S STARS ON A PROMOTIONAL TOUR, BUT THE SERIES CREATOR...AND WRITER. NOW HOW OFTEN DOES A WRITER GET MORE THAN A PASSING MENTION IN THE CREDITS? NEVER, UNLESS IT’S AARON SORKIN… ACT 2 DAN RATHER (VOICE OVER) FOR ALL THE ATTENTION AND ACCOLADES THAT HAVE COME SORKIN’S WAY THROUGH TELEVISION AND FILMS, IT WAS HERE ON BROADWAY THAT HE BEGAN HIS CAREER...AS A PLAYWRIGHT. AT THE MUSIC BOX THEATER IN 1989 SORKIN’S FIRST PLAY PREMIERED...IT WAS CALLED A FEW GOOD MEN…. AND IT WAS AN INSTANT HIT. TOM CRUISE, A FEW GOOD MEN, 1992 “So Santiago shouldn’t have been in any danger at all, should he have?” 1 RATHER (VOICE OVER) A FEW YEARS LATER IT WAS MADE INTO A MOVIE STARRING TOM CRUISE, JACK NICHOLSON...AND ONE VERY FAMOUS LINE: JACK NICHOLSON, A FEW GOOD MEN, 1992 You want answers? TOM CRUISE, A FEW GOOD MEN, 1992 I think I’m entitled. JACK NICHOLSON, A FEW GOOD MEN, 1992 You want answers… TOM CRUISE, A FEW GOOD MEN, 1992 I want the truth! JACK NICHOLSON, A FEW GOOD MEN, 1992 You can’t handle the truth. RATHER (VOICE OVER) SORKIN’S TALENTS WERE QUICKLY TRANSFORMED TO TELEVISION WHERE HE BECAME FAMOUS... AND A TOP DOLLAR TALENT FOR THE HIT TELEVISION SERIES “THE WEST WING”, A PROGRAM HE CREATED ABOUT A FICTIONAL PRESIDENT AND HIS STAFF WHICH RAN ON NBC FOR SEVEN SEASONS... MARTIN SHEEN, THE WEST WING What does he think congress is going to find out that we won’t? RICHARD SCHIFF, THE WEST WING He doesn’t think the AG is objective. MARTIN SHEEN, THE WEST WING The AG hates us, we hate him. It doesn’t get more objective than that. 2 RATHER (VOICE OVER) IT WON DOZENS OF AWARDS AND WAS A BIG RATINGS HIT. AND CRITICS--BY AND LARGE--LOVED IT TOO.... CHARLIE WILSON, CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR, 2007 Why are you only asking me questions you already know the answer to? RATHER (VOICE OVER) HE WENT ON TO MAKE IT BIG AT THE BOX OFFICE WITH MOVIES LIKE THE STORY OF FINANCING AFGHANISTAN’S REBELS AGAINST THE RUSSIANS IN CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR WITH TOM HANKS…. BRAD PITT, MONEYBALL, 2011 Text me the play-by-play. JONAH HILL, MONEYBALL, 2011 What? Why? BRAD PITT, MONEYBALL, 2011 I don’t watch the games. RATHER (VOICE OVER) THE TALE OF A LOW-BUDGET BASEBALL TEAM THAT BEATS THE ODDS IN MONEYBALL WITH BRAD PITT. JESSE EISENBERG, THE SOCIAL NETWORK, 2010 The first thing we are going to need is a lot of pictures. RATHER (VOICE OVER) AND THE SOCIAL NETWORK, A FILM ABOUT THE CREATION OF FACEBOOK THAT WON HIM AN OSCAR. JESSE EISENBERG, THE SOCIAL NETWORK, 2010 3 They are suggesting I was jealous of Eduardo for getting punched by the Phoenix and began a plan to screw him out of a company I hadn’t even invented yet. LAWYER, THE SOCIAL NETWORK, 2010 WERE YOU? JESSE EISENBERG, THE SOCIAL NETWORK, 2010 Jealous of Eduardo? LAWYER #2, THE SOCIAL NETWORK, 2010 Stop typing, we are off the record. RATHER (VOICE OVER) SORKIN’S SIGNATURE WRITING STYLE OF RAPID, SMART DIALOGUE AND QUICK EXCHANGES BETWEEN CHARACTERS ENCOURAGES, SOME WOULD SAY FORCES, THE AUDIENCE TO PAY CLOSE ATTENTION... OLIVIA MUNN, THE NEWSROOM So you would like my permission to… DEV PATEL, THE NEWSROOM Jump in there and invent heinous and incendiary lies about you, end the intelligent debate and start a whole new one about say whether or not you are a whore… RATHER (VOICE OVER) AND IT OFTEN HAPPENS WITH THE ACTORS IN MOTION...IN WHAT HAS BECOME SIGNATURE SORKIN...THE WALK AND TALK. JEFF DANIELS, THE NEWSROOM I need you to tell me right now you are not using that as a promo slot. CHRIS MESSINA, THE NEWSROOM We are not but [unintel] researched the hell out of this at Northwestern and the feedback we keep getting, especially from 18-49s is just studded with green flags. 4 RATHER I love that championship season, I’ve seen that play three times. Wonderful play. RATHER (VOICE OVER) IN BETWEEN PROJECTS I CAUGHT UP WITH AARON SORKIN IN NEW YORK TO TALK ABOUT HIS GROWING LIST OF CREDENTIALS... AND SOMETHING HE HAS NOT SEEN OR HEARD MUCH BEFORE THE NEWSROOM...CRITICISM. RATHER What question did you come here today wanting most to answer about Newsroom? AARON SORKIN What a nice way to begin an interview. I-- I would love to answer any question-- that the show's critics-- have. I've heard the criticism-- of the show. And-- I find it-- the-- so many people are maddened-- by the show, the-- the-- it really makes their blood boil. RATHER Does that surprise you? SORKIN It-- it does. Here's why. I think that there's an impression out there that-- I'm trying to teach a lesson to professional journalists, that I've set the show in the recent past in order to say, "Here's how you should've done it." And I'm-- I'm happy to have the chance, and I think that this is probably-- I-- I couldn't say it to a more appropriate person, it's absolutely the furthest thing-- from my mind. Looking back and seeing I can see how-- it might seem that way. And of course I can how if you see it that way you can be insulted by that. The show is set in the recent past not so that I can leverage hindsight into an I-told-you-so-- moment-- but simply because I like the audience dynamic of when the audience knows more than the characters do. So that when a news report comes over the wire that protests are breaking out-- at our embassy in Cairo and that another one has broken out in front of our consulate in Benghazi the audience-- knows that trouble's ahead. We can watch our characters-- do this process story. I have a bachelor of fine arts degree in musical theater. I'm ill-equipped to-- I have no sophistication at all when it comes to journalism or politics. I'm writing-- a workplace-- show. My only ambition-- is-- is to entertain you. RATHER 5 I'm gonna challenge you a little here. You wrote The West Wing, one o' the most successful entertainment programs, and I mean that as a compliment because in the end you have to entertain. Whether you have a message or not you... SORKIN In the end and in the beginning. That-- you must entertain. RATHER Right. And then you write The Newsroom. So it's-- it's a tough sell to tell me that you don't know much about politics or journalism. I-- I-- you know a lot about both. SORKIN I am not aw-shucks-ing (PH) it-- when I tell you this. I think that writing a show that takes place in a newsroom-- is to actually doing the news what drawing a building is to building a building. Which is to say they're almost unrelated, just about-- unrelated. If I have-- a talent it's a phonetic-- talent. And I-- I truly enjoy the sound of smart people arguing with each other. I-- I grew up-- with that. I've-- I've always-- I've always been surrounded by people who are smarter than I am, from-- from my family at the dinner table-- to my friends. And-- I was not made to feel inferior by that. I was not made to resent that. I-- I really enjoyed the-- the sound of it. And-- and I wanted to imitate that sound when-- when I began writing. From time to time I write about politics. And again I don't do-- I'm not a political advocate. I've met political advocates. And-- and I am not them. They're-- they're the real thing. I have the political sophistication roughly of-- somebody who-- who reads the newspaper every day. And even at that I'll-- I'll read the New York Times op-ed. Then I go straight to the sports section. And-- and that's my level of political sophistication. But just as if you have a medical problem you do not want the writing staff of Grey's Anatomy to be working on you, if you have-- a question about media or politics you don't want me.