Aaron Sorkin Isn’t Too Smart (Or So He Says)

Aaron Sorkin is well known for writing thinking-man’s scripts, complete with wit and sarcasm but with underlying themes that mean you have to pay attention to what’s going on. His dialogue...
Aaron Sorkin Isn’t Too Smart (Or So He Says)
Written by Amanda Crum
  • Aaron Sorkin is well known for writing thinking-man’s scripts, complete with wit and sarcasm but with underlying themes that mean you have to pay attention to what’s going on. His dialogue is punchy and fast, often timed so that the viewer barely has a moment to register what they’ve just heard before moving on to the response. Take the opening scenes in “The Social Network”, for instance; the back-and-forth between Jesse Eisenberg and Rooney Mara at the campus pub left many viewers scrambling to keep up, yet when it was over one couldn’t help but feel like they had just witnessed a very intelligent dialogue that set the tone for the entire movie. Sorkin is good at that; he gets in your head.

    But while some are intimidated by his writing, Sorkin says there’s no reason to be. He reckons he’s no smarter than the average guy and wants everyone to give his work a chance.

    “I’m 100 percent incapable of writing something that is too smart for anybody,” Sorkin said. “All of my teachers in high school can back me up on that.”

    His latest project, “The Newsroom”, may seem a little daunting to some, but he insists it’s nothing to be scared of. The show premiered last night on HBO and is garnering comparisons to another little show he penned, “The West Wing”. With Jeff Daniels at the helm, portraying troubled anchorman Will McAvoy, Sorkin is sure the show will speak to a large audience.

    “I wanted Jeff to play the part and I can’t imagine anyone else playing it,” Sorkin said. “We did a screening this past Monday night in New York for a theater full of news people and the actual anchors told Jeff that he could get in the chair on Monday. That he’s ready.”

     

     

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