Aaron Sorkin goes off-script
Hollywood’s highest-paid screenwriter talks cultural politics and career anxiety
The hotel suite in which I meet Aaron Sorkin is light and airy, but the man himself is a bundle of anxiety. This, I think, is because he is not only Hollywood’s highest-paid screenwriter ($4 million/pounds 3 million a script), but also its most scrutinised.
TV hits such as The West Wing and The Newsroom (as well as the occasional flop, such as Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip) are pored over by those enthralled by his acute gift for dramatic structure and his big-hearted liberal sensibilities wrapped up in elegant dialogue. But there is also criticism: notably that female characters in shows such as The Newsroom are given little personal agency.
In these days of Hollywood harassment charges, any man facing questions about how he treats women has reason to be nervous. Luckily for Sorkin, this particular gripe is, by and large, effaced by Molly’s Game, his new feature film starring Jessica Chastain, which marks his directorial debut.
