Natalie Portman’s surprising role in ‘The Social Network’
After starting out by writing plays on cocktail napkins, Aaron Sorkin subsequently became the most sought-after screenwriter in Hollywood, penning iconic stories such as A Few Good Men and The West Wing. With a rapid dialogue style, leading actors to sometimes perform twenty pages of conversation in just a couple of minutes, the writer became known for his back-and-forth dialogue and signature ‘walk and talk’ style, something that was perhaps best encapsulated through his 2010 film The Social Network through the help of one Hollywood actor.
The Social Network saw two of the most powerful people in the film industry unite, with Sorkin and David Fincher combining their talents to create a scathing story about Mark Zuckerberg and the creation of Facebook, while also commenting on the fragility of the male ego and predicting the so-called loneliness epidemic created by the internet and the overwhelming possibilities for connection.
While there was a book written about Zuckerberg’s despicable true story, Sorkin also wanted to consult with students who had been at Harvard during the time Facebook was created to get a broader picture of the chaos that was unleashed on campus.
There is a line in the film in which Zuckerberg is described as being “the biggest thing on campus”, taking the place of “Nobel laureates, future Olympians and a movie star”. It turns out that this was a reference to Natalie Portman, who actually studied at Harvard during the same time that Zuckerberg and the Winklevoss twins attended the school, with the actor meeting Sorkin to help paint a picture of what it was like to study there during this particularly chaotic time.
Portman explained how she had been friends with the Winklevoss twins and attended many parties with them, relaying her experiences to the writers of the film, which no doubt added a new layer of authenticity to the film in capturing hyper-specific details that only people who were there could have known. From the beginning of the film, we see how Zuckerberg’s entrepreneurial quest was spurred on by being rejected by his then-girlfriend, Erica, inadvertently using the mission of creating Facebook as a way to reconnect with her and seek a twisted form of personal revenge.
Towards the end of the film, we see Zuckerberg impatiently refreshing Erica’s Facebook profile after sending her a friend request. He might be the most popular man in the world, but the consequences of his selfish nature eventually catch up to him, leaving him as a very successful by deeply lonely person who is incapable of connecting with people in any genuine way. His desire to be powerful overtakes everything else, unable to be vulnerable with anyone for fear of breaking his facade of indifference and ‘cool’.
Who better to inform such a film than someone who was there, with Portman’s insight into the mood on campus as women were compared to farm animals and Zuckerberg’s rising position as the king of coding, adding an authentic edge to the film that makes us feel as though we were also there.
