The happy truth behind Aaron Sorkin’s writing
Writer-turned-director Aaron Sorkin has one of the most distinctive screenplay styles in film and television. His dialogue is quick and witty, often exacerbated by the use of “walk and talk” shots. With those characteristics, his style has consistently lent itself to legal and political dramas – most notably, he created the iconic presidential drama The West Wing and penned the masterful script for David Fincher’s The Social Network.
Sorkin has also extended his film ventures into directing, making his debut with the Jessica Chastain-fronted Molly’s Game in 2017 and later helming an impressive ensemble cast which featured Sacha Baron Cohen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeremy Strong and more on The Trial of the Chicago 7. While he honed his skills behind the camera, Sorkin continued to exhibit his flair in writing, penning the scripts for all of his films so far.
For his distinctive style, Sorkin has become one of the most celebrated writers in Hollywood, even securing an Academy Award for his work on The Social Network. Still, despite his long-spanning career and success, Sorkin has shared that he sometimes struggles to sit down and write if he finds himself in a bad mood.
Speaking with The Talks, the screenwriter explained how external issues in his life can stunt his writing process: “I am actually only able to write when I am in a good mood. I have a teenage daughter, and if anything is going wrong with her – something wrong at school, any of the teenage things that happen – I am done for the day. I am not going to be able to write.”
While Sorkin was writing The West Wing, he recalls, any small argument with his wife would have to be resolved before he could begin writing: “If there was any friction or tension or something was not right, by the time I would drive to work, I would always call her and say, ‘Listen, I know you are mad at me, but can you do me a favour? Can we make up right now because I have to write next week’s episode.’”
Luckily, his wife was willing to entertain him, as he recalls: “She was always good at understanding that: ‘Okay, we are made up, go on living.’ (Laughs) So, I don’t need to be in pain and tortured in order to write.”
In true writer fashion, Sorkin went on to use a metaphor to demonstrate how a bad mood can impact his work, explaining, “Think of it like this: screenwriting is like coming to a dinner party and saying: ‘I’m going to be the only one who talks, and I tell you guys a story, and at the end of the two hours and 12 minutes, you are going to be happy that I was the only one talking. And you might even want to go through it again.’ That takes quite an ego to think you can do that!”
While Sorkin might be comfortable talking to his dinner table guests when he’s in a good mood, a bad mood, he suggests, makes this impossible: “You are not going to do that if you show up to the dinner party unhappy or sad or something is going on in your personal life. You’re going to want to be quiet and let somebody else do the talking.”
Sorkin has garnered himself a crowd of people more than willing to let him tell stories for two hours and 12 minutes at a time. Fortunately, good moods seem to dominate Sorkin’s disposition, and he’s served them well – his prolific screenwriting career has spanned seven plays, ten films and 87 episodes of The West Wing.
