SJM_Interview_Aaron_Sorkin_0121_layout 1 / 12 / 21 6 : 51 PM Page 1 courtroom drama of the trial itself ; the evo - lution of the riot and the ways in which a peaceful demonstration can quickly turn vi - olent ; and the story of Tom Hayden and Ab - bie Hoffman , two men cut from very differ - ent ideological cloths , yet forever bound by their goals and the experiences they shared . Do you see parallels between what we saw in 1968 and what happened in 2020 ? Suddenly protestors are met with tear gas , riot clubs and federal troops . Watching the [ 2020 ] footage every night of protestors clashing with police , it looks exactly like 1969 . Even the struggle between the more moderate and more progressive wings of the Democratic Party seem to mirror the friction between Tom and Abbie . You are known for your rapid - fire dialogue in The West Wing and other productions . It’s funny , I didn’t know that I wrote faster - paced dialogue than is common until people started telling me this . It was just the way that I wrote . I started going to plays with my parents at a young age , and I continue to care about what a line MASTER STORYTELLER AARON SORKIN CREATES sounds like and what it means . WORLDS AND CHARACTERS VIEWERS WILL NEVER How did The West Wing become a TV by Debra Wallace FORGET . show ? and said , ‘ Dad , was there a crazy conspir - aron Sorkin revealed the inner It was really an accident at a time when acy trial that happened in Chicago in workings of the White House on being timid paid off . I never thought about 1969 ? ’ I didn’t know anything about it . ” The West Wing . He gave a behind - writing for TV . I was comfortable being a A We caught up with Sorkin to discuss the the - scenes look at a military tri - playwright and did some screenwriting . parallels between past and present , the bunal in A Few Good Men . He showed how But I was invited to what I thought was an crisp dialogue that has Facebook changed the world in The Social informal lunch with TV producer John become his signa - Network . Most recently , in The Trial of the Wells ( ER a ture , and what it’s like to have “ the best job nd Third Watch ) and walked in Chicago 7 , the 59 - year - old writer - director in the business . ” to see several Warner Bros . executives . … created a film he describes as “ part court The night before , a writer friend suggested drama and part thriller ” about historic that my movie The American President events that echo the civil disobedience and would make a great TV show if it was social unrest of 2020 . geared to senior staffers at the White The Trial of the Chicago 7 , which is cur - House . They asked me to pitch them at the Q & A rently streaming on Netflix , tells the story lunch , and that was my pitch . of seven defendants accused of conspiracy What was the goal of telling the story of and other criminal charges in the aftermath the Chicago Seven ? What was your aim when you wrote of riots around the 1968 Democratic Na - It’s not a documentary , and it’s not intended The West Wing ? tional Convention . The film’s A - list cast as journalism . This is a painting , where jour - I would write a West Wing episode in the includes Sacha Baron Cohen nalism is a photograph . The script didn’t hopes that it would do justice to the cast ( the Borat change to mirror the times ; the times sitting around the table . … I sprinted to films ) , Eddie Redmayne ( The Theory of changed to mirror the script . … When I work every morning . I knew I had the best Everything ) and Frank Langella ( Frost / started out , I had the 21,000 - page trial tran - job in show business . I was thinking about Nixon ) . Sorkin’s desire to make the film script , I read a dozen books about the riot a workplace show in this unique workplace arose from a 2007 visit to the home of an - and the trial , and spoke to one eyewitness — where the people are as dedicated as doc - other Hollywood legend : Steven Spielberg . flix Tom Hayden [ who has since died ] . It was tors on the medical shows “ Going to [ Spielberg’s ] house on a or police and Net from Tom that I got a sense of the friction Saturday morning was not something lawyers on a police drama . I wanted to of sy that existed between him and Abbie Hoff - common for me , ” Sorkin recalls . “ But he show the minutes before and after what urte man . But with all this information , I still invited me , talked about his movie idea , we see on CNN . It became more aspira - co h didn’t quite know how to make it much and I told him to count me in , because tional about a man who is not only the grap more than what writer wouldn’t say yes to him ? As leader of the free world , but also a devoted a dramatized Wikipedia page . hoto ? soon as I got in my car , I called my father father to his adult children . I saw [ the story ] as three parts : the P SOUTH JERSEY MAGAZINE volume 17 issue 10 SouthJerseyMagazine.com 50 |