Aaron Sorkin has been picking up accolades throughout award season for his adapted screenplay for The Social Network, and he completed his run with an Oscar win last night. Back in the press room, the screenwriter talked about his next project, the power of the Internet, and why he has to give proper credit to Mark Zuckerberg.
- On the talented, young cast of The Social Network: I'll try to sum it up this way. Like a lot of people I grew up watching The Graduate and I always wondered what it must have been like for Buck Henry to see Dustin Hoffman just do it for the first time, with no rehearsal. I don't wonder anymore. I know exactly how he felt. I see Jesse doing it. I see Andrew doing it. Justin, Armie, and this cast do it under the guidance of David Fincher. It was an incredibly talented and very, very young cast. This material isn't for beginners. These were the youngest characters I've ever written. We had to find exceptional actors and we found them all and got the best performances out of them. It wasn't just the performances. It was everything.
- On what's up next: I'll be very candid with you. Since the movie came out and got the kind of critical reaction and cultural reaction that it's gotten, I've been hyper aware that the thing I do next is going to be "the thing I did after The Social Network." I'm going to spend tonight enjoying this and tomorrow starting something new. I think that's what I have to do. I'm just going to keep writing. Keep doing what I've always been doing. Try to find something that I like. Something that I think my friends will like and my father would like and keep my fingers crossed.
- On Mark Zuckerberg: I think he's been an awfully good sport about this film. I don't think that there is anybody here who would want a movie made about things they did when they were 19 years old. And if that movie absolutely, positively had to be made, you'd want it to be made only from your point of view. And you wouldn't want included the point of view of people suing you for hundreds of millions of dollars and have a visceral, emotional reaction to you. That is the movie that we made. And then with things like Mark's appearance on SNL, the fact that he took his staff out to see the movie the day it came out in the US on Oct. 1, and, however it might be related, his $100 million gift to the New Jersey school system. That was met with some cynicism in the press, but I'm sure that the kids, and their parents, and the teachers in Newark aren't worried about how the money got there. So my hat's off to him.
- On his relationship with The King's Speech writer David Seidler: I'm proud to say I've got a bromance going with him. I think that his screenplay for The King's Speech is remarkable. It started when I asked around and got his email address after I saw the movie because I had to write and tell him how much I loved it. I'd never met him before or had any interaction with him. He emailed back and we began emailing each other every few days.
- On the influence of social media: Listen, I've written a lot and talked a little bit about being wary about the Internet. Somewhere along the way I've become my grandmother. You saw what happened in Cairo and there are other examples of social networking tools mobilizing people for great causes like that. Again, we have to thank the Mark Zuckerbergs that are out there.
