Aaron Sorkin offered his remedy for writer's block: "I like to drive around and listen to music, and I try to start arguments with myself, talking out loud.… You're making me sound crazy now!"But, he adds, that's where some of the best ideas come from.
"One out of every 50 times, and I'll take those odds any day," he said.The odds paid off when Sorkin was working on "The Social Network." Sorkin won an Oscar for screenwriting, and helped define Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg – and an entire industry – in the popular imagination.
Sixteen years later, Sorkin wonders about the unintended consequences."I remember talking to Jesse Eisenberg, who played Mark Zuckerberg in 'The Social Network,' and how distressed he was that teenage boys were coming up to him; they wanted him to sign business cards that said, 'I'm CEO, bitch,' the way Mark had it," said Sorkin."Jesse was saying, 'Wait a second, these people think Mark is a hero in this story and not a tragic hero.'"Of course, I'm responsible," Sorkin said.
"It wasn't my intention."And perhaps that's one reason why Sorkin is revisiting Facebook and Zuckerberg in "The Social Reckoning," out this Friday.Jeremy Strong plays a grown-up Zuckerberg, still awkward but far more powerful.
The film is inspired by the real-life story of Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen (portrayed by Mikey Madison), who in 2021 leaked thousands of internal documents to Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz (played by Jeremy Allen White).The Facebook Files (Wall Street Journal)Haugen is still reflecting on Facebook, and Zuckerberg.
"When I look at Mark, I view a lot of things about his experience of the world as a tragedy," she said."Here's a person who rose to power when he was 19 years old, surrounded by yes-men for his entire adult life.
He's been able to immediately isolate himself from consequences for 20 years."The consequences for the rest of us are depicted in "The Social Reckoning": disinformation, extremis...