Aaron Sorkin at Ivy League Film Festival

On a weekend docket with actor James Franco and reality star Jill Zarin, the brainy screenwriter behind The Social Network and The West Wing packed the house.

On a rainy Saturday afternoon, Academy Award Winner Aaron Sorkin spoke to an overflowing crowd at Brown University, as part of the Ivy League Film Festival. The writer best known for his work on The West Wing, A Few Good Men, and his Oscar-winning screenplay for The Social Network humbly addressed the crowd of students about his own undergraduate experience, his writing process, his agenda as a writer, and his specific works. He followed up the interview by engaging in a question-answer session with the audience.  

Don't please the masses

On his own process as a writer, Sorkin revealed that writing to please the masses is not the most successful approach. Instead he told aspiring writers, “I try to write what I like, what I think my friends will like, what I think my father would like and then hope enough other people will like it that I can make a living.”  

His own writing experiences gave hope to the struggling artist, as he told students that he wrote A Few Good Men on cocktail napkins while bartending during the first act of a La Cage Aux Folles. 

Political agenda?

After creating a President and staff so real (and liberal) that many West Wing fans began to hope they could elect President Josiah Bartlet, Sorkin might be considered one of the Democratic party's great stylists. But Sorkin assured that he did his best not to alienate audiences, saying, “I have no political agenda at all. My fidelity is entirely to story telling. I am drawn to politics because there is just a treasure trove of stories that really suit my style of writing, which is romantic and idealistic.”  

Much of the conversation focused on the sensation of The Social Network. Of the film, Sorkin thanked a lucky chain of events. "This movie happened like no other movie has ever happened. Everything went perfectly.” 

Aaron Sorkin + Facebook

As for his own feelings towards Facebook, don’t expect to find Mr. Sorkin updating his status any time soon. “I had barely heard of Facebook when I signed on for the movie,” admitted Sorkin. “For me the movie was never about Facebook; the themes of friendship, loyalty and betrayal are as timeless as storytelling itself, just set against an extremely modern background.”

Following up his recent successes, Sorkin’s future looks bright, with projects including the film adaptation of MoneyBall, his directorial debut with The Politician, a film about the John Edwards sex scandal, and a new HBO series on the workings of a cable news show.

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