Aaron Sorkin Admits Directing Doubts After Mixed Reception for The Social Reckoning

Aaron Sorkin says he was not the first choice to direct The Social Reckoning, the film he also wrote. Speaking at the Newport Beach Film Festival, where he received the Maverick Director Award, he told The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast, "I was my second-choice to direct it."

The film centers on Facebook's knowledge and cover-up of the harmful effects of its platform on society. It follows a whistleblower, played by Mikey Madison, who brings those findings to a journalist, played by Jeremy Allen White, creating trouble for Mark Zuckerberg, played by Jeremy Strong. It arrives 16 years after The Social Network, another Sorkin script, which David Fincher directed to wide acclaim.

Sorkin said he would have preferred Fincher again. "I would rather David Fincher direct everything," he said, but Fincher has an exclusive deal at Netflix, and the project was owned by Sony. Sorkin ended up directing the $40 million production himself. Sony released it nationwide on Oct. 9.

The reception has disappointed him. The film holds a 54 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes and has earned about $15 million worldwide, well below the response to The Social Network.

Sorkin has written films for 35 years, including A Few Good Men, The American President, Charlie Wilson's War, Moneyball, Steve Jobs, Molly's Game, The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Being the Ricardos. He won screenplay Oscar and Golden Globe awards for The Social Network and a Golden Globe for Steve Jobs. He also wrote every episode of the first four seasons of NBC's The West Wing.

Over the past decade he has directed Molly's Game, The Trial of the Chicago 7, Being the Ricardos and The Social Reckoning, and has absorbed criticism for his work behind the camera. He was frank about that in Newport Beach. Some parts of screenwriting can be taught, he said, while others cannot, and those are what people usually mean by talent. "I'm very worried that the parts of directing that I'm not good at are those parts that you can't learn."

Before directing, Sorkin worked with Rob Reiner, Fincher, Bennett Miller, Mike Nichols and Danny Boyle, and he said he still wants to collaborate with great directors. The learning curve, though, was steeper than expected, not with actors but with the artful use of a camera. "I was surprised by how little of the science of filmmaking I'd managed to absorb," he said, adding, "I have no visual sensibility, it turns out."

The 65-year-old compared himself to football coaches who say after a loss that all the elements for a win were present but did not come together. He said he feels the same about directing and hopes for one more chance to put it all together.

On other topics, Sorkin said he would like to revive The West Wing but needs a story, noting that the cast has also aged. He said that, apart from A Few Good Men, none of his 11 movies would likely be feature films today and would instead go to streaming. He also discussed the new Lincoln Center revival of A Few Good Men, saying he is working on it sober after losing a decade of his life to drugs that began around the time of his Broadway debut, and that he has rewritten the play.