Josh Charles Guts Aaron Sorkin Like a Fish
“Other writers that I've worked with, I'm much more excited about opening up their scripts.”
“What is it like to get a fresh Aaron Sorkin television script?” asks an innocent Dave Holmes in a new Esquire interview with hot actor Josh Charles. “Is it Christmas morning, the way that I imagine it to be?”
It’s a point of view I understand you might align with. Maybe you enjoy Aaron Sorkin. Maybe you did not leave Molly’s Game wishing you could get the last 17 hours of your life back, and in particular the last four hours that were spent on like … the bad dad, talking about how actually he’s a good dad. (I’m forgetting the specifics.) Maybe you own a “BARTLET FOR AMERICA” sweatshirt. Maybe you want to believe Sorkin (Amy Sherman-Palladino for people who want to feel like watching TV is a political force for good) is our foremost screenwriting genius who delights his players anew with every fresh piece of text, and if you do, be my guest.
But to get back to it — is opening a fresh Sorkin script, to Josh Charles, like Christmas morning? “I mean, no,” he said. “Not really.”
Yessssssss! WOOOOOO! Get his ass!!!!
Certain scripts were good, Charles said; others, not so much. “To be frank with you, other writers that I've worked with, I'm much more excited about opening up their scripts.”
And of course we can only say: LOL. But poor sweet Dave Holmes, the scales falling from his eyes, pressed on. “My thing with Aaron Sorkin is even when the show or the movie is not working for me,” he said, “I always feel like the actors are having so much fun with the dialogue.”
“Hmm,” said Josh Charles in response.
Hmmmmmmm.
“I personally think when it works best is when it’s in a film and there’s a director who’s checking it a little bit,” he said. “I think that’s where Aaron's stuff even sings more, when there’s a Fincher or a Warren Beatty or a Rob Reiner. What you’re saying is you feel like the actors are always having fun, and yes, I guess they are.” Charles added that he thought Sorkin’s dialogue worked and seemed fun, in particular, in the West Wing. But. “When you're doing a steady diet of it I think it feels a little self-conscious to me, honestly. I find it very aware of itself … I find it very self-conscious if you want to know the truth.”
So there. He said it, as he said: “So there, I said it. Sorry to burst your bubble.”
YEAAAAAAHHH!!! WOOOOOOOOO! JOSH CHARLES, EVERYBODY!!!! CROWD CHEER SOUND EFFECT!
