Aaron Sorkin is just one of those guys who loves to talk. Now that he’s a director, he’s happy to be front-and-center for promotion too. Which is why he’s giving interviews around The Social Reckoning, the “sequel” to David Fincher’s The Social Network. Sorkin won an Oscar for the Social Network script, and I guess Fincher didn’t want to direct the sequel, so Sorkin stepped in as director. This film follows Facebook as it grapples with whistleblower Frances Haugen going public. Sorkin chatted with Vanity Fair about the film, reshoots, the current state of social media and why he didn’t include Donald Trump’s name one time in the film.

Why he did reshoots after the trailer came out: “[Sony Pictures chairman and CEO] Tom Rothman just offered, “If there’s anything you could go back and rewrite or reshoot, would you do it?” And I said, “Yeah, I would go back and rewrite and reshoot the whole thing. I always want to do that.” But realistically, there were two scenes I wanted to rewrite and another I wanted to reshoot and another I just wanted to add. And so he opened the checkbook and gave us three days of shooting….We weren’t correcting anything. There are two kinds of reshoots that are done: One is the “Oh, we’re in trouble. We need to reshoot this.” And that usually happens on $150 million superhero movies. The other kinds of reshoots are “Oh, we really like this movie. It’s good. Let’s make it better.”

He rejoined Facebook while writing this script: “On my first day back on Facebook now, Facebook 2.0, because, wow, was it different back in 2009 when I was writing The Social Network. But the first thing that came up in my feed happened to be a picture of a dachshund. I like dachshunds, so I thought, Well, okay, you got to start training the algorithm. And I liked it. And from that point forward, all Facebook was for me was pictures of dachshunds. My entire Facebook experience is just pictures of dachshunds. [VF: “You’re a dachshund extremist now.”] Right, I’ve been radicalized.”

While January 6th is part of the film, Sorkin never used Trump’s name: “I want to be clear: I was never asked to do that, to not mention Trump by name. I turned in the script and a day or two later met with Tom Rothman, who was full speed ahead on it. And I promised him, unprovoked, that we would not see any Trump signage, no “Make America Great Again.” The movie is about Facebook’s role and the rise of divisiveness, extremism, and hyper-partisanship in the country. It is not a red-blue thing, even though, obviously, it will be felt that way.”

What’s the solution to fix the political divisions? “Honestly, I’m really starting to think that, for answers to that question that you’re asking, we need to consult cult experts. You hear people say, “It’s a cult. It’s a cult.” And I think what they’re saying is it’s like a cult, and I believe that. I know that cult experts and mental health experts have been trying to get our attention for a while. Maybe the answer is just the right leader, but I have a hunch that’s only the answer in West Wing world.

Can Meta redeem itself? At one point, Bill Burr’s character says, “Change a one to a zero or a zero to a one. Just do it.” Yes, Meta can redeem itself. Become what it was supposed to be: a force for good and connecting people. Sorry to keep quoting the movie, but Mark says at the end of the argument, “This is a business, Charlie. You know why we don’t fact-check ads: because we don’t have to.” Make them have to. The responsibility is with the laws—pass laws.

What kinds of movies he’d like to see: “I’d like to see Hollywood make movies where the press are the heroes. The low level of trust in traditional news sources is dangerous, and I think film and television can help.

[From Vanity Fair]

But… how can Sorkin put J6 in there without ever mentioning Trump by name?? Like, I would understand it if he managed to keep Trump’s name off the script by not even dealing with J6, but if you’re going to address those acts of treason, you have to speak the cult leader’s name. You have to address the reason why all of those methheads stormed the Capitol. Sorkin is right that this is a cult situation and should be dealt with, psychologically and politically, like half the country has been brainwashed.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.