Though Sorkin has created verbose series—like The Newsroom and The West Wing—and penned generally well-received scripts about real-life figures—such as Mark Zuckerberg (The Social Network), Billy Beane (Moneyball) and Steve Jobs (Steve Jobs)—he’s also been criticized for not being able to write particularly well for female characters.
A Time op-ed only supported that argument in 2014, noting, “Sorkin celebrates the male mind while making women the objects of lust or scorn. The few women who do make it into Sorkin’s scripts are usually in need of rescue by the men in their lives.” Take this clip from an episode from Sorkin’s award-winning The West Wing as an example.
At the time, the op-ed was in response to a Sorkin email that had been unearthed in the Sony hack. In it, he argued that Blanchett’s Oscar-winning role in Blue Jasmine required “nothing close to the degree of difficulty” demanded of the Best Actor nominees.
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