Sorkin takes a gamble
Aaron Sorkin and Jessica Chastain reveal to James Croot how they brought the amazing story of poker queen Molly Bloom to life.
Charlie Wilson, Mark Zuckerberg, Billy Beane and Steve Jobs. As a screenwriter, Aaron Sorkin has helped bring to big-screen life some amazing and complicated true-life characters.
‘‘I try to make movie heroes out of people who don’t wear capes,’’ the 56-year-old native New Yorker laughs as he holds court the afternoon after the world premiere of his latest film Molly’s Game at September’s Toronto Film Festival.
His latest cape-free crusader is another controversial figure. In fact, Molly Bloom had to be granted a 48-hour pass by the Canadian authorities so she could attend the movie’s launch. A one-time Olympic skiing hopeful, Bloom later became infamous for running an underground poker operation which attracted celebrities, athletes, business titans and the Russian mob. She was eventually arrested by the FBI.
Sorkin based his story on her 2014 memoir, deciding that it also presented him with an opportunity to make his directorial debut.
‘‘I had the time of my life,’’ he says of stepping behind the camera for the first-time. ‘‘I mean, I’m not done with wanting to work with great directors, but I found this experience to be fantastic. I’m sure part of that is because of the people I was surrounded by. This crew was the best one I’ve ever been a part of.
‘‘Choosing a DP [director of photography] was particularly important, not just because I wanted the film to look good, but because in the 25 years that I’ve been a professional writer, I have managed to absorb none of the science of filmmaking. I could not pick a long lens out of a police line-up. I just know I like the way it looks when one is there.’’
Recounting his first meeting with his eventual choice, Dane Charlotte Bruus Christensen (The Girl on the Train), he says he told her his fears, and that he had, ‘‘no visual sensibility at all – I kind of hear movies, I don’t see them’’. ‘‘She said, ‘don’t worry, I’ve got a handheld thing. I’m going to slap a lens on it and hand it to you. Look through it and tell me if you like what you see’.’’
Sorkin says he deliberately wanted the poker scenes to be all about the sights and sounds, rather than shot ‘‘conventionally’’.
‘‘We don’t care who wins or loses in this movie. I wanted to build the scenes out of microshots – the chips being slammed down, ice going into glass, a deck of cards being cut.‘‘
Jessica Chastain, who plays Molly, praised Sorkin and Christensen for avoiding the traditional traps and tropes of shooting a story like this.
‘‘I never felt like the camera was objectifying Molly. I think with this kind of character, in the past, we would have had those shots that go up her legs and I think Charlotte and Aaron make us listen to who the person is, rather than just see the body.’’
It’s a compliment, Sorkin is quick to deflect. ‘‘I wish I could claim credit for the non-objectifying. Maybe I can, but not for the nice reason. Molly is telling the story, so it’s not up to the filmmakers to decide to have that kind of shot.’’
When asked about her own relationship with gambling, 40-yearold Chastain admits her mother introduced her to it when she was still little.
‘‘We played with Halloween candy that we got from trick-or-treating – I lost a lot of candy. I think that’s how she got a lot away from me, because our bags were really full. Really, it never became something I was really interested in. Even when people talk about horse racing, it actually gives me anxiety. I hate the idea of taking money and throwing it into the wind. The house always wins. I don’t believe in gambling on anything. I believe in hard work. I know a lot of people, actors, because of the adrenaline they get from it, are really drawn to the idea of the risk, the gamble, but my heart can’t take it.’’
Recalling what inspired her to become an actress, the California-born Chastain says it was when her grandmother took her to see a production of Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. ‘‘I asked her why there was a little girl on stage and she told me it was a professional company and it was her job. I was like, ‘oh, that will be my job then’.’’
And what was her first professional gig? ‘‘It was an ad for Utah Transit and I was like a witch with one of those headsets because I had ‘visions’ of the transit system. I think I probably made a couple of hundred dollars. That would have gone straight on rent or gas money.’’
She clearly has found a kindred spirit in Sorkin, who cites seeing Man of La Mancha at the age of five as being the great influence on him.
‘‘I remember watching it and thinking, ‘my God, my father, that’s him [Don Quixote]’. He passed away while we were making this movie. He was 94 years old and had had Parkinson’s for a long time. He was a man who had one foot firmly planted in a different century – perhaps even one that never existed.
Whether it’s Jed Bartlett on The West Wing, or Molly Bloom in Molly’s Game, these characters that I write – they can be traced back to my father.’’
But when it comes to stories rippedfrom-the-headlines like Bloom’s, how does he balance his trademark style with staying true to what actually happened?
‘‘I know people’s lives don’t play out in a series of scenes that form a narrative structure and that people don’t speak in dialogue – that only happens in ‘art’. But even when I’m doing non-fiction, I take facts, I take ‘the truth’ and try to make a painting, rather than a photograph, of it.’’
❚ Molly’s Game (R13) opens in New Zealand cinemas on February 1.