Aaron Sorkin Says He Knows There’s A Diversity Problem

At the Writer’s Guild Festival on Saturday, Aaron Sorkin seemed to learn something new: that there’s a diversity problem in the writer’s rooms of Hollywood. Aaron’s mind was blown like a kid at a magic show. But according to Aaron Sorkin, it’s not like that. He knows there’s a lack of women and people of color writing movies and TV.

Aaron clarified his statements to Variety and says he’s the one who brought the subject up because he wanted to get to the bottom of why there’s a lack of diversity.

“Is is because studio heads aren’t greenlighting the movies? Is it because studio executives aren’t bringing the projects to studio heads? Is that because agents are bringing the projects to studio executives? Is because agents aren’t getting the material? I was asking questions to a group of people who understand this problem firsthand.

The fact that there’s a diversity problem isn’t news to me. One of the questions I asked was, ‘What can I do? If you had a remote control over me, what would you have me do on Monday?’ I walked away from the session with more questions than answers but I absolutely know more when I left than I did when I walked in.”

To use that magic analogy again, Aaron sounds like that kid getting all cocky right after the magician explains what he did. “Oh yeah, I totally knew he was hiding the card in his pocket. I…uh…just wanted to see if you did too.”

I just wish Aaron had gotten a little deeper into that question about being controlled by a remote. Did anyone take him up on that offer? My guess is that no one had the energy to do that. Those screenwriters in the audience are already spending all day working on their scripts while trying to make it look like they’re still drinking their caramel macchiato so that they don’t get kicked out of Starbucks for loitering. They don’t have time to hold Aaron Sorkin’s hand and show him how to hire people too.

Pic: Splash