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Three years after his directorial debut, Sorkin called on Strong again for his second writing-directing job.
The movie has Sorkins regular rosy sentimentality, but the narrative is an emphatic history lesson.
For Strong, it was all about the Rubin character and telling the story of that moment.
Aaron is both a virtuosic writer and one of the greatest screenwriters in the history of cinema.
For an actor, his language is like playing one of the great symphonies in the first chair.
Aaron Sorkin wrote the script forThe Trial of the Chicago 7over a decade ago.
When did you learn about it?Maybe eight years ago, actually.
I remember just being struck by [reading the script] at that time in my life.
And then he came to me and asked me to play Jerry Rubin.
Its a period in our history that I care a great deal about.
Jerry is a real feast of a character.
He was a fiery, I would say, almost militant radical, and also a merry prankster.
Do you prepare differently when youre playing a real person?I dont have a set way of working.
I think it all kind of reveals itself to you, and you follow your intuition blindly.
What can you tell me about gettingRubins voicedown?That takes a lot of technical work.
Its a lot of time.
I think it has to be inside of you.
It needs to becomeyourvoice.
And I think, for me, if I have any method at all, its that.
And with Jerry, it was a lot of things.
Were in the courtroom for many, many, many months.
So I planted a fart machine in the judges dais where he couldnt find it.
I would set it off sometimes before a close-up, and it would really piss him off.
His face turned red.
Those are the takes we used in the film.
It was great there was real, palpable tension in the room when that happened.
What does that look like getting in trouble with Aaron?Aaron is a very diplomatic person.
Aaron needs to see to it that he gets what he wants.
Sometimes he would send the producer to give me a dressing down.
But, listen, I loved everyone that I worked with and everything that I was doing.
And everything we were doing was to serve the material and to bring it to life.
Aaron has such a classical, precise structure.
That was the healthy creative kind of tension on the set for me.
Like when youre on stage, Stanislavski called it the unbroken line of life.
Everyones on stage at the same time.
Theres not a camera on anyone, but youre living moment to moment.
Youre trying to live the moment-to-moment truth of whatever is happening for those three hours.
And I guess its the same thing in the courtroom.
Regardless of whether theres a camera on you or not, you are working.
And, for me, theres just no way to control that.
Things happen when they happen.
And so the challenge is to capture that all on camera.
And they would have to be new each time and written in water each time.
And the story that were telling is so much bigger than any of us.
Everyone checked their Oscars at the door, and they were there to serve the story.
Were chanting the people united will never be defeated.
Already it felt very powerful.
You want to feel worthy of walking in those peoples shoes.
It permeated the whole experience for me, certainly.
Where do you feel like you fall on the movies spectrum of activism?
But Im sure that Tom Haydens argument has something to it in terms of it being about passing legislation.
I can see his point.
And the candidates name was Pegasus.
Successionissupposed to start filmingby the end of this year.
I think were going to go back to work soon.
Theres been such a break in all of our lives.
Im looking forward to going back to work, and Im also a bit … You just start over every time.
So it feels like a new beginning rather than a continuation of something.
I think I have to treat it that way because everything is different.
The world is different; Im different.
But I also think its undeniable that we exist in a different world now.
I dont know yet how that will have an impact on me or on the work.
Certainly, itll be good to see everyone again.
I feel like its a bit knives out for Kendall.
