Aaron Sorkin Admits He Has “No Visual Sensibility" as a Director, Questions His “Talent”

You don't see this every day: a major filmmaker, mid-release, admitting he's just not very good at his job.

A few weeks after "The Social Reckoning" landed with a thud, Aaron Sorkin sat down with THR and did something almost no director of his stature does. He blamed himself. There’s no scapegoat for the massive failure, just Aaron Sorkin.

He tells THR he was surprised by how little he'd picked up from working alongside Fincher, Boyle and Bennett Miller.

I was surprised by how little of the science of filmmaking I'd managed to absorb. I have no visual sensibility, it turns out.

Jesus. Let that sink in. This is the guy who wrote "A Few Good Men," "The West Wing," "The Social Network" and "Moneyball." He has an Oscar on his shelf. And four films into his directing career, he's openly admitting he still hasn't figured out how to be a director… and that he might not have the “talent” to succeed at this game.

There's a big part of me that feels like I just got into the movie business a few minutes ago, and that there's so much I don't know. From time to time, I get to speak with screenwriting students, and I'll be asked, 'Is screenwriting something that can be taught?' And the answer is, 'There are parts of screenwriting — important parts — that can be taught and can be learned, but there are parts that can't be. And those parts that can't be? That's usually what we mean when we use the word 'talent.' I'm very worried that the parts of directing that I'm not good at are those parts that you can't learn.

He also compared himself to a football coach after a loss, the kind who insists all the pieces were there and they just didn't click:

That's how I feel about directing. There are things that I've been doing right along the way. Just give me one more chance, and one of these days I'll be able to put it all together.

After these comments, why would any major studio trust this guy to direct one of their prized projects?

So why is Sorkin being this hard on himself? My theory is the most obvious one: he's read the reviews. Probably too many of them. This is a guy who once spent a whole press conference arguing with the critics who had trashed "The Newsroom."

Sorkin's talents reside on the page. He is one of the great screenwriters of his generation, maybe the best dialogue writer working today. Nobody's arguing that. However as a director? He stages scenes like he's still in a theater, points the camera at people talking, and hopes the words do the visual work. Sometimes they do ("Molly's Game"). More often they don't ("Being the Ricardos").