Bartlet4America News Archive

TV Talk: Aaron Sorkin worried about effect on writing of getting off drugs

by Jim Longworth
Winston-Salem Journal

Fri, April 11, 2003

History is replete with painters and authors who have done some of their best work while under the influence of drink or drug.

But for Aaron Sorkin, the award-winning creator of television's The West Wing and scribe of such films as A Few Good Men and The American President, a long-time addiction to cocaine has been both a blessing and a curse to the creative process.

Sorkin: I wrote The American President high, and A Few Good Men, I was getting there. I was living at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles for about two years, and I would lock the door and close the curtains where nobody could find me for a couple of days. One night I was having a drink downstairs with Warren Beatty, and, in the middle of a conversation, he very casually said, "When you feel like it's time for you to get help with the coke thing, let me know." And it knocked me out (because) I had never talked with Warren about drugs.

Soon after that encounter, Sorkin checked himself into a rehab facility in Minnesota, but he was concerned about how the recovery process would affect his craft.

Sorkin: On the eve of going to Hazelden, I was worried that without cocaine I couldn't write. I got a really nice call from Carrie Fisher, who had had a similar problem. She said, "Listen, I know what you're thinking, that you can't write without the coke. It's simply not true. You're really going to enjoy writing without it." Then, Warren called me every day while I was at Hazelden, and made it clear to me that, far from being unemployable when I got out of rehab, that he wanted to be the first in line to use me. I don't know how to thank him for that.

With a little help from his friends, Sorkin rebounded with work on both the small and large screens. His battle with drugs suffered a setback in April of 2001 during a hiatus from filming The West Wing, but his recovery is on-going. Given Sorkin's struggle with and understanding of addiction, and with a reputation for putting something of himself into every character he writes, it is not surprising that Sorkin created Leo McGarry, the fictional White House chief of staff, who is a recovering alcoholic. In the series, Leo attends secret Alcoholics Anonymous meetings for high-level politicos.

Sorkin: There are AA meetings going on all over the world, 24 hours a day. I guarantee you that within five miles of you there's one happening right now. And you don't need a ticket ... nobody checks your I.D. There are a few exceptions. Commercial-airline pilots have private AA meetings, so do judges and surgeons. So it occurred to me that somewhere, deep in the basement of government, late at night in Washington, D.C., is an AA meeting for government officials so high-profile that they couldn't possibly go to a regular meeting.

Longworth: Do you know if your assumption was correct?

Sorkin: I have no idea, (but) I would be very surprised if there weren't. I have to believe that with 545 congressmen and senators, agency directors and White House staff, there have got to be a bunch of people there who are recovering alcoholics, and it wouldn't shock me at all if there were such a meeting.

Sorkin's roots are in the theater, where he formed his remarkable talent for writing dialogue. He once told me that, upon seeing his first Broadway musical as a child, he thought that the performers were "magical people from a magical land." Many years later, and despite a rocky road to recovery, Sorkin still feels a sense of excitement in his work.

Sorkin: There's still a tremendous amount of magic, and the magic never went away for me.