Oscar-Nominee Aaron Sorkin on his Directorial Debut Molly’s Game

As part of our Oscars week coverage, we’re re-posting our conversations with some of this year’s Oscar-nominees, as well as publishing new interviews with those vying for Oscar gold this Sunday. Writer/director Aaron Sorkin is nominated for Writing (Adapted Screenplay) alongside James Ivory (Call Me By Your Name), Scott Neustadter & Michael Weber (The Disaster Artist), Scott Frank & James Mangold and Michael Green (Logan), and Virgil Williams and Dee Rees (Mudbound). 

Writer Extraordinaire Aaron Sorkin on his Directorial Debut Molly’s Game

Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin is famed for writing the words uttered by The West Wing’s imaginary president and the semi-fictionalized tech magnates of Steve Jobs and The Social Network. For his first film as a director, Sorkin scripted the dialogue of a criminal: Molly Bloom, a skier who turned to running big-money poker games after an injury ended her Olympic aspirations. Hardly a desperado, the title character of Molly’s Game is a thoughtful young woman played by Jessica Chastain.

Watch the First Trailer for Aaron Sorkin’s Directorial Debut Molly’s Game

When one of Hollywood’s most successful screenwriters makes his directorial debut, you assume the material must be rich, and in the case of Aaron Sorkin’s Molly’s Game, thats true in both the figurative and literal sense. 

Sorkin adapted the material from Molly Bloom’s memoir of the same title, which captured Bloom’s life from former Olympic-class skiier to the operator of the world’s most exclusive high-stakes poker game, which led to her becoming a target of the FBI.