Aaron Sorkin’s fast-paced, acerbic dialogue is so uniquely recognizable, it’s often used as the punchline of high brow pop culture jokes. His style made shows like The West Wing and The Newsroom cult hits, and the screenwriter himself a bit of a legend. Sorkin often uses his characters to dig into the fallibility of societal institutions and the follies of morality — but he also has been criticized for sexist portrayals of women who are rarely seen as as smart and capable as their male counterparts. He had the opportunity for a rebuttal though, in one of this winter’s flashy releases, Being The Ricardos. The film stars Nicole Kidman as iconic 1950s comedic darling Lucille Ball. And while the film has plenty to dig into with the unparalleled success of the I Love Lucy show and the relationship between Ball and her husband and creative partner Desi Arnaz (Javier Bardem), Being The Ricardos gets at broader issues in a way that feels coincidental. In a new interview with The Times, Sorkin spoke about his gripes with modern day political correctness, how it’s affecting the film industry and how that theme played out in Lucille Ball’s life. Most controversially, he added that he doesn’t think that queer characters need to be played by queer actors.
