In the closing moments of “The Social Network,” Jesse Eisenberg’s Mark Zuckerberg tells Rashida Jones’ Marylin Delpy he’s not a bad guy, and before Marylin exits the room she says, quite kindly: “You’re not an ass----, Mark. You’re just trying so hard to be.”
In the Showtime limited series “Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber,” Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Travis Kalanick doesn’t have to try to be an ass---- because that’s how he wakes up every morning and that’s how he conducts himself all day and he couldn’t hide it if he tried — and he’s not interested in trying. Travis is proud of the fact he’s a toxic human cocktail of brainpower, greed, insecurities, ambition and cutthroat ruthlessness, and he wants to see those same traits in his employees, even asking them, “Are you an ass----?,” when they interview for a position with Uber.
