Aaron Sorkin says Scott Rudin “gets what he deserves” – deadline

Aaron Sorkin, whose stage adaptation of Harper Lee Kill a mockingbird resumes his Broadway performances next week, says in a new interview that Scott Rudin, the show’s former producer, “got what he deserves” after details of bullying and abuse at the scene work were revealed last spring. But the writer adds that he has refrained from commenting publicly on the situation because Rudin is “lying flat on the mat right now, and I don’t know how it helps me to stand on his chest and to jump up and down “.

In the interview with Vanity Fair, Sorkin, who also worked with Rudin on the films The social network, Steve Jobs and Silver ball as well as television series The press room, said that even though he knew about Rudin The devil wears Pradatype behavior, he was not witnessed or aware of the suspected cases of physical abuse (former Rudin employees accused their former boss of throwing things at them and, in one case, of slamming a computer laptop on an employee’s hand).

“There is nothing physical at all in the stories I have heard,” Sorkin says. “If I had known, there is no way I would have tolerated it, there is no way [Mockingbird director] Bart Sher would have tolerated it, than Jeff Daniels would have tolerated it. So we didn’t know. And once we did, we did something about it.

Sorkin says he hasn’t spoken to Rudin since the Zoom call in April that ended their professional relationship after the hollywood reporter detailed the charges. Rudin, confirms Sorkin, is no longer paid as a producer, and he has no ongoing involvement in the production of the play (which resumes performances on October 5). Rudin’s participation as an investor, says Sorkin, “will continue to be honored.”

Here are some other highlights from the interview, which can be read in full here:

• “Over the past 12 years, I think, I’ve worked a lot with Scott – three feature films, an HBO series and a Broadway play. And it was painful to read this story from The Hollywood Reporter, especially because there’s a good chance some of those assistants who were being abused were working on something that I wrote while they were being abused. So I took it personally. Whether it’s a film set, a rehearsal room for a play, behind the scenes of a play or a TV series, morale is important to me. And I’m very proud to create a place where people are really happy to come to work, where they feel a sense of belonging, a sense of fatherhood, a sense of family. And we have this at Mocking bird. We always had this in Mocking bird. So it was a big shock. “
• We are in communication with Rudin: “There was only one conversation. It was a Zoom call with Bart, Scott, and myself, and it was clear Scott would no longer have a relationship with Kill a mockingbird, either the Broadway Company, the London Company, or the National Tour. So Scott is no longer involved. And we brought in a wonderful producer named Orin Wolf, who was already producing the national tour. He’s doing a great job as the captain of the ship now.
• On the potential for a Rudin comeback: “I have no idea. Honestly, I have no idea. I don’t know what he’s doing now. But I will say this: I hope he gets better. I feel what I would feel with an alcoholic or a drug addict. I hope he will be better.
• Kill a mockingbird, with Jeff Daniels and Celia Keenan-Bolger returning in their lead roles, will include some post-shutdown adjustments, though Sorkin doesn’t offer details: “[T]here are some things we’re doing in this 2.0 production that I wouldn’t want to reveal. But everything that happened – George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, the BLM movement – is on our minds as we do this. “