Aaron Sorkin's Sexist Email Leaked: Undermines Jennifer Lawrence, Julia Roberts, Other Best Actresses
Film producer Aaron Sorkin, who also penned "The Social Network" and "Moneyball" is currently in the hot seat for dissing female actors. An email of the producer was leaked by the 'Guardian of Peace" hacker group wherein Aaron boldly said the title of Best Actress is much easier to win than that of a Best Actor in the Oscars.
Daily Star UK reports that an email containing Aaron Sorkin's real thoughts on women actress was leaked. The email was a response to columnist Maureen Dowd's column discussing the "niche status" that female-led films has. Sorkin reportedly claimed that female actresses are not on the same league as male actors. Sorkin wrote that "year in and year out, the guy who wins the Oscar for Best Actor has a much higher bar to clear than the woman who wins Best Actress," Sorkin said. He added that even though Cate [Blanchett] was terrific in "Blue Jasmine," her performance is nothing compared to the performances given by the five Best Actor nominees. He said that Cate Blanchett did nothing as difficult as nominees Matthew McConaughey, Leonardo DiCaprio , Chiwetel Ejiofar, Bruce Dern and Christian Bale did to get their nominations.
He did not stop here. He also lambasted other female actors, undermining their performances and comparing these to the performance provided by the mail actors. He wrote, "Daniel Day-Lewis had to give the performance he gave in Lincoln to win - Jennifer Lawrence won for Silver Linings Playbook, in which she did what a professional actress is supposed to be able to do." He also compared Colin Firth to Natalie Portman, Phil Hoffman to Julia Roberts, and Al Pacino to Sandra Bullock. He said while Hoffman had to transform himself into Truman Capote, Julie Roberts had won a title just for playing "Erin Brockovich." In the said mail, he questioned how Sandra Bullock could have won for "The Blind Side," while Al Pacino lost the title for both of his "Godfather" movies.
For Sorkin, only Helen Mirren and Meryl Streep are worthy of the title "Best Actress," as they could "play with the boys" He said that there aren't that many "tour-de-force roles" out there that are designed to be played by women. Aaron Sorkin's comments can be considered sexist, Daily Star reports. These comments also emerged when it was revealed that Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams earned considerably less for their performances in "American Hustle" compared to the male actors of the movie. This, even though they had more screen time than some of the male actors.
Before this leak however, Aaron Sorkin already expressed his displeasure in New York Times that the press is giving these leaks more exposure by writing about them. He compared the journalists to the hackers, saying the hackers have a purpose, while the journalists are doing the same destruction just for money.