Oscar-winning scribe Aaron Sorkin said he doesn’t think studios “would agree” to make his political romantic dramedy The American President today because its messaging would deter “half” the public from wanting to go see it.
Speaking to Rolling Stone for the 30th anniversary of the film’s release, he said, “Look, [The American President] is a romantic comedy, but the two political issues at the heart of it were guns and the environment, right? The movie wouldn’t get made today — a studio wouldn’t agree to make it — because they would know you’ve just alienated half the potential audience, which wasn’t the case in 1995. The heroes I wrote in those two stories, they did things even though it would cost them popularity, which is not something you see professional politicians of either party do very often.”
More from Deadline
The feature, directed by Rob Reiner, follows popular Democratic president Andrew Shepherd (Michael Douglas) seeking reelection. But when the widowed incumbent falls for an environmental lobbyist (Annette Bening), a Republican challenger (Richard Dreyfuss) spots an opportunity to launch an attack campaign. Meanwhile, as Shepherd’s approval rating slips, he seeks to secure the passage of a crucial gun control bill.
When asked if The West Wing creator sees any parallels between Republican officials and Dreyfuss’ Bob Rumson, he said, “All I see in the Republican Party today is a creepy, weird fealty to someone who doesn’t deserve it.”
He continued later in the interview, “During Covid, I binged every Netflix documentary about cults — NXIVM and the Way Down Cult and Sarah Lawrence, everything. And what they all have in common is this weird, passionate devotion to an utterly unremarkable person. That’s where I feel we are now. I see the man-on-the-street interviews where people are calling Donald Trump authentic and honest, and he means what he says, [I think] you got to be kidding me. What’s new is this strange, cult-like devotion to the very last person who would deserve it. The electorate changed, and I’m not good at explaining what changed it. Maybe the left drove people out of their minds.”
Sorkin has previously spoken about how his projects centering on civic duty would translate to modern audiences in our current political landscape. Last year, he voiced similar sentiments, saying of the right-wing party portrayed in The West Wing: “Right now, it would be implausible that the opposition party, that the Republican Party, was reasonable. People would watch that and it would be unfamiliar to them as the country they live in. On the show, while the Republicans were the opposition, they were reasonable.”
The filmmaker/writer is currently working on the anticipated followup to 2010’s The Social Network, for which he penned the script. Titled The Social Reckoning, the drama is slated for release Oct. 9, 2026.
