<p>Though writer/director Aaron Sorkin is known for being a liberal, he isn’t on board with left-wing demands to only cast LGBT actors to play LGBT characters and he disagrees with the idea that performers of a specific ethnicity must play corresponding ethnic roles. In a recent interview with <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/nicole-kidman-im-wilful-dont-put-me-in-a-box-9f3clp6kx">The Sunday Times</a>, he said, “It’s heartbreaking and a little chilling to see members of the artistic community resegregating ourselves” when addressing prioritizing “representation” in casting.</p>
<p>The 60-year-old filmmaker’s comments came in response to criticism over his casting of actor Javier Bardem, who is Spanish, to play Cuban Desi Arnez in the new film, “Being the Ricardos.”</p>
<p>Sorkin, best known for TV shows like &#8220;The West Wing&#8221; and films like &#8220;The Social Network,&#8221; went on to add, “You can act being attracted to someone, but can’t act gay or straight. So this notion that only gay actors should play gay characters? That only a Cuban actor should play Desi? Honestly, I think it’s the mother of all empty gestures and a bad idea.”</p>
<p>Many in the entertainment media aren’t taking kindly to Sorkin’s classic liberal values.</p>
<p>MTV movie critic Hanna Ines Flint <a href="https://twitter.com/HannaFlint/status/1472541515901808640?s=20">condemned</a> his comments as insensitive, saying, “Aaron Sorkin doubling down by calling the need for representation &#8216;resegregation’ now. It&#8217;s heartbreaking to see a screenwriter I was a fan of be deliberately obtuse towards people&#8217;s valid criticisms.”</p>
<p>Lyra Hale, managing editor of Fangirlish, <a href="https://twitter.com/TheAltSource/status/1472702042179346434?s=20">said</a>, “Aaron Sorkin doesn&#8217;t understand that it&#8217;s not about only gay actors playing gay characters or only Cubans playing Desi. It&#8217;s about underrepresented communities having an opportunity to take a part in the stories being told with an authenticity others don&#8217;t understand. Simple.”</p>
<p>Bardem joined his director in defending his casting, saying there’s no reason he shouldn’t be allowed to play one-half of the iconic “I Love Lucy” couple.</p>
<p>“I’m an actor, and that’s what I do for a living: try to be people that I’m not,” he told <em><a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/nicole-kidman-javier-bardem-interview-being-the-ricardos-pressures-1235062363/">The Hollywood Reporter</a>. </em></p>
<p>He went on:</p>
<blockquote><p><em>“What do we do with Marlon Brando playing Vito Corleone? What do we do with Margaret Thatcher played by Meryl Streep? Daniel Day-Lewis playing Lincoln? Why does this conversation happen with people with accents?</em></p>
<p><em>You have your accent. That’s where you belong. That’s tricky. Where is that conversation with English-speaking people doing things like The Last Duel, where they were supposed to be French people in the Middle Ages? That’s fine. But me, with my Spanish accent, being C</em><em>uban?&#8217;</em></p>
<p><em>What I mean is, if we want to open the can of worms, let’s open it for everyone. The role came to me, and one thing that I know for sure is that I’m going to give everything that I have.”</em></p></blockquote>
<p>The Oscar winner, who has played everything from a sociopathic killer to a gay poet, finished with a joke, “&#8217;We should all start not allowing anybody to play Hamlet unless they were born in Denmark.”</p>

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West Wing Creator Aaron Sorkin Says Woke, Identity-Based Casting Is ‘Mother Of All Empty Gestures’

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West Wing Creator Aaron Sorkin Says Woke, Identity-Based Casting Is ‘Mother Of All Empty Gestures’