45: Aaron Sorkin reads Brietbart for inspiration

When Academy Award-winning writer Aaron Sorkin began to craft the characters in his rendition of Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” for the Broadway stage, he honed in on the town’s unemployed villain, Bob Ewell, and gave him real anxieties inspired by today’s right-wing politics. “I'll tell you where I went to find Bob Ewell, Breitbart,” Sorkin tells Salon. “A lot of Bob Ewell's dialogue was written by commenters at Breitbart. I'm not joking.” Ewell is the victim of poverty, Sorkin explained, and he is able to articulate an anger to Atticus Finch that the other Bob Ewells in the book and movie versions of “To Kill a Mockingbird” didn’t touch on. According to Sorkin, Ewell’s thing is, "You think you're better than me? You look down on me. You think you're better than me?" Sorkin also opens up about the long, difficult, and very engaging process of adapting “To Kill a Mockingbird” for the stage, currently on Broadway until September, and how America’s deeply divided politics—including Trump’s presidency, his supporters and liberals, too—all informed and continue to bring new meaning to his version. --- About “Salon Talks” Hosted by Salon journalists, “Salon Talks” episodes offer a fresh take on the long-form interview format, and a much-needed break from the partisan political talking heads that have come to dominate the genre. “Salon Talks” is a destination for information through conversation. Viewers can expect discussions with A-list actors, artists, authors, thinkers, and newsmakers as we explore the full range of the human condition. The show streams live on Facebook and Twitter and each episode is published in full on Salon.com . Watch SalonTV, streaming live daily on Salon.com , and YouTube.

You can listen to 45: Aaron Sorkin reads Brietbart for inspiration online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

45: Aaron Sorkin reads Brietbart for inspiration is an episode from Salon Talks by Audioboom.

This episode is 30:21 long.

This episode was published on Jul 9, 2019.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Salon Talks when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.