Aaron Sorkin Takes On A Tough Script: His Own

“There’s no question I borrowed very liberally from everyone who has done something I liked,” Mr. Sorkin says of his directorial debut. He recalls the first table-reading of his screenplay for 2007’s “

Charlie Wilson’s

War,” which

Mike Nichols

directed. Actors including

Tom Hanks,

Julia Roberts

and

Philip Seymour Hoffman

assembled to read the wordy script, and Mr. Nichols’s simple instruction to them was: “Start talking as soon as it’s your turn, and don’t stop talking until your turn is over.”

In “Molly’s Game,”

Jessica Chastain

plays

Molly Bloom,

who organized one of the richest private poker games in America, seating movie stars, business billionaires and other hotshots. The film tracks her entrepreneurial drive building the glitzy game and her resilience after the FBI arrests her.

Idris Elba

portrays her lawyer and

Kevin Costner

her demanding father. The film, from STX Entertainment, has received Golden Globe nominations for

Ms. Chastain

and for the screenplay.

It wasn’t clear who was going to direct after Mr. Sorkin adapted Ms. Bloom’s 2014 memoir into a 200-page script, which for writers of less tightly packed dialogue could translate into a three-hour film. Mr. Sorkin met at a restaurant with producers

Mark Gordon

and

Amy Pascal.

“Each of us had a list of about 20 directors’ names,” he recalls. “And when we got to the end, Amy and Mark said, ‘We think you should direct it.’ I kind of just ‘aw shucks’-ed it. I didn’t really think they were serious, and I didn’t want to hold them to it.”

Then he thought about it and took them up on the offer—partly to be sure that nobody turned the movie into a raucous female version of “The Wolf of Wall Street,” he says. “I knew there would be a natural gravitational pull toward the shiny objects in the story: the decadence, the glamour, the money, the Hollywood boldface names.” He wanted a more subtle and emotional film, and “didn’t want to litigate my choices.”

As an acting student turned playwright turned TV show runner and film screenwriter, Mr. Sorkin had been involved in practically every element of production, from casting to editing. Still, as a neophyte director, “I knew I would have to surround myself with very talented people who had the ability to work with a first-time director. “ They included first assistant director

Walter Gasparovic

(from films like “Baby Driver” and “Spotlight”) and set designers David and

Sandy Wasco,

who won an Oscar for “La La Land” while “Molly’s Game” was shooting.

Mr. Sorkin knew he wanted Danish cinematographer

Charlotte Christensen,

who shot “The Girl on the Train” and “Fences” (”wall-to-wall

August Wilson

dialogue,” he points out).

“I had to confess to her that in my 25 years of doing this, I had managed to absorb none of the science of filmmaking,” Mr. Sorkin says. “We would huddle up before a shot, and Charlotte would say ‘I think we should throw on a 60 [millimeter lens]’ and look to me for confirmation. And all I’d be able to say was ‘Sixty, 61—whatever it takes.’ ”

Given the chance to direct his own words, Mr. Sorkin avoided the sorts of “Sorkinisms”—signature phrases and techniques in his prior work—such as the “walk and talk” or someone skeptically saying “Ya think?”—that have been widely spoofed. “Except for a seven-second walk from Idris Elba’s reception area to his office,” he says, “there is no moment in the movie when a character is walking and talking at the same time.”

The newbie director, who brought in the film at 2 hours and 20 minutes, found strength in all the collaboration. He isn’t ready to buy into the auteur theory, the idea that films are the singular vision of their directors.

“I’m going to tell you this story just ’cause I think it’s funny. I’m not angry about it in any way,” he says. “My first play—and my first movie—was ‘A Few Good Men.’ I have two posters side-by-side in my office. One of them says ‘A Few Good Men. A Play by Aaron Sorkin.’ The other one says ‘A Few Good Men: A Film by Rob Reiner.’ And my job was exactly the same on both.”

“I don’t know who said movies are a director’s medium, but I promise you it was a director,” Mr. Sorkin says. But he enjoyed directing, and says he would do it again, now that he’s getting the hang of it.