18 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
Aaron Sorkin on
directing: ‘I had
the time of my life’
By JAKE COYLE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MARY ALTAFFER/ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this April 6, 2017, file photo, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during the Women in the World Summit in
New York.
In book, Clinton admits mistakes,
casts blame for 2016 loss
By JONATHAN LEMIRE
AND BILL BARROW
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — In a candid and
pointed new book, Hillary Clinton
relives her stunning defeat to Donald
Trump, admitting to personal mis-
takes and defending campaign strat-
egy even as her return to the stage
refocuses attention on a race Demo-
crats still can’t believe they lost.
Clinton is unsparing in her criti-
cism of Trump and also lays out some
of the factors she believes contributed
to her loss: interference from Russian
hackers, accusations leveled at her by
former FBI Director James Comey,
a divisive primary battle with Bernie
Sanders, even her gender. She also
addresses common criticisms of her
campaign, including the idea that she
didn’t have a compelling narrative
for seeking the presidency and that
she ignored Midwestern turf where
Trump picked up enough white
working-class voters to win several
battleground states.
“Some critics have said that every-
thing hinged on me not campaigning
enough in the Midwest,” Clinton
writes in the book “What Happened.”
‘’And I suppose it is possible that a
few more trips to Saginaw or a few
more ads on the air in Waukesha
could have tipped a couple of thou-
sand voters here or there.”
“But let’s set the record straight:
we always knew that the industrial
Midwest was crucial to our success,
just as it had been for Democrats for
decades, and contrary to the popular
narrative, we didn’t ignore those
states,” she wrote.
Clinton already is taking some
criticism — complete with mockery
from late-night television hosts — for
planning book-tour stops in the Great
Lakes and Midwestern states that ulti-
mately cost her the election. But she
writes that her campaign had more
staff and spent more on advertising in
both Michigan and Pennsylvania, two
states she lost, than President Barack
Obama did when he won them in
2012.
She acknowledges that “if there’s
one place where we were caught by
surprise, it was Wisconsin,” saying
that polls showed her ahead until the
end.
But while she did not visit the
state in the fall, she noted that her
surrogates blanketed the state.
In Wisconsin, Democratic pollster
Paul Maslin called it a “bitter irony”
that Clinton is now trying to reach
voters — or consumers — in states
he believes her campaign mostly
ignored.
But he said it’s ultimately a side
show from a has-been.
“Let her do whatever she’s going
to do for whatever reason she’s doing
it, but it doesn’t matter. There’s just
so much else happening every day
with Trump,” Maslin said. He said he
hopes Clinton understands that “most
Democrats are beyond” blaming her
for November. “For her sake, I hope
she can sell enough books, but if she
thinks she’s affecting the debate in
any way, I think she’s more delusion-
al than anyone thought.”
TORONTO — Aaron Sorkin
was sitting in a restaurant
with producers Amy Pascal
and Mark Gordon, ticking off
the names of top Hollywood
directors who might be a
good fit for the script Sorkin
had just finished: “Molly’s
Game,” a drama about the so-
called “poker princess” Molly
Bloom.
“When we got to the end,
Mark and Amy said, ‘But we
think you should direct it,’”
Sorkin recalled in an inter-
view. “And I grabbed at the
chance.”
“Molly’s Game” pre-
miered Friday night at the To-
ronto International Film Festi-
val where it was immediately
greeted with rave reviews,
awards forecasts for star
Jessica Chastain and a general
reaction of: Sorkin, director, is
a rip-roaring success.
He had come close before.
“I was going to direct ‘The
Social Network.’ Amy Pascal,
Scott Rudin and I said, ‘You
know what, let’s just give it
to David Fincher and once
he’s passes, I’ll direct it,’”
said Sorkin. “I’ve never been
so lucky to not direct some-
thing in my life.”
Fate intervened, Sorkin
and Fincher created one of
the most celebrated films
of the decade, and Sorkin’s
chance to take the director’s
chair had to wait. Danny
Boyle took the reins of Sor-
kin’s next script, the Apple
co-founder biopic “Steve
Jobs.”
But the cards came up
different for Sorkin on
“Molly’s Game,” which STX
Entertainment will release
Nov. 22. The story is a rich
one — full of Sorkin’s whip-
smart dialogue — that Sorkin
CHRIS PIZZELLO/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Director Aaron Sorkin attends
a premiere for “Molly’s Game”
on day 2 of the Toronto Inter-
national Film Festival at the
Elgin Theatre on Friday, Sept.
8, 2017, in Toronto.
says he became obsessed
with telling. “At some point,
you have to fall in love,” he
said. “With this, it was right
away.”
The film is partly based
on Bloom’s memoir about
running a high-stakes poker
game in Los Angeles where
bold-faced names like Leon-
ardo DiCaprio, Tobey Ma-
guire and Ben Affleck were
regulars. Bloom was herself
a former elite freestyle skier
whose Olympic chances
were dramatically derailed
by an injury. She was later
arrested as part of a larger
mafia investigation.