"I am an old, old friend of Aaron Sorkin's, who is the executive producer and writer. He had been talking about doing a political show for a long time and I had been interested in it for a long time. The moment I became available, he called me last year and asked me if I wanted to do it and then I just had to audition for the powers that be, and I got it"
About this Quote
The subtext is doing two jobs at once. First, it normalizes access. “Old, old friend” is the real credential here, the soft currency that precedes every supposedly hard gate. Second, it anticipates the skeptical listener and preemptively launders the optics. The audition isn’t presented as the determining factor, but as the moral alibi: yes, I had the inside track, but I still had to “audition,” as if the room can’t already see the outcome once Sorkin calls.
The phrasing also reveals how power is distributed. Sorkin is named, credited, and personalized; the decision-makers are an anonymous bloc, “the powers that be,” faceless enough to avoid blame or gratitude. That’s industry politics in miniature: relationships have names, institutions don’t.
Context matters: this is an actor describing entry into a Sorkin political series, where idealized competence and insider access are part of the fantasy. The casting anecdote mirrors the shows themselves: the right people, already connected, stepping into history because the timing and the network align.
Quote Details
| Topic | Friendship |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Whitford, Bradley. (2026, January 17). I am an old, old friend of Aaron Sorkin's, who is the executive producer and writer. He had been talking about doing a political show for a long time and I had been interested in it for a long time. The moment I became available, he called me last year and asked me if I wanted to do it and then I just had to audition for the powers that be, and I got it. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-am-an-old-old-friend-of-aaron-sorkins-who-is-44354/
Chicago Style
Whitford, Bradley. "I am an old, old friend of Aaron Sorkin's, who is the executive producer and writer. He had been talking about doing a political show for a long time and I had been interested in it for a long time. The moment I became available, he called me last year and asked me if I wanted to do it and then I just had to audition for the powers that be, and I got it." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-am-an-old-old-friend-of-aaron-sorkins-who-is-44354/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I am an old, old friend of Aaron Sorkin's, who is the executive producer and writer. He had been talking about doing a political show for a long time and I had been interested in it for a long time. The moment I became available, he called me last year and asked me if I wanted to do it and then I just had to audition for the powers that be, and I got it." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-am-an-old-old-friend-of-aaron-sorkins-who-is-44354/. Accessed 11 Feb. 2026.
