True Stories 23: 10s—The Social Network

Last week as I wound up my thoughts on The King’s Speech, I left you wondering [or perhaps not if you guessed this week’s film] who it was who ‘didn’t care’ about accuracy in bringing a particular true story to the screen. The film is The Social Network [2010] and the writer is Aaron Sorkin.

Now, we’re talking about an extremely talented writer here—hard pressed to find many at his level. But when interviewed by 60 Minutes about the controversy surrounding the material he invented about the main character of Mark Zuckerberg, he couldn’t answer the question as to why he made up the story of how Facebook was invented.

Having spoken about this film on many occasions, when I burst everyone’s bubble about how Sorkin made up his story about the founding of Facebook, my audience generally can’t believe it. “How could they portray it if it wasn’t true?”

This subject is particularly relevant at the moment with the controversy revolving around the current season of The Crown. The show is getting lambasted for creating conversations that simply never took place. And why? Well, in large part, because some of the people in those conversations are still living and KNOW that those things were not said.

In Sorkin’s case, he invented the idea that Zuckerberg came up with the concept for Facebook in a pique after his girlfriend blew him away—saying that he invented it as a kind of revenge against her. But guess what? Zuckerberg’s girlfriend at Harvard is the same one he moved in with and married—he didn’t invent Facebook because of some girl breaking it off with him.

So why Sorkin’s invention of that story? And what would have been the REAL story of that thing that coalesced into Zuckerberg inventing Facebook?

The movie didn’t tell is. Instead, Sorkin invented something more… more… more…

DRAMATIC.

That is almost always the reason for changing what really happened—the change makes the story more dramatic.

But what about the ethics? Doesn’t the writer have an obligation to portray the actual facts of a true story? In my mind, the writer does. And in the case of The Social Network the production company was very worried that Zuckerberg would sue and very relieved when he didn’t. Sure, he got out the fact that the story was inaccurate—but how many people read that? People assume that the movie is the true story.

Just as people assume The Crown is the true story.

So as a writer, what IS your obligation?

For me, I work to get to know my characters so well that when, say, a husband and a wife are in a room together having a conversation, I feel I know them well enough to imagine how that conversation might have gone. But that’s the extent of my invention—I don’t change known history, known events, for the sake of drama.

I would have loved to see the true story of how Facebook came to be—to delve into Zuckerberg even deeper and find out what prompted his creation.

So do think about this as you write and work to tell the truth about events, not perpetuate alternate realities—find the drama in the real story!

Copyright © Diane Lake

13Nov22

Email Diane a question to Diane@DianeLake.com