The West Wing cast and creator-writer-executive producer Aaron Sorkin recently sat down with Entertainment Weekly via Zoom to discuss the show's overwhelming legacy, 20 years after its premiere.
The reunion touched on a variety of iconic moments, one being (no surprise) the beloved "walking and talking" scenes. Janel Moloney, best known for her role as "Dona Moss" in the series, sharing:
"I think the other actors might agree with me. The walking and talking scenes are the easiest scenes to do, because you don't have to act... it's just like, like you're brilliant. You don't have to do anything... Those were the most pleasurable scenes.
But the show's magic was found in more than just a few incredible scenes. Bradley Whitford, who played "Josh Lyman," credited The West Wing's success to Sorkin's unique writing style, saying:
"One of the most underrated things, under-acknowledged things, about Aaron's writing skill is he means, in the best sense of the word to exploit you. So he looks at a creature like Allison (Janney) and goes 'Oh, I can do the comedy, I can do the heartbreaking stuff.' He's in love with the actors and really intuitively connects with them."
After the words were on the page, there was one thing left to do -- to bring the pages to life. Sorkin shared how that was possible, revealing:
"What we knew is that we had an extraordinary cast, that each actor was great...The chemistry, the electricity, it was really something.
And Sorkin assured that it wasn't always smooth sailing. The creator went on to share that before it major success, the cast and crew had to endure a big learning curve, saying:
"That whole first season was kind of us learning how to do the show. It was almost like we were in previews for a year."
You can watch the complete series on Netflix.
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