Aaron Sorkin Rips Longtime Collaborator Scott Rudin Over Abuse Scandal: ‘Got What He Deserves’

Aaron Sorkin has broken his silence on longtime collaborator Scott Rudin’s alleged history of abuse and bullying. 

“I think Scott got what he deserves,” Sorkin said in a recent interview with Vanity Fair, referring to the mega-producer’s abuse scandal.

In April, The Hollywood Reporter published a bombshell exposé, in which several of Rudin’s former assistants and ex-staffers claimed the producer has a long history of physically and mentally abusing his employees.

Shortly following news of the allegations, Rudin announced that he would be “stepping back” from his Broadway productions, including Sorkin’s adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird.

“After a period of reflection, I’ve made the decision to step back from active participation on our Broadway productions, effective immediately,” he said in the statement. “My roles will be filled by others from the Broadway community and in a number of cases, from the roster of participants already in place on those shows.”

Speaking to Vanity Fair, Sorkin revealed that there was actually only one conversation

regarding Rudin’s future on the To Kill a Mockingbird team, during which it was made clear that his relationship with the production was over.

Sorkin went on to clarify that while Rudin is no longer compensated as a producer of the show, he has maintained his stake in the production as an investor.

Sorkin continued to address Rudin’s alleged history of abuse, saying that he “took it personally,” as some of the assistants who said they were being abused likely worked on projects that Sorkin wrote or directed.

“Whether it’s a movie set, or a rehearsal room for a play, or backstage for a play, or a television series, morale is important to me. And I take a lot of pride in creating a place where people are really happy to come to work, where they feel a sense of ownership, a sense of authorship, a sense of family,” he added. “And we have that at Mockingbird. We’ve always had that in Mockingbird. So this came as a big shock.”

In addition to the Broadway revival of To Kill a Mockingbird, Sorkin and Rudin have worked together on The Social Network, Steve Jobs, Moneyball, and The Newsroom.

Despite their history together, the director vowed he never knew of Rudin’s alleged abuse, yet revealed that he had his “own experience with Scott, and it’s a higher class of bullying.”

“The stories that I

had heard over the last 12 years were the kinds of things that—they could have been scenes from The Devil Wears Prada, there was no violence,” he added. “There’s nothing physical at all in the stories that I heard. Had I known, there’s no chance I would’ve tolerated it, there’s no chance [director] Bart Sher would’ve tolerated it, that Jeff Daniels would’ve tolerated it. So we didn’t know. And once we did, we did something about it.”

When asked to expand on his own experiences with Rudin, Sorkin simply said that “Scott got what he deserves,” adding, “He’s lying flat on the mat right now, and I don’t know how it’s helpful for me to stand on his torso and kind of jump up and down.”