Im Aaron Sorkin, and Im the writer and the director of The Trial of the Chicago 7. Its Abbie. The scene is Abbie Hoffman on the stand. Hes being played by Sacha Baron Cohen. Frank Langella is playing Judge Julius Hoffman. He is either a terrible judge, or in the bag for the prosecution, or experiencing early senility, or some form of the three of those. The lead defense lawyer is Mark Rylance as William Kunstler a civil rights attorney at the time, who became a very well-known civil rights attorney because of this case. Abbie, do you know why youre on trial here? We carried certain ideas across state lines, not machine guns, or drugs, or little girls ideas. Its the final scene of the trial. But whats unusual is that ordinarily the last witness in a trial, thats usually the climactic scene. Somehow a lawyer breaks down that witness, and he explodes in ayou cant handle the truth kind of moment. That scene in this movie actually doesnt happen in the courtroom. It happens during a mock cross-examination that Mark Rylance as William Kunstler conducts against Tom Hayden thats Eddie Redmayne back at their offices where theyve been working. Hes trying to demonstrate to Tom Hayden why Hayden cant take the stand because theyll rip him apart, and he shows him how. That becomes the climactic courtroom scene. And the scene with Abbie on the stand is a kind of coda. Its something weve been waiting for. Its a serious Abbie telling us what he really thinks. [CHUCKLES] So Chicago was just a massive voter registration drive? The cross-examination is being done by the lead prosecutor, Richard Schultz, whos being played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. We know from the beginning of the movie that hes ambivalent about prosecuting these guys. Hes going to do it. Hes going to do it fully because that is his job, and he has been directly ordered to by the new attorney General John Mitchell. But he knows that its a mistake for a number of reasons to do it. So hes a really interesting character. And Joe plays him beautifully. It was a crazy trial. Some of the crazy was bordered on the comic and some of the crazy was tragic. So I wasnt going to try to top all those fireworks with this scene, especially because I knew that I had a final scene coming right after that, which does have a lot of fireworks. So this was going to have to be the opposite. It was going to have to be the opposite of that in the writing of it. It was going to have to be the opposite of that in Sachas performance. And it was going to have to be the opposite of that in how we shot it. It was Sachas big day. And there was still, in some peoples minds, a curiosity as to how Sacha Baron Cohen would play a dramatic scene. On this day, there was a huge crowd watching him do it. Those extras, even when the cameras were pointed away from them, stayed there because they wanted to see Sacha do this. And take after take, he would just get a huge ovation from the crowd. Part of that ovation, by the way, was for Joe Levitt too. But people were really curious about Sachas performance. They were as knocked out by it as I was, and I think the audience will be too. Do you have contempt for your government? Ill tell you, Mr. Schultz, its nothing compared to the contempt my government has for me. The night before he shot it, I sent him an email saying, just a reminder, really the creative success or the failure of the entire movie depends on your performance that youre going to give tomorrow. We can have been great up until that moment, and you still have an opportunity to sink the film with anything less than a great performance. So knock him dead, pal. I was just going to tell him the truth. For real, you cant blow this scene. Weve been trying to make this movie for 14 years. So here its all in your lap [LAUGHS] He had no problem with it at all. Im concerned you have to think about it. Give me a moment, would you friend? Ive never been on trial for my thoughts before.

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