"It was a loud wake-up call": Aaron Sorkin's serious health scare
Award-winning screenwriter and director Aaron Sorkin has revealed he suffered a stroke last November.
In an interview with The New York Times, the 61-year-old, who holds three Golden Globes and five Emmys, said the experience was so intense it made him think he might never work again.
"There was a minute when I was concerned that I was never going to be able to write again," Sorkin said.
Sorkin revealed that the stroke occurred two months before rehearsals for his upcoming musical – a re-written version of Camelot.
The West Wing creator said that the symptoms showed up in the middle of the night when he realised that he kept crashing into walls on his way to the kitchen.
The symptoms carried on the next day, when he found himself continually spilling a glass of orange juice in his home office.
When he went to the doctors they said his blood pressure was so high, he was "supposed to be dead".
Sorkin also shared that he’s still suffering from the side effects as he hasn’t been able to taste food properly since the stroke.
A month after the stroke, Sorkin struggled to type and was slurring his words, it’s only recently that he finally built up the coordination to be able to sign his name again.
The director shared that the stroke has led him to make some major lifestyle changes.
"Mostly it was a loud wake-up call," he said. "I thought I was one of those people who could eat whatever he wanted, smoke as much as he wanted, and it's not going to affect me. Boy, was I wrong," he said.
Sorkin has since given up smoking, works out twice a day and has incorporated a healthier diet. "I take a lot of medicine. You can hear the pills rattling around in me," he added.
The screenwriter is currently preparing for the opening of his new musical, Camelot, which is his fourth Broadway production.
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