The West Wing stars Bradley Whitford and Marlee Matlin recall the drama series' brutal filming schedule. Widely considered to be one of the best American television shows of all time, The West Wing ran for 7 seasons in total from 1999 to 2006. The political drama followed the presidency of Jed Bartlet (Martin Sheen) and the innerworkings of his administration, and over the years, it racked up an impressive number of awards. The West Wing also further boosted the career of Aaron Sorkin, who created the show and served as head writer for much of its run.
Since The West Wing came to an end, the cast has found several ways to reunite. Whether that be coming together for real life political matters or guesting on various television shows, few casts appear to be as tight-knit as The West Wing's. Most recently, the original cast united for an HBO Max special titled A West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote; it saw stars like Sheen, Whitford, and Rob Lowe perform a season 3 episode in a creative staging.
As part of Variety's ongoing "Actors on Actors" series, West Wing alums Whitford and Matlin sat down to talk about their recent projects, tick, tick... BOOM! and CODA, respectively. And yet, conversation inevitably shifted to The West Wing as the two stars recalled the grueling filming schedule the series had to take on. They said:
Whitford: Also, we were doing, you know, 22 episodes a year, it was just relentless.
Matlin: You remember that world? It's so unheard of these days! Remember?
Whitford: The bad thing about that was, especially for the crew, it was the equivalent of making 11 feature films in 9 months. I remember realizing, like "The Sopranos" was better than any mob movie I saw. We were as good as any political movie. And I realized, "Wow, we're making 11 feature films every 9 months!" No wonder we're tired.
Matlin: It was - the hours were brutal. But the yet, final product was brilliant.
Whitford: Yeah, I always said the virtue - The great thing and the problem with Aaron and Tommy [Schlamme, director and producer] was they had no brakes. They just had no brakes, and everything about the show as complicated.
Whereas Matlin's pollster Joey Lucas appeared in a recurring capacity throughout The West Wing's run, Whitford was one of the main stars of the show for all seven seasons, playing deputy chief of staff Josh Lyman. Nevertheless, both of them must've felt the brisk pace set by The West Wing's intense schedule, which was likely only made more intense by Sorkin's typical rapid-fire dialogue. The West Wing was also made in a very different television era, working with longer seasons. If it were made today, there's a chance Whitford and Matlin would've only needed to report for 10-13 episodes at a time.
Still, few can argue with the results that schedule pulled off. The West Wing, though perhaps suffering a bit from Sorkin's departure in later seasons, remains a gold standard for political shows, and its approach to walk-and-talk scenes influenced numerous others. These days, Sorkin appears more at home in film, coming off of movies like Being the Ricardos and The Trial of the Chicago 7. Making one single movie is far different than churning out multiple in one year, so perhaps Sorkin's shift towards film was actually fueled by The West Wing's jam-packed schedule. Only he can truly answer that one, but we can imagine!
Source: Variety