20 facts you might not know about 'The Social Network'

The story of Zuckerberg and his social media megalith could have been told sans adapted material, but that wasn’t the case here. Ben Mezrich was working on a book about the founding of Facebook called “The Accidental Billionaires,” and the publisher was shopping it around even though it wasn’t finished. That’s when Aaron Sorkin saw it. Sorkin says he read only a few pages before agreeing to adapt the book.

Since the book was still being written, Sorkin couldn’t merely sit down and read “The Accidental Billionaires” and then write his book. Instead, he and Mezrich would get together and compare notes on research. Sorkin said that by the time the book was finished and he could read it, he had already completed roughly 80 percent of the screenplay.

David Fincher is a detail-driven director who knows what he wants. There are not a lot of accounts of many actors being considered for The Social Network  roles other than the ones who were hired. Jesse Eisenberg is a pretty clear choice for Zuckerberg, for example. One exception is the role of Sean Parker. Jonah Hill was up for the role, but Fincher passed on him for Justin Timberlake.

Garfield is now a big star (he was Spider-Man!), but that wasn’t the case in 2010. Nevertheless, the actor did go out for the role of Zuckerberg in the film. While Fincher clearly liked him, he also felt Garfield would be better in the nicer, more sympathetic Eduardo Saverin role.

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are vital to the story of the founding of Facebook. Finding identical twin actors with the size and look to play them, though? That was impossible. Thus, the since-disgraced Armie Hammer played both twins, but he had help. The actor Josh Pence served as a body double for the Winklevosses, and Hammer’s face was digitally put on Pence’s body. That gave us identical twin characters without any identical twins being used.

Pence had to do legitimate acting in his role in the movie. However, his face could not be seen in his work as the Winklevoss twins. Perhaps as a thank you for his thankless work, Pence was given a cameo role as the guy steered away from the bathroom by Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin.

In addition to writing the script, Sorkin has a small cameo in the film. He appears as an unnamed ad executive in one scene. Reportedly, it was Fincher’s idea, not Sorkin’s.

Bill Gates making an appearance was not vital to the story of The Social Network, but the billionaire is a character in the film nonetheless. To play the role, they hired a professional Bill Gates lookalike. The keyword there is “lookalike.” He could not act in the role beyond looking like Gates, so another actor dubbed over his voice.

The Winklevoss twins rowed for Harvard, and Fincher decided to really make use of the aesthetics of rowing for his film. Given the amount of rowing that was taking place, they put out a casting call looking for rowers. A lot of recent college graduates from the Boston area showed up, many of them former college rowers. Many of the extras who were cast weren’t actually in the film because Fincher decided to move shooting the regatta racing scene from Los Angeles to England.

While Zuckerberg was a student at Harvard when he founded Facebook and Harvard plays a huge role in the story, Wheelock College in Boston was set up to look like the campus of Harvard. There’s a reason for that. In 1970, the film Love Story was shot at Harvard. Some trees were damaged, and since then, Harvard has basically allowed no films to shoot on their campus at all.

Trent Reznor is best known as the frontman of Nine Inch Nails. Well, he used to be. It’s possible that he’s best known these days for scoring films alongside Atticus Ross. In the ‘90s, Reznor did work on the soundtracks for Natural Born Killers and Lost Highway but did not compose their full scores. The first movie that Reznor (and Ross) scored entirely was The Social Network.

Timberlake plays Parker, but that’s not the only way he is in the film. During one scene, you can hear an N*Sync song playing. Timberlake was a member of the famed boy band before his acting days.

Given that The Social Network isn’t just based on a true story but on a relatively recent true story, it’s not surprising that a lot of people were combing through the film to assess the accuracy. All the parties involved said that it was a dramatization and a Hollywood version of the story, but mostly, they accepted that as being required to tell a compelling story. Sorkin made no bones about the nature of his film, telling New York Magazine, “I don't want my fidelity to be to the truth; I want it to be to storytelling. What is the big deal about accuracy purely for accuracy's sake?”

These days, you basically have to make a comic book movie or a sequel to finish atop the box office. In 2010, a dramatic story about the founding of a social media company could be a huge hit. The Social Network was the No. 1 film at the American box office for two weeks. Ultimately, it made $224.9 million worldwide against a $40 million budget.

The Social Network was nominated for eight Oscars. In the end, it took home three Academy Awards. One was for Best Original Score, which went to Reznor and Ross. Sorkin won for Best Adapted Screenplay, and the movie won Best Film Editing. Notably, it did not win Best Picture, which controversially went to The King’s Speech.

In the intervening years, The Social Network has seen esteem for it only rise. Though it lost Best Picture, people today laud praise on Fincher’s film while nobody talks about The King’s Speech. Esquire and Polygon called The Social Network the best film of the 2010s. Rolling Stone ranked it second. Quentin Tarantino also called it the best movie of the 2010s, and he is known for his movie opinions.

Zuckerberg said he would not watch The Social Network when the movie was being made. He changed his mind. Zuckerberg ended up taking some Facebook employees to see the movie. Afterward, he said the film was largely fictional, save for his wardrobe.

In the movie, Zuckerberg drinks an Appletini at one point. The real Zuckerberg had apparently never even heard of an Appletini. Sorkin presumably just used it as a funny reference. After watching the movie, Zuckerberg tried an Appletini. Reportedly, he liked it quite a bit and perhaps jokingly named the Appletini the official drink of Facebook.

Fincher is known as a director who likes a lot of takes. However, in The Social Network, he pushed that to new limits. The scene at the beginning of the film with Jesse Eisenberg and Rooney Mara? While it’s a bit wordy, it doesn’t seem like it would be too tricky, right? Fincher did 99 takes of that scene. Yes, you read that right. The director had Eisenberg and Mara do that scene almost 100 times.

A lot has happened in the world of Zuckerberg and Facebook since 2010. A LOT. As such, Sorkin has talked about wanting to write a sequel to The Social Network. Jesse Eisenberg has said he would return if there were a script from Sorkin to work with. Recently, though, Sorkin has also said that he would only write the script if Fincher returned to direct.