Aaron Sorkin reveals he had a stroke last November: ‘Supposed to be dead’

nypost.com:

Aaron Sorkin revealed that he almost died last November after having a stroke.In a new interview with the New York Times published Wednesday, the writer shared more about his medical emergency.Sorkin explained that in November, he woke up in the middle of the night and noticed that he was “crashing into walls and corners” while walking to the kitchen.He didn’t pay much attention to it until the next morning when he kept spilling his glass of orange juice.

The playwright called his doctor, who told him to come in immediately.His blood pressure was so high that his doctor told him, “You’re supposed to be dead.” It turns out that the film director had had a stroke. “Mostly it was a loud wake-up call,” he told the Times. “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.”The outlet explained that he did not want to speak about it on the record originally, as the interview was supposed to be about the opening of his Broadway musical, an adaptation of “Camelot,” but changed his mind as he wanted to be able spread awareness about his story.Sorkin had been a heavy cigarette smoker since high school, smoking two packs of Merits a day, the Times reported.

He explained that it had been a major part of his writing process over the years. “It was just part of it, the way a pen was part of it,” he said. “I don’t want to talk about it too much, because I’ll start to salivate.”He revealed that after he had the stroke, he quit smoking for good and made other lifestyle changes, like working out twice per day and eating healthier.“I take a lot of medicine,” Sorkin admitted.