In The Social Reckoning, which hits the 2026 movie schedule this weekend, Jeremy Allen White and Mikey Madison both play real people. White plays Wall Street Journal writer Jeff Horowitz, and Madison plays Frances Haugen in the follow-up to The Social Network. However, neither actor met the people they play in the film, at least before filming, partly because writer and director Aaron Sorkin wanted the characters to be original.
Both White and Madison discussed the decision with CinemaBlend in a recent conversation. When we asked Madison if she had met Haugen, she said no and explained why:
The opportunity was there, but I think ultimately, there were so many conversations Aaron and I had. I was like, I was really open to a full transformation, of sorts. And he was very adamant that I just purely build a character based off of his script.
That doesn’t mean Madison was dismissing the real Haugen. As she explained, she wanted to meet her, at least eventually, adding:
The real Frances is such an incredible woman, and I wanted to meet her, and I’m meeting her very soon, which I’m very excited about. But I think that I was concerned that meeting her would alter the character that I was building in my head. And so I decided to just hold out and wait.
As for Jeremy Allen White, he followed the same advice from Sorkin. White also portrayed Bruce Springsteen in last year’s Deliver Me From Nowhere, and that impacted his decision, too. He told us:
It was an option to meet Jeff. But I had just played a real person, a very public person, and spent a lot of time with him. And it was beautiful. Yeah. And it was a beautiful process. But I think there was like an added pressure in sort of spending so much time with Bruce for that. And I was a little hesitant about, I guess, doing that again.
That’s not to say White didn’t do his research for the role. While he didn’t actually meet with Horowitz, he did get a sense of who the journalist is and what he is about through public information. White says:
I read his book, and I listened to his voice, and I watched interviews and stuff like that. Other than that, I stuck to Aaron’s world and Aaron’s script and just tried to understand his perspective as best I could on my own.
Both White and Madison are fantastic in the movie. While there are sure to be people who criticize the movie and Sorkin’s script for not being 100% accurate, it’s easy to understand why these choices were made in service of the story. Dramatizations of real people and true events are tricky, as the creators have to balance accuracy with engaging storytelling, and so decisions like this have to be made. Having seen the movie, I can say it works for me, though the critics’ opinions have been split. You can decide for yourself this weekend!