Graham Moore, winner of the Oscar for Best Screenplay for “Imitation Game, ” reflects on the profession on writing, his Jewish roots and Alan Turing, the protagonist of the film, according to Jewish Journal.
In an exclusive interview, Danielle Berrin noted the fact Moore wore a dress shirt and a tie. He said that in his early days as a writer, he wore this professional attire so he would take writing seriously as a job. Even though he conceded that the attire is eccentric, and says, “I’ve always felt like an outsider, a weirdo, ” his seriousness paid off with his debut novel “The Sherlockian, ” about the missing journal of Arthur Conan Doyle.
Will you offer us a hand? Every gift, regardless of size, fuels our future.
Your critical contribution enables us to maintain our independence from shareholders or wealthy owners, allowing us to keep up reporting without bias. It means we can continue to make Jewish Business News available to everyone.
You can support us for as little as $1 via PayPal at [email protected].
Thank you.
At 33, he says he could imagine doing other things besides writing, including going into politics. His mother Susan Sher, a Chicago Lawyer, served as special assistant to the President and was the First Lady’s Chief of Staff. She was also a liaison between the White House and the Jewish community. Moore said that while he never had a formal bar mitzvah, “My Judaism has felt more and more important to me, and more important as a social identifier, ” especially as his grandparents have passed away.
Moore’s speeches was one of the most moving of the evening, with a personal confession that he felt he had something in common with the protagonist Alan Turing, who committed suicide at 41, “When I was 16, I tried to commit suicide, because I felt weird and I felt different and I felt like I did not belong.” While some speculated that Moore was trying to imply he was gay, like Turing, he then said he was straight on Buzzfeed.
“Imitation Game” is about Alan Turing, who broke a master code used by the Nazis, a move that was essential to an Allied victory, and was one of the early developers of the personal computer. He was punished by authorities for having been a homosexual and, tormented through various procedures, including attempts at chemical castration, according to the film, he took his life by eating a cyanide-laden apple; a half-eaten apple was found beside his body.
Moore told the Jewish Journal, “There’s always been this rumor that the logo of Apple computer—the apple with the bite taken out of it—was Steve Job’s silent tribute to Alan Turing’s suicide.”
