Post-presidency, Obama has remained relatively tapped out of current events and politics. Outside of a few rare, emergency exceptions where he felt it necessary to get back into the weeds—like the threat of NBA players striking or Bernie Sanders winning the Democratic primary—he’s mostly laid low and let our current elected officials cook. His plate’s been full enough getting that spooky presidential library built, meticulously hand-crafting those end-of-year fav lists we all love, and spilling ET tea on podcasts. And of course, there’s also the production company that he runs with Michelle that puts out bangers like the AARP Movies for Grownups Award nominee Leave the World Behind (2023).
Before he was fully Hollywood Barack, he was merely President Barack who quietly aspired to get in on Tinseltown wheelings and dealings. However, hints of his future media mogul aspirations were there all along. One such example is reportedly in the pages of a forthcoming memoir by former Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton (and co-author Joshua L. Steiner). In From Mistakes to Meaning: Owning Your Past So It Doesn’t Own You, Lynton recalls an unexpected interaction with the then-sitting president that took place right after the infamous mid-aughts hack by an alleged North Korean operative that hit Sony and threatened to bring the whole studio down.
Let’s properly set the scene for Lynton’s anecdote.
INT. SONY PICTURES CEO’S OFFICE – JULY 2015 – NIGHT
MICHAEL LYNTON, 55, sits at his desk, still cleaning up the mess left by hacker group “Guardians of Peace” eight months later. After breaching Sony’s network and melting 70 percent of the studio’s servers, they made off with a trove of sensitive data, including unfinished scripts for unannounced films and 47,000 Social Security numbers. Making matters worse were the emails they later leaked, which resulted in Amy Pascal’s exodus and strained relationships with talent. And all this over some dumb Seth Rogen comedy about assassinating Kim Jong Il.
MICHAEL
I can’t even with these hackers. They’ve taken my studio from Gucci to ratchet.
Suddenly, Michael’s phone lights up, announcing an unknown caller.
As Lynton’s book explains, he and the rest of the world had just learned of North Korea being the likely culprit behind the hacks and the production of “The Interview” being a motivating factor, when the President deigned to give him an earful.
“What were you thinking when you made killing the leader of a hostile foreign nation a plot point? Of course, that was a mistake,” chided Obama.
Living up to the title of his book, Lynton makes no bones about regretting greenlighting that film in a way that inadvertently adds some funny context to Rogen’s current series, The Studio, where he stars as a bumbling, validation-seeking studio executive.
“I wanted to join the badass gang that made subversive movies. For a moment, I wanted to hang—as an equal—with the actors,” said Lynton. “The party got out of hand, and the company, its employees, my family, and I all paid dearly.”
Sobering words, but that past does indeed seem owned. And who among us doesn’t have a few past mistakes that need owning? Whether you didn’t properly show up in a relationship or just bailed out the banks responsible for the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, it’s never too late for a mea culpa. Lynton’s book hits bookstore shelves on Feb. 24 if you or anyone else in your life could use a little guidance.
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