Sorkin was also asked about the controversy surrounding the “inauthentic” casting of Javier Bardem in his recent film, Being the Ricardos. The Spanish actor played the Cuban husband of Lucille Ball, the comedian portrayed by Nicole Kidman.

“In terms of accuracy in casting, it’s absolute nonsense,” he said.

“We know the difference between being demeaning and not being demeaning. We know the difference between, say, blackface and someone who is Spanish playing someone who is Cuban.”

Sorkin’s comments came amid growing controversy over moves to adapt William Shakespeare’s plays so as not to distress modern theatre audiences.

Last year, the Globe Theatre announced its project to “decolonise” Shakespeare’s work.

Experts said that plays such as Hamlet and The Tempest could be “harmful” to audiences because of their violent colonial themes, while audiences who saw Romeo and Juliet were given an entire page of trigger warnings about suicide, fake blood and stage fighting.

Speaking during the Globe’s Anti-Racist Shakespeare series, Madeline Sayet, a director and academic, said: “There is a lot of unwillingness to accept that those plays aren’t neutral, that they do have politics attached to them, [and] that they do have these violent colonial implications attached to them.”

To Kill a Mockingbird is now playing at the Gielgud Theatre in London