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| [Lindstrom enters, finding the set empty. Arzner enters.] | |
| ARZNER: | I apologize for the delays. Where is Merle? |
| LINDSTROM: | It’s a mutiny. |
| ARZNER: | Never mind. Let’s rehearse your lines, shall we? |
| LINDSTROM: | [performing scene] When you come to me tonight I won’t be afraid. If I’m a stone, let me sink. |
| ARZNER: | Stop, stop there. May I ask you a personal question? Have you ever been in love? |
| LINDSTROM: | Uh–huh. The first year I came to town. Some, uh, producer. He, uh, he helped me. I got a lot of auditions. I tested for Anne Boleyn – too tall. I tested for Salome – too skinny. That’s my story: my head’s too big, my eyes are too small, my legs are too short. I was born in the wrong century. |
| ARZNER: | No, no, don’t ever say that. There is no right century for a woman. |
| LINDSTROM: | I’ve been in nine pictures and three serials but nobody knows my name. Sometimes I think I was meant to be filmed, not talked to. |
| ARZNER: | Nonsense. Let’s try those lines again. Say the lines to me and put that producer’s face over mine. See him. |
| LINDSTROM: | [performing] I’ll take life, take it in the teeth like a bullet. Pain’s the one thing nobody wants to steal. |
| ARZNER: | Much better. |
| LINDSTROM: | Miss Arzner, I’m afraid you’re never going to work again after this picture. |
| ARZNER: | More mutiny? |
| LINDSTROM: | I had a dream last night. I was drowning in Jack Warner’s pool. This little orange cat came up to the side of the pool and started licking his tail, watching me go down three times. It wasn’t a devil cat, it just didn’t know no better … Like you. You just don’t know no better. But people get hurt. People who can’t swim. |
| ARZNER: | Anyone can swim. It’s a natural animal reflex. Drowning is the result of panic. People drown themselves. The human body is naturally floatative. One need only lie flat and – |
| LINDSTROM: | Wait? |
| ARZNER: | Breathe. Good things come to actors who wait. |
| LINDSTROM: | Do you believe that? |
| ARZNER: | Yes, entirely. |
| LINDSTROM: | What about people, real people I mean? |
| ARZNER: | I don’t see the difference. |
| LINDSTROM: | Well, I do! You see, my mother says I got one more year here in Hollywood and then if I don’t make it big I gotta come home and get married. Back to Mayflower, Arizona – nothing but men that smell like rust and Indians and lost women. |
| ARZNER: | There are no lost women, only women who’ve forgotten their scripts. |
| LINDSTROM: | I like you, you talk to me like I’m smart. How come you don’t talk to Merle like you do me? |
| ARZNER: | You understand Merle, don’t you? |
| LINDSTROM: | Sure. Well, most of the time. She yells a lot. |
| ARZNER: | Merle yells when she’s scared. Or in love. |
| LINDSTROM: | [evasively] I wouldn’t know nothing about that. |
| ARZNER: | [laughing] You lie much more effectively on film. |
| LINDSTROM: | I think I have to go to the bathroom. |
| ARZNER: | Take Merle, she’s yours. |
| LINDSTROM: | Ain’t that kinda up to her? |
| ARZNER: | Merle doesn’t know what she wants – Merle has to be shown what she wants. She’s like a child. I’ll give her to you. Bring her here, finish my film with my ending, and I’ll show Merle how much she wants you. |
| LINDSTROM: | You make me cold inside. |
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| ARZNER: | Do we understand each other? |
| LINDSTROM: | Miss Arzner, you got this last scene all worked out for yourself but I don’t like to set people against me. |
| [Cohn enters, unseen.] | |
| ARZNER: | I’m offering you a chance to make history. |
| LINDSTROM: | Look, I’m not ashamed … I’ve got secrets, everybody does … things I’m not proud of but I did anyway. But you and me are different, you got control. With me, it’s just that sometimes I’m the cat and sometimes I’m floating in the pool. |
| ARZNER: | Don’t let yourself drown. |
| [A bright light bears down on Arzner and Lindstrom. Cohn stands behind the pedestal holding the light.] | |
| ARZNER: | [squinting agaist light] Turn that off, please. Who is it? |
| COHN: | Dot, we got business. Get rid of her. |
| LINDSTROM: | Hello, Mr. Cohn. |
| COHN: | Get out already! |
| [Lindstrom exits.] | |
| ARZNER: | What the hell is so important? I have a film to finish. |
| COHN: | You made me a promise. Louella is hanging over me like a noose. |
| ARZNER: | Turn that damned light off. |
| COHN: | Oh, no no – I want to see your pretty face up close when you tell me how happy you are to do whatever I ask. Humour me. |
| ARZNER: | [stands by the screen, Cohn trails her with light] This is beneath you. |
| COHN: | Let’s try a scene, you and me. Let’s me and you do the scene where you decide to change the ending of this smutty little movie. |
| ARZNER: | It is not a smutty little anything. I’m not responsible for your ignorance. |
| COHN: | I don’t give a Siamese fuck. You, however, have pulled on my pant leg for the last time. Do as I tell you. |
| ARZNER: | It’s my film. |
| COHN: | No, it’s mine. I paid for it. And a funny thing about movies that cost money – suddenly I don’t care a dog’s ass for artistic vision: I have a product to sell and it’s your job to fix it. Do your job. Do as I tell you. |
| ARZNER: | I am the director. |
| COHN: | A director’s job, Dorothy, is to make shiny pictures for the men who pay for them. I like shiny pictures. Everybody I know likes shiny pictures. Shiny, clean, safe pictures. |
| You will do as I tell you or I will find someone else who can. [stands up] I’ll see you at the rushes. | |
| [Cohn exits.] | |
| ARZNER: | My rushes … my film. |
| [Oberon enters, wearing a hooded dress.] | |
| OBERON: | Dorothy, you’re asking too much. |
| ARZNER: | Like everyone else today … I’m asking you to walk the plank. |
| OBERON: | Good god! Walk the plank? |
| ARZNER: | It’s a game I played when I was a girl, a summer game. One girl stands at the end of the wharf, the other girl walks down to the water, blindfolded. The girl at the end of the wharf keeps telling her to walk, but the blindfolded girl only stops when she thinks she’s just about to go over. It’s a trust game. |
| OBERON: | Why doesn’t the girl with the blindfold just peek? |
| ARZNER: | Because she wants to fall in. |
| OBERON: | So, she never actually wins the game? |
| ARZNER: | The worst thing that can happen is she gets dunked in the lake, and that’s exactly what she wants to begin with. She can always open her eyes in the air, before the splash. I want you to jump. |
| OBERON: | You’re too late. It’s too late. We had our fun … you’re sweet, Dorothy, in a brainy sort of way … but now it’s too complicated. You turn on that camera, and I have to start thinking about my future. |
| ARZNER: | I’m offering you a chance to make the future. I’m offering you a place in history. Walk the plank. Somebody has to get wet. |
| OBERON: | The only place I’m getting wet is in my beautiful new pool in my beautiful new home decorated with my beautiful new furniture – |
| [Arzner walks off.] | |
| OBERON: | Dorothy, come back – I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I do understand falling. It’s just that I fall … and you get to watch. That’s not fair. It’s my face on the screen, not yours. |
| ARZNER: | Poor little Merle, spoiled by the spotlight. Don’t be another stupid actor – you’ll be forgotten in ten years. |
| OBERON: | Not if I’m careful. |
| ARZNER: | The water’s warm, Merle. Walk the plank. |
| OBERON: | No. |
| ARZNER: | A few seconds, Merle. Heartbeats. Pretend you’re with me. |
| OBERON: | NO Dorothy, NO. My god, you’re exasperating! [pause] I can’t stand it any longer. You’ve had the real Merle in your bed, be satisfied. |
| ARZNER: | I love you. I’m not going to live in halves anymore. You understand, don’t you? |
| OBERON: | I understand you’ve got a film with no ending, or an ending no one will ever see. [laughs] Really, I think this situation makes you happy: it’s rather like the way you fuck – no payoff. Throw yourself to the wolves if you want. There is a entire city out there full of disappointed people just waiting, waiting for me to ruin myself. I won’t do it! |
| [Lindstrom enters. Arzner grabs both women, forcing them to enact the kiss scene while she arranges her camera.] | |
| ARZNER: | You’ll do it for her. |
| OBERON: | You listen to me, Dorothy – I am going to survive you. The same way she’ll survive me, and you’ll survive till your next picture comes along. |
| ARZNER: | [laughing] There are no lost women. |
| OBERON: | Stop this, you’re hurting me. |
| ARZNER: | [laughing] Do you know what Edison called the camera? The Lying Machine. The Lying Machine, Merle, the Lying Machine! |
| OBERON: | Please, Dorothy, please. You’re not well. Listen, we’ll do another picture. [takes Arzner’s hand] Please, please – |
| LINDSTROM: | Merle, it don’t matter now. She can’t tell the difference … C’mon. [takes Oberon in her arms, prepares for kiss] |
| ARZNER: | [positions camera, films scene] Places please! Ladies … Action! |
| [Lindstrom and Oberon enact the final kiss scene for Arzner. Arzner laughs throughout the filming.] | |
| ARZNER: | Thank you. You may return to your dressing rooms. |
| LINDSTROM: | There are lost women. |
| END |