Daily Dialogue — August 14, 2011
Christian Szell: Is it safe?… Is it safe?
Babe: You’re talking to me?
Christian Szell: Is it safe?
Babe: Is what safe?
Christian Szell: Is it safe?
Babe: I don’t know what you mean. I can’t tell you something’s safe or not, unless I know specifically what you’re talking about.
Christian Szell: Is it safe?
Babe: Tell me what the “it” refers to.
Christian Szell: Is it safe?
Babe: Yes, it’s safe, it’s very safe, it’s so safe you wouldn’t believe it.
Christian Szell: Is it safe?
Babe: No. It’s not safe, it’s… very dangerous, be careful.
— Christian Szell (Laurence Olivier), Babe (Dustin Hoffman), Marathon Man (1976), screenplay by William Goldman based on his novel
Th Daily Dialogue theme for the week is interrogation, suggested by Teddy Pasternak.
Trivia: A story circulated for a long time that Dustin Hoffman (being a “method actor”) stayed up all night to play a character who has stayed up all night. Arriving on the set, Laurence Olivier asked Hoffman why he looked the way he did. Hoffman told him, to which Olivier replied in jest, “Why not try acting? It’s much easier.” Hoffman repeatedly denied the story, and finally cleared up the matter in 2004. The torture scene was filmed early in the morning, Hoffman was going through a divorce from his first wife and was depressed, and had spent the previous two nights partying hard. Hoffman told Olivier this and his comment related to his lifestyle and not his “method” style of acting.
Dialogue on Dialogue: “Is it safe?” Here we are struggling with every side of dialogue we write, hoping to create some lines that will prove memorable, something people will find worth repeating. And so often, it is a simple line like “Is it safe?” No need to be a brilliant wordsmith. Rather create characters and a specific circumstance, a context within with a line becomes memorable.