Daily Dialogue — October 1, 2018

Riggan slams Mike up against the wall.

Riggan: My father was a mean fucking drunk. Beat the shit out of us. But we were okay with the beatings. You know why? Because at least when he was beating us, he wasn’t thinking about taking us out to his tool shed… That sonofabitch would smile and say, “Do you want to knell down and unbuckle my belt? Or do you want me to take it off and use it?” I learned how to make myself numb. But my little sister… (holding back tears). My little sister…

Riggan can’t go on. Mike is horrified.

Mike: Jesus, Riggan. I’m really sorry. I didn’t… that’s fucking horrible…

Riggan: (crazy smile) Yeah. It’s also not true. See? (cracking up) I can pretend too, you little dick.

— Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014), written by Alejandro G. Iñárritu & Nicolás Giacobone & Alexander Dinelaris & Armando Bo, play by Raymond Carver

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Acting.

Trivia: The movie was largely shot inside Broadway’s St. James Theatre. Michael Keaton and the rest of the cast had to adapt to Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s rigorous shooting style, which required them to perform up to fifteen pages of dialogue at a time while hitting precisely choreographed marks.

Dialogue On Dialogue: This is a great moment of acting within a movie about acting as Riggan totally fakes out Mike.