Speed-the-Plow Read Online Free PDF Page A

enough?
    F OX : A gentleman's bet.
    G OULD : Done. Now get out of here, and let me work . . . the Coventry at One. I need . . .
    F OX : The script, the budget, chain of ownership . . .
    G OULD : Good.
    F OX : I'll swing by my, I'll bring it to lunch.
    G OULD : Good. Char . . . ( Pause. )
    F OX : What?
    G OULD : Thank you.
    F OX : Hey. Fuck you. ( Exits. )
    ( G OULD sits alone for a moment, writing. K AREN enters.)
    K AREN : Mr. Gould . . .
    G OULD : Bobby.
    K AREN : Sir. ( Pause. ) I was not able to get you a table at the Coventry. But I tentatively booked you at. . .
    G OULD : Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. (Pause.) It's alright. I'm going to tell you what you did, and it's alright you did it. Sit down. You called up the Coventry and asked them for a table for two at one o'clock. And they told you they had absolutely nothing. That right?
    K AREN : Yes. ( Pause. ) I . . . I . . . I'm so sorry. Of course. I should have mentioned your name.
    G OULD : It's alright.
    K AREN : It was very . . . it was naïve of me.
    G OULD : It's alright.
    K AREN : I had . . . no: you're right. I had a thought, when I was hanging up, then I thought: “You forgot to . . .”
    G OULD : . . . it's alright.
    K AREN : “You forgot to ‘tell’ them,” then I thought: “what difference does it make? If they don't have a table . . .”
    G OULD : It's alright.
    K AREN : If they didn't have a table, what difference who called up? But, of course, they have a table for you . . . I'm sorry. It was naïve of me.
    G OULD : Listen, there's nothing wrong with being naïve, with learning . . .
    K AREN ( simultaneously with “learning"): And I'm sure. . . I'm sorry.
    Gould: No, go on.
    K AREN : . . . I was going to say . . .
    G OULD : . . . yes . . .?
    K AREN : I was going to say that I'm sure that much of a job like this, a job like this, is learning to think in a . . .
    G OULD : Yes.
    K AREN : To think in a . . . business fashion.
    G OULD : That's what makes the life exciting, addictive, you know what I'm talking about, you want a thrill in your life?
    K AREN : . . . a thrill. . .?
    G OULD : To make something, to do something, to be a part of something. Money, art, a chance to Play at the Big Table . . . Hey, you're here, and you want to participate in it. ( Pause. )
    K AREN : Yes.
    G OULD : Well, of course you do. And it is an exciting world.
    K AREN : I'm sure it is.
    G OULD : Sudden changes all the time. You want to know some of it. Now, you want to know a secret?
    K AREN : Yes.
    G OULD : I'll tell you one. Siddown. (K AREN sits. ) Charlie Fox comes in and he's formed a relationship with Doug Brown. Doug will leave his studio and do a film with us. Charlie Fox brought it to us, brought it to me really. And in the Highest Traditions of the Motion Picture Industry, we're actually going to make a movie.
    K AREN : Is it a good film?
    G OULD : I'm sorry.
    K AREN : Is it a good film?
    G OULD : Well, it's a commodity. And I admire you for not being ashamed to ask the question. Yes, it's a good question, and I don't know if it is a good film. “What about Art?” I'm not an artist. Never said I was, and nobody who sits in this chair can be. I'm a businessman. “Can't we try to make good films?” Yes. We try. I'm going to try to make a good film of this prison film. The question: Is there such a thing as a good film which loses money? In general, of course. But, really, not. For me, ‘cause if the films I make lose money, then I'm back on the streets with a sweet and silly smile on my face, they lost money ‘cause nobody saw them, it's my fault. A tree fell in the forest, what did I accomplish? Yes. You see ? There is a way things are. Some people are elected, try to change the world, this job is not that job. Somebody, somebody . . . in this job, in the job I have, somebody is always trying to “promote” you: to use something, some “hook” to get you to do something in their own best interest. You follow me?
    K AREN : Of course.
    G OULD : ‘Cause
this desk