Born to Be Blue

1

[projector whirring]

[soft vocal and string music]

II:

- Sunk.

- K5.

[soft music]

II:

- [sighs]

[low dramatic music]

II:

[breathing heavily]

[music intensifies]

II:

[door opens]

- [speaking in foreign language]

[jazz music]

II:

[women screaming]

[indistinct chatter]

- Are you coming to the show?

Who do you like better,

me or Miles Davis?

- We're proud

to present the man

who's been voted number one

in the nation

for both trumpet and vocals.

All the way from the sunny

shores of California,

the James Dean of jazz,

the Prince of Cool,

the man "Time" magazine credits

with inventing West Coast Swing.

[cheers and applause]

That's right, folks.

And he's here

playing a double bill

with our very own Miles Davis

and Dizzy Gillespie.

Making his Birdland debut,

Chet Baker

and his quartet!

[cheers and applause]

- It's gonna be great.

It's gonna be great.

- How do I look?

- Perfect.

[cheers and applause]

[jazz music]

[audience cheering]

II:

[lively trumpet melody]

II:

II:

II:

II:

[cheers and applause]

- Yeah, baby!

Yeah!

- Thank you.

Thank you very much.

- We love you, Chet!

[frantic jazz music]

II:

II:

[indistinct chatter]

- Shh!

Elaine? Honey?

[music continues]

II:

[both laugh]

Yeah!

II:

- And then you wait

till it melts.

I can't believe

you never tried before.

You're so square.

- I hate needles.

Will you do it for me?

- Yeah.

Hello, fear.

- Hello, fear.

Aah!

- Get it tight.

Hello, death.

- Hello, death.

- F*** you.

- F*** you.

II:

[door opens]

Oh, hey, babe.

Hey, hey.

- Get out.

Get out!

Take your sh*t with you!

And you too!

I should have known.

Stop it!

God damn it!

- I'm so sorry.

- It was, like, a week.

That is your child.

- [indistinct mumbling]

- What is this sh*t?

What is this sh*t?

[breathing heavily]

You did this

because of Miles?

Chet, say something!

- Shh.

Shh!

See, once you're here,

it's like you're crawling back

inside your mama's womb

clinking and clanging.

It all melts away,

and you can hear.

- This is the scene

where you're meant

to do heroin

for the first time.

- I know what scene it is.

- Those are not the lines.

- Well, he told me

to make up lines.

He said he wanted it

to be improve.

- But that's way off script.

Come on.

- Well, the whole thing

is fake.

I mean, if you want it

to be real,

there should just be puke

everywhere.

It wasn't like this at all.

I was 22, for f***'s sake.

- That's going way, way off

script, Chet.

- I don't know

what the f*** I'm doing.

Can we just

do the make-out part again?

- I lost a nail.

- All right, guys.

- Yeah.

[telephone ringing]

- Do you want

to rehearse the scene,

or do you want to pick up

on Monday?

- We'll pick up on Monday.

- All right, folks, that's

a wrap. See you next week.

- That's unprofessional, Chet.

- Jane?

- Yeah.

- Jane, that was great.

- I don't think so.

- Keep doing what you're doing.

- Okay, you sure?

- Yeah, just keep improvising.

You'll be okay.

- All right.

Appreciate it.

Oh, thanks, Ellie.

[indistinct chatter]

- What I'm doing is trying to

make him look like a nice guy.

- No, no, what you're doing

is making me look

like a clown.

- Oh, are you Dick Bock?

- Yeah, yeah, I-

Chettie!

- Hey, Dick.

- Why didn't you tell me

you were back in the US

and now you're shooting

a movie?

- Well, I...

- I thought you had

another couple of years in jail.

- Well, I-I was supposed to,

you know,

but then this director, he's

like, he's super talented-

- Oh, and he offered you

a lot of money?

- Well, he paid somebody;

that's for sure.

- Oh, I could've

played myself, Chet.

- Dick, you're not-

you're not an actor.

- Neither are you.

- Well, that's true.

[laughs]

Don't tell anyone.

- A let's, uh-

a let's changed since you left.

- Yeah, I see.

- Jazz is dying.

Dylan went electric.

- You sold Pacific, Dick.

- No, I built it up.

You tore it down.

- We built it up-

- I built it up.

- We built it up.

- You tore it down.

- And-and you sold it out.

- I sold-yeah, at least

I didn't abandon my wife and kid

and become the world's

biggest junkie.

- I did f*** everything up,

didn't I?

- Yeah.

- I miss you, Dick.

I really do.

- Chet!

- I just wish

you would have called.

- Two-two seconds, okay?

I should've called.

I'm-I'm sorry.

- Yeah.

- [chuckles]

You remember that old

daft pharmacist at Jerry's

that give us the prescriptions

for those morphine

suppositories?

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, you liked him.

- Well, I had to be high

before I could get my finger

out of my ass.

- Chet!

- Yeah, two-two seconds.

What happened to him?

- Yeah, he's in jail.

Aren't you on the-aren't you

on the straight and narrow?

- Oh, yeah.

- Yeah?

- Yeah.

Clean as a hound's tooth.

- Great.

All right,

let's get together.

All right? Let's talk

about doing another record.

- I would like that

very much, Dick.

- We're grown-ups now.

Let's do another record.

- Let's do it.

That'd be great.

- All right.

- Hey, Nick,

is everything okay?

- It's going great.

It's gonna be great.

Look, tomorrow the studio booked

another press conference.

- Another press?

- In the afternoon.

- In the afternoon? What time?

- 1:
00.

- Hi, Chet.

- 1:
00, okay.

- Listen, how's it going

with you and Jane?

Everything okay?

- I don't know.

I mean, you tell me.

- I think it's great.

I trust what you're doing,

let you play your music.

This movie is going to re-launch

your career, Chettie.

Jane.

- Hey, Nick.

- What's wrong?

- I don't know. I mean,

do you think it's working?

- I think it's great

what the two of you are doing.

The improvisation

is fantastic.

- L-I need to know more

than just

that I'm playing the women

of Chet Baker.

- And you're doing it

brilliantly.

It's-look, ask him.

It's his story.

- All I know is

that they have big tits.

It's like-it's not a lot

to go off of.

- Well, it's-it's his story.

Ask him.

- Nick, you coming?

- They did have big tits.

- Hang on a second.

- We'll talk about

this Monday, okay?

- Okay. Sounds good.

- Okay?

- All right.

- Okay, big scenes.

Europe next week. Ciao.

- Don't be insecure

about your tits.

Your tits are great.

- Okay, so the script.

Uh, I don't understand why

these women would stay with you.

- You don't understand that?

- No, don't get it.

- Well, maybe we should go out

to dinner

and get some real food

and talk-

- What, are you saying

that I ain't real, mister?

- I'm saying that maybe you need

to get deeper into character.

- Yeah, I don't date actors

I'm working with, Chet.

I already told you that.

- Yeah, but I'm not an actor.

- Yeah, that's for sure.

- No, we can get together,

and we can do

those Kazoon exercises.

- It's Kazan, you dummy.

- Hey, listen, I don't care.

We'll just rehearse

while we eat.

You know, we could order in

if we want.

You know everything about me,

and I don't even know

your last name.

- It's on the call sheet

every day.

Rate this script:3.0 / 1 vote