Listen Up Philip Page #3

You gonna be speaking in little turns

of phrase like that the whole time?

I might. I don't know.

I think this is gonna be fun.

You wanna go sit somewhere

and talk more about it?

I think we're pretty much

on the same page.

Hey, thanks for doing this, by the way.

You don't seem to give a sh*t

about this at all.

Sure, I do.

I'm a nice guy.

Read an article about me.

I'm self-deprecating.

No, I'm not thrilled you're going away

for over a month.

That is why I'm acting like this.

Can we please not

talk about this in public?

It strikes me as unlikely,

as you supported ideas like this

when I still could have turned them down.

I need the money.

What I said was,

it would be good for your career.

I thought you meant "career"

with a dollar sign.

I think we need more.

Fireworks, shooting guns.

Maybe we need to get arrested.

Yeah, that might be

a little bit problematic

for some of my younger,

more impressionable fans.

I have a lot of those, I'm told.

Hi.

Ashley.

Oh, my God. Hi.

- Josh.

- Josh.

Yeah.

- Wow. How are you?

- I'm good. How you doin'?

It was...

- Beth's wedding?

- Beth's wedding, right.

Wow. Was a fun night.

I'm foggy.

- Good to see you.

- Yeah, nice to see you as well.

You guys know each other.

Yeah, we f***ing live together.

Nice.

How you take a punch, Josh?

- Excuse me?

- I think we should get into a fight.

For the article.

I think it'd be a neat idea.

- Stand up, Josh.

- OK.

- I'm gonna show you how to take a punch.

- I know how to take a punch.

I'm gonna show you the right way

to take a punch.

OK, hit me.

- Where?

- Right in my stomach.

Hit me as hard as you can,

just at my stomach.

That wasn't as hard as I can.

I know. I hope not.

Hit me again. Harder. Seriously.

- Yeah, OK.

- Go.

- You ready?

- Yeah.

- Harder?

- Go. Harder.

I'm fine.

What I did was essentially,

breathing is key.

- Think of it as, like...

- Just hit me.

- All right, you ready? OK.

- Yeah.

One...

Two...

It's cancelled.

I'm fired, if you can believe that.

The whole damn time, he had another guy

and was talking to another magazine,

and just goes with that.

It's sociopathic, is what it is.

F***ing snake.

Feel like a real fat loser right now.

You should use the time

doing something equally as productive.

Well, I was actually planning

to stay home and suffer quietly

as I can no longer afford

to do much else.

Come to my country house. Stay with me.

Rub two sticks together.

Make a fire.

I know most people expect

surprising and generous offers

to be politely refused,

but I might have to call your bluff

and emphatically accept.

How does Memorial Day sound?

That's next week.

Yeah. Sooner the better.

I have a girl, Melanie, up there.

She looks after the place.

I'll mention it to her.

Thank you.

Skol.

'Philip had begun to feel

that the city was rejecting him,

'and Ike's sudden offer of solitude

and respite was immediately appealing.

'So much so that Philip even requested

that the invitation be open-ended,

'and that he be allowed to stay until he felt

emotionally capable of returning to the city.

'To Philip's surprise,

Ike considered this a terrific idea,

'and even said so.'

Actually, that's a terrific idea.

I admire you for being so bold

as to come right out and ask.

I know that sounds like

I'm being sarcastic, but I'm not.

'Ike had begun to lose his passion

for being alone all the time,

'and was eager to have an impressionable

young mind on which to impart his wisdom.

'It was under these circumstances

that Philip agreed

'to spend a portion

of his summer upstate with Ike,

'rather than in the city with Ashley.

'Ashley had not been the first to notice

'Philip's increasingly

marginal role in her life.

'It was talked about often

by friends and colleagues,

'none of whom ever had

a relationship with Philip,

'but grew used to hearing about him

much more than they had been lately.

'It had been months since Ashley felt

any real connection to Philip.

'He began to drift away while applying

the finishing touches to his new book

'and had never come back.

'She tried her best to ignore

the mounting signs,

'but the more often they were

brought to her attention,

'the harder it became.

'The most difficult part of which

was her own increasing ambivalence

'regarding her role in Philip's life,

or his in hers.

'She wanted him to want her,

'and the slowly dawning realisation

that he might not

'was enough to push her

into emotionally unprecedented levels

'of doubt and misdirected anger.'

So it's cancelled,

and you're suddenly leaving again?

Looks like it.

God, you'd do anything

to get away from me.

You see, it's remarks like that

that tell me I'm doing the right thing.

Can we please talk?

OK.

Talk.

Kind of figured you would say something.

Nope.

Actually, I do have something to say,

and I imagine you'll not care

to hear it, and it is this.

I'm not going to Ike's for just the week.

He invited me to stay for longer.

- Wait, longer?

- Yeah.

I don't understand.

Honestly, I don't see myself

returning till July or so.

So, you're basically leaving me

for the whole summer.

Not if you look at it like that.

- How am I supposed to look at it?

- Look at it like this.

I was supposed to be gone

most of June anyway, right?

I don't see how this is any different.

I can't breathe here,

and you seem to resent my presence.

Thus I'm unable to work.

It's ugly. It's loud.

It's always moving.

I never feel still long enough

to hold a thought.

I feel sick out there among the people.

I need to remedy this,

and an opportunity has presented itself.

I'm gonna take it. I've got no money

and no hope of another advance.

I'm doing what's best for me.

Yeah, you're doing what you're best at.

You're looking out for

your own self interests

without thinking about how it might

affect me or anybody else. Typical!

You're hardly around anyway.

You won't even notice.

Hey, don't tell me I'm not gonna notice

that I'm alone all of a sudden.

Why can't you do something

that involves me?

Why can't we go somewhere together?

You know, alone or...

Is it the money? Because I don't mind

if you need to borrow some again...

Put your money away, all right?

I'm not taking any money from you.

Those days are behind me.

Forever, I told myself.

I hope this will be good for us.

But especially for me.

You are selfish and unsentimental.

- Everyone knows this about you.

- You say that like it's a bad thing.

On the contrary.

An admirable trait, if you ask me.

I come from an unsupportive background.

Yeah, I do, too, but don't cling to it.

It'll make you lazy and angry.

- Your work will suffer.

- I'll keep that in mind.

And I don't believe you need to

exacerbate these instincts in yourself

more than you already do.

You got it.

Ah... now, your room's out the back.

I, erm...

I have to go to the city

for a couple of days.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes