The Butler Page #11

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INT. GAINES HOUSE - BEDROOM - LATER - 1963

Cecil and Gloria are in bed holding each other.

CECIL V.O.

I knew that Gloria had been unhappy

for some time now. I knew that’s

probably why she drank. She wanted

me to get along better with Louis.

I didn’t know how. But I could cut

back them long hours at the house.

And I did just that.

GLORIA:

How many pairs of shoes does she

got...

CECIL:

She got about... 125.

GLORIA:

125 pairs of shoes...

CECIL:

Yeah. I put them in a line from the

blacks, all the way to the whites.

FADE TO BLACK.

INT. WHITE HOUSE - PRESIDENTIAL BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS - 1964

PRESIDENT LYNDON JOHNSON, tough as nails and a bit nutty,

notices the lights on in the room. He screams at Cecil.

LBJ:

And I’ll tell you what. The next

time there is a light on in an

empty room, I will fire every sorry

son of a b*tch in this house. I

mean it, Cecil, I’ll go back to

Texas and run the country from a

dirt shack if I have to! Is that

what you want?! Who do you think

pays the God-damned bills around

here. I don’t, but you know what I

mean.

CECIL:

Yes, sir.

Cecil flicks off the light switch. LBJ instantly flips to a

gregarious, jovial southerner as he slaps Cecil on the back.

He holds out an LBJ tie clip to Cecil.

63.

LBJ:

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Ladybird

and I want you to have this. It

matches your eyes.

CECIL:

Thank you, sir.

LBJ hands Cecil the tie clip.

INT. HOLLOWAY’S HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - EARLY EVENING - 1964

James Brown’s “Out of Sight” plays on the record player.

Cecil, Holloway and Carter play pinochle with their wives.

Everyone but Gloria drinks with abandon. Gloria smokes next

to Holloway’s wife, HELEN, 40, a rotund and lively woman.

HOLLOWAY:

I see you baby! You know how daddy

likes it!

Helen smiles at Holloway. Holloway yells at the bathroom.

HOLLOWAY (CONT’D)

Negro! Get out here! Back there

stinkin up my bathroom! Oh Lord,

what you doing?

Carter runs out of the bathroom in a James Brown wig and

DANCES around the room like Brown. He’s really good. Helen

runs over and pulls the wig off his head.

HELEN:

Give me my wig! What’s wrong with

you?! This my good wig!

CUT TO - LATER. Seated on the couch, Helen and Gloria are

chatting:

HELEN (CONT’D)

James said Dr. King told the

President that we would be going to

the streets down south for our

right to vote. Didn’t you baby?

The guys are still playing cards.

HOLLOWAY:

What?

HELEN:

64.

Didn’t you tell me that Dr. King

told the President that we was

going down south for our right to

vote? I ain’t make that up.

She looks at her husband. Holloway looks away a little

embarrassed about his breach of confidentiality. Oblivious to

Cecil and Carter’s disappointment in him, she continues on...

CECIL:

Is that what you heard?

HELEN:

That Dr. King ain’t no joke with

his little militant ass.

Holloway’s embarrassment. Cecil deals the cards. He’s trying

to pay attention to the game.

HOLLOWAY:

Who she talking to?

CECIL:

Well it look like someone is

talking...

A parrot SQUAWKS. Holloway throws popcorn at it.

HELEN:

Leave my bird alone.

GLORIA:

You know three kids got killed down

there. Trying to get colored folks

registered to vote.

CECIL:

That’s why I didn’t want Louis to

go down there. That’s what I was

trying to tell you.

HOLLOWAY:

Well you shouldn’t have sent him

down there.

CECIL:

I know.

GLORIA:

Well he is down there now, and

there ain’t nothing we can do about

it.

65.

Cecil shifts uncomfortably. He wishes they’d change the

subject.

HELEN:

The only reason why the President

sent the FBI is cause two of them

were white.

HOLLOWAY:

Now how do you know that?

CECIL:

Who told her that?

HOLLOWAY:

Where did you hear that? I didn’t

tell you that!

HELEN:

It was in one of them colored

newspapers from Baltimore. That

alright with you?

HOLLOWAY:

See she getting smart now. Damn.

GLORIA:

Honey, you think the President

ought to do something about the

voting rights bill?

CECIL:

President Johnson just passed the

greatest piece of civil rights

legislation since Lincoln freed the

slaves, it’s going to be very

difficult to pass another bill

anytime soon.

CARTER:

That’s it.

CECIL:

You see how my wife quizzes me?!

HOLLOWAY:

I get it every day.

CECIL:

Only you gotta know how much to

say, and when you cross the line.

66.

HOLLOWAY:

You deal with your woman, I’ll deal

with mine.

GLORIA:

At least you tell your wife what’s

going on over there.

Carter throws two cards in the center of the table.

CARTER:

Aces!

Holloway turns to Gloria.

HOLLOWAY:

(Changes the subject)

Hey, uh, Glo. Did you all hear

about your neighbor Howard? Guy

down on 57th caught him in bed with

his wife. Shot him dead. Shot him

in the back.

Gloria looks stunned that Howard is dead, but Cecil looks

indifferent.

CECIL:

I don’t know. Maybe he got what he

deserved.

Gloria looks away from him, ashamed.

INT. WHITE HOUSE - BATHROOM - DAY - 1964

LBJ sits on the toilet with his pants at his ankles

surrounded by four queasy staff members. Cecil is jammed in

the corner.

LBJ:

You sorry sap ass mother f***ers

gotta realize that the n*gger ain’t

gonna take it no more! This entire

country is a tinderbox, a goddamn

tinderbox of n*gger rage just

waitin’ to explode!

LBJ looks at his aides standing around.

67.

LBJ (CONT’D)

I want all of you to get on the

phone, call the NAACP, Core, and

who ever else will listen to your

sorry asses and help me keep them

n*ggers off the street. Buck I

smell your ass from here! What the

hell are you waiting for?!

His aides scurry away.

LBJ (CONT’D)

Jesus Christ. Cecil, get me some of

that God-damned prune juice.

Cecil hands him the prune juice.

INT. ALLEY WAY - SELMA, ALABAMA - NIGHT - 1965

Louis and Carol walk down a dark alley. They’ve just come

from hearing Malcolm X. Both carry flyers that read: “MALCOLM

X SPEAKS TONIGHT.” Louis looks at the flyer disturbed.

LOUIS:

I’m not sure what to make of

Malcolm X.

CAROL:

He’s got a better plan in place

than Dr. King.

LOUIS:

If someone puts their hands on you,

put them in the cemetery. That’s a

better plan?

CAROL:

You just mad because he talking

about your daddy.

LOUIS:

What?

CAROL:

He was saying all that stuff about

house negroes. I saw you get mad.

LOUIS:

My dad is not a house negro.

CAROL:

He’s a butler, aint he.

68.

LOUIS:

Don’t talk about my dad. I don’t

talk about your dad.

CAROL:

That’s because my daddy’s proud of

what I’m doin’.

Then - a GUNSHOT rings through the night! Louis instinctively

grabs Carol and shoves her up against a wall, their faces

inches apart from each other. Then -

She grabs his face and KISSES him on the mouth. Their mouths

and arms inner-twine as they furiously make out in the alley.

INT. CHURCH - WASHINGTON DC - NIGHT - 1965

In a packed black church. The choir passionately SINGS as

everyone in the pews looks nervous. A tension in the air.

Gloria sneaks into the back of the church.

CECIL V.O.

Everybody went to church to raise

money for the kids down in Selma.

But I didn’t go. I wasn’t going to

give money to pay for my son to be

killed.

CUT TO - FULL SCREEN - ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE - 1965

Black & white news footage of black PROTESTORS getting

CLUBBED by a militia on the Edmund Pettus bridge.

CECIL V.O.

Once again, them kids got beat.

This one was so bad that the press

called it “Bloody Sunday”.

INT. WHITE HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - NIGHT - 1965

LBJ watches the newscast on three separate televisions at the

same time. He looks deeply disturbed. He looks over to Cecil

who is also watching the footage with fear and sadness.

LBJ:

How are your boys, Cecil?

CECIL:

I don’t know how my oldest is Mr.

President, but I think he’s Selma.

(Then)

69.

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