The Normal Heart Page #5
we're gonna get money, research, grants.
Congress still hasn't appropriated a dime.
The Mayor's still... On and on!
Ned, when you go public, you have no right
to speak for this organization
unless we have approved
what you have to say in advance.
You know, in point of fact,
you aren't even an officer of this organization,
and you shouldn't be speaking for us at all!
Thank you for sharing that with me, Dick.
(THEME MUSIC PLAYING)
Why do you think the city has been so slow to
acknowledge and deal with this emergency?
(SCOFFS)
You're implying that the city's recognized
and acknowledged this emergency, Malcom.
- It has not.
- Why not, do you think?
'Cause the Mayor is gay and he's scared
shitless out of his panties it'll blow his cover.
(OBJECTS CLATTERING)
- MAN:
What did he say? Get off! Commercial.- Are we still rolling?
(TONE BEEPS)
You can't tell me what to say
when I'm speaking for myself.
Bullshit. They all know you're one of us.
It is totally and politically incorrect
to call someone gay
who does not self-identify as being gay.
I know it's been that way forever,
but something different is going on here now.
We're dying.
The Mayor, he's a personal friend of yours.
You want him to appoint you a judge.
Do you have a little conflict of interest
going on here?
I told you. I sent him a memo.
- When?
- Through channels.
- When?
- He'll answer me.
When? There's 110 new cases this month!
Still, no meeting with our gay mayor.
No meeting with his gay assistant!
What, do I embarrass you, Bruce?
Yes. You do.
Yeah, you get more with honey
than with vinegar, babe.
God, no one's told me that one, Tommy.
No, obviously they haven't.
I don't believe that bullshit anyway.
We are in over our heads
with the patients we're trying to help.
Tommy, will you please read this report
out loud for Ned?
TOMMY:
"We have trained25 crisis counselors
"to help the newly diagnosed
in whatever needs that they might have.
"We have 12 group leaders
"who meet with these counselors at least
once a week to go over their clients.
"There are now 17 volunteer social workers,
psychologists and/or psychiatrists.
"We helped draw up 75 wills last..."
Seventy-five, Bruce.
You used to be a fighter once.
- Did you like being in the Green Berets?
- Yes. I loved it.
Have you completely forgotten how to fight?
Don't tell me how to fight.
I just fight differently than you do.
- I haven't seen your way yet.
- No?
Bruce, Albert may be dying.
You son of a b*tch!
You say another word about him...
Relax.
And you,
you have no right being on this board unless
you put pressure on your friend, the Mayor.
That's why I asked you to join us
in the first place and you know it.
(PANTING)
- BEN:
No. No, I'm not gonna do that.- Why not?
No, you get your free legal work from my firm.
I'm not gonna be on your board of directors.
NED:
It's only for the stationery.You don't have to do a thing.
That is just an evasion.
If you thought this was a straight disease...
BEN:
It's got nothing to do withyou being gay.
NED:
What else does it have to do with?One of these days I'm gonna get you to agree
that over 20 million men and women
in this country
don't require the services of a psychiatrist.
Look, try to understand.
You know, I read stuff. I see TV.
Guys in leather, chains, dresses, high heels.
You know, I say to myself, "This isn't Ned."
You know the media
always dramatizes the most extreme.
You guys have a dreadful image problem.
Well, that's why it's so important
to have people like you supporting us.
You already have your dignity.
BEN:
We better get to lunch.I've got an important meeting.
Do you? How important?
I'm asking for your support.
In every area I consider important,
you have my support.
And the only area that I consider important,
I don't have your support at all.
In some place deep down inside you,
you still think I'm sick, don't you?
I think you've adjusted to life pretty well.
All things considered.
I saw how unhappy you were.
So were you!
You wound up going to shrinks, too.
We grew up side by side.
We both felt the same about Mom and Pop.
I'll agree to the fact that
I have any number of awful character traits,
but not to the fact that whatever awful things
they did to us made me sick and gay
while you stayed straight and healthy.
We don't all react the same way to the thing.
So you became a lawyer
and I became a writer.
Well, we have a difference of opinion
over theory.
But your theory
turns me into a man from Mars.
My theory doesn't do that to you.
Are you suggesting I did something wrong
in sending you into therapy so young?
I didn't know
you were gonna stay there forever.
I didn't think that I had done anything wrong
until you sent me there.
Ben, you mean more to me
than anyone in the whole world.
You always have.
Ben, you've gotta say it.
- Say what?
- I am the same as you.
Just say it. Say it.
No.
You're not.
I'm not gonna say it.
Every time I lose this fight, it hurts more.
I'm going home.
Oh, come on, Lemon.
I still love you.
Sarah still loves you. The cat still loves you.
This is not a joke!
You have my love, my legal advice,
my financial supervision.
I can't give you the courage
to stand up to me and say
you don't give a flying f***
about what I think!
Everybody's oppressed by somebody else
in some form or another.
Most of us learn to fight against it despite
people's opinions without the help of others.
Now stop trying to wring
some kind of admission of guilt out of me!
Agreeing that you were born
just the same as I was born
isn't gonna save your dying friends.
That is exactly what is going to save
my dying friends!
You make it sound like I'm the enemy!
you and your straight world are our enemy!
I am furious with you
who made me feel it was sick to love a man!
I am trying to understand
why nobody gives a sh*t that we're dying!
$5 million for a house?
We can't even get 27 cents from the city.
I know 43 guys who have died
and you say it's my cause, not yours?
I will not speak to you again
until you accept me as your equal!
Your healthy equal! Your brother!
(SIGHS)
Yeah, be careful with that, boys.
That is a precious antique.
- Easy.
- Mmm-hmm.
Don't you think
we should put that in the grand salon?
Do we have a basement?
Bella, I think it's time
we moved your filthy mouth above ground.
- (LOUD KISSING)
- I'll decorate tomorrow.
Just shove it all in there the best you can.
(PURRS)
- Yeah, okay. Knock it off, both of you.
- (LAUGHING)
(KNOCKING AT DOOR)
Excuse me.
Yes? Hi.
Hi.
My name is Estelle,
and my best friend Harvey died last night.
We went everywhere together, you know?
Like Broadway and the Rockettes
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"The Normal Heart" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Nov. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/the_normal_heart_20958>.
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