Daily Dialogue — July 23, 2019

Niki Trumbo: We’re having birthday cake.
Dalton Trumbo: When you hear me working, you don’t knock.
Niki Trumbo: But it’s my birthday.
Dalton Trumbo: You don’t knock. Ever.
Niki Trumbo: So the house is on fire, you don’t wanna know?
Dalton Trumbo: I work in a bathtub, surrounded by water. So I’m fairly certain that even if the whole goddamn country was on fire, that I can still function as this family’s personal slave. And all I ask is not to be interrupted for every little slice of fucking birthday cake.

—Trumbo (2015), screenplay by John McNamara, book by Bruce Cook

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Screenwriter. Today’s suggestion by @cecilaiche.

Trivia: Jay Roach claimed that many of the scenes featuring Trumbo writing alone at his desk or in the bathtub were improvised by Bryan Cranston while the cameras rolled, and that Cranston was genuinely composing complete sentences on the page.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Even though Trumbo was scrambling to support the family through his writing during the Blacklist era, this is a tough scene to watch as he just crushes his daughter’s heart.