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Screenwriters on Masks
For Using the Emotional Toolbox
Compiled By Laurie H. Hutzler
Here’s what some television
and movie writers have had to say about how their characters employ
masks.
These quotes are excerpted from the collection at the
Internet Movie Data Base at www.IMDB.com
Patrick Bateman: I feel lethal, on the
verge of frenzy. I think my mask of sanity is about to slip. American
Psycho (screenplay by Mary Harron and Guinevere Turner)
Miss Kitty: Remember, the real lady is what's
underneath the mask.
An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (written by Flint Dille, David Kirschner,
creator, Charles Swenson, story)
Phillippe: I wear the mask. It does not wear
me. The Man in the Iron Mask (film 1998) (screenplay by Randall Wallace)
Captain Ahab: Speak not to me of blasphemy,
man; I'd strike the sun if it insulted me! Look ye, Starbuck, all
visible objects are but as pasteboard masks. Some inscrutable yet
reasoning thing puts forth the molding of their features. The white
whale tasks me; he heaps me. Yet he is but a mask. 'Tis the thing
behind the mask I chiefly hate; the malignant thing that has plagued
mankind since time began; the thing that maws and mutilates our race,
not killing us outright but letting us live on, with half a heart
and half a lung! Moby Dick (film 1956) (screenplay by Ray Bradbury
and John Huston)
Sir Percy: If we are to succeed, we must maintain
our anonymity, mask our identities. Even if it means suffering the
mockery of others. Being taken for fools, fops, nitwits, even cowards.
The Scarlet Pimpernel (TV 1982) (teleplay by William Bast)
Darth Vader: Luke help me take this mask off.
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (screenplay by Lawrence
Kasdan and George Lucas)
Brian Slade: Man is least himself when
he talks in his own person…. Give him a mask (to hide behind)
and he'll tell you the truth. Velvet Goldmine (screenplay by Todd
Haynes)
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