LaLaLand Mia × Sebastian
LaLaLandMia:Hi.What are you doing here?Sebastian:Meetings. Studio heads. M:Uh-huh. How'd you get on the lot?S: Piece of cake.Actually it took me four hours and Iended up running.We probably have twentyminutes before the guy finds me. You got a break coming up?M:I'm off in ten.S: Great. I'll hide in the bathroom.M: That's the window Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart looked out of inCasablanca.S: What's your Bogart's name...?Is it Greg? M: Yeah. Greg.S: How long have...?M: We've been seeing each other for a few months.I love this stuff. Makes coming to work easier.S:I know what you mean. I get breakfastfive miles out of the way just to sitoutside a jazz club.M:Oh yeah?S:It was called Van Beek. The swing bandsplayed there. Count Basie. Chick Webb.It's a samba-tapas place now.M:A what?S: Samba-tapas. It's... Exactly. The joke's onhistory. Anyway, that's L.A. They worship everything and they value nothing.P.A.:Clear the frame! M:We need to wait here.S:I know. They shoot movies on my street."C-stands." "Apple box." "Don't forget to sign out."A.D.:Quiet on set!S:How'd you get into all this?M:Into...? Oh -- I -- my aunt was anactress.She was in this traveling theater company... And there was thislittle library across the street from myhouse when I was growing up.This was Boulder City, Nevada -- every houselooked exactly the same. I was ten and already I needed to get out.And one day,my aunt flew into town, and she showed me the library's old-movie section. We spenta whole day watching one after the other.Bringing Up Baby. Notorious. Casablanca.I never knew the world was so big.Director:Cut!M:I started putting on plays in my garage.I'd write the scripts and print upprograms, and she'd give me props to usefrom wherever she'd just been -- NewYork, London, Paris. And then she'd jet off again and I wouldn't hear from her for another year.S:Who would you invite to watch? Your parents?M:God no -- I didn't invite anyone. That would have been terrifying.Honestly, I wish I loved something else.I've tried so hard to want other things.I left school after two years to come here, my fourth manager just dropped me, and mylast audition was for a teen soap pitched as Dangerous Minds meets The O.C.Should've been a lawyer.S:...`Cause the world needs more lawyers.M:Well it doesn't need more actresses.S:You're not just an actress.M:What do you mean, "just an actress"?S:You said it yourself, you're a child-prodigy playwright.M:That is not what I said.S:You're too modest to say it but it's true. So you could write your own roles.Write something that's as interesting as you are.M:Last thing I wrote was a stand-up routine for an open-mic night. It was horrible.S:All I'm saying is -- Louis Armstrong could have played the marching-band charts he was given. What did he doinstead? He made history.M:Ok, I'll stop auditioning and make history instead.Anyway -- I'm getting a feeling there'ssomething I should tell you...S:Yeah?M:I hate jazz.S:What does that mean? "I hate jazz"?M:It means when I listen to it I don't likeit.S:But it's such a blanket statement. It's like saying "I hate animals".M:I do hate some animals.S:Do you need to be anywhere right now?Most people say they hate jazz becausethey don't have context.They don't getwhere it came from.All these people packed into flophouses in New Orleans,speaking five different languages, and jazz was how they talked to each other.M:I thought it was just Kenny G.S:...What?M:I associate it with facials.It's relaxing.S:It's not relaxing! Sid Bechet got into a gunfight `cause somebody told him he played a wrong note! M:Right, but it's good to talk over. Where I grew up there's this jazz station they'd play at cocktail parties wheneverthey served the salami and cheese.S:Mia. These are things you can't unsay.It's not cocktail music -- it's a high-wire act. These guys are performing and composing and rearranging all at once.That's why you need to be in the space and see what's at stake.This whole thing-- it's dying. In twenty minutes they'll head off to cut commercial sessions or do pit at the Pantages `cause they have to --but when I have my own place -- my club --they'll play whatever they want.M:Your club?S:...It's gonna be the old Van Beek. I'm getting the lease back. It'll be perfect.The world tells everyone to move on.Says the music's had its moment.But I love it too much. I'm not moving on.M:Hi, I just missed a call...I got a call-back!S:Really? For what?M:That show I told you about.S:Dangerous Minds meets The O.C.?M:Right. It's -- actually more like Rebel Without a Cause.S:That's amazing! "I got the bulletsssss!"You've seen it, right?M:Obviously.No.SEBASTIAN What? You're the movie person. MIA It's the one I lie about. SEBASTIAN Come on. You can't do this audition and never see Rebel. The theater near me's playing it. If you want -- I can take you. For research. MIA (considering this) ...Ok. Revision 31. SEBASTIAN 10pm Monday at the Rialto. Cool? MIA Ok. (another nod, taking it in) For research. Mia looks at him -- he looks at her -- each of them suppressing a newfound giddiness... And on that --44 EXT. LIGHTHOUSE CAFE - EVENING Mia and Sebastian exit. Wave "good-bye". We FOLLOW Sebastian. He rounds the corner, nears the Hermosa Beach pier... ...and begins to SING. [CITY OF STARS] Lifted by a strange new feeling -- a feeling he wasn't expecting. The feeling that perhaps -- just perhaps -- he's falling in love... He gazes out at the sea, the purple sky. Dances with an OLD COUPLE, then continues on his way, as though caught in a dream. There's an uncertainty in his singing -- he's not sure if this dream will sustain. But for now, it's a beautiful feeling... The MUSIC simmers down -- and WE FADE OUT.45 EXT. AUDITION BUILDING - DAY A Pasadena building. As Mia approaches the door, another cell ring. It's her MOM. This time, Mia is happy to get the call: MIA (CONT'D) Hi, Mom! MIA'S MOM (O.S.) Hi, sweetie. How are you? MIA Great, actually: I got a call-back on a pilot. MIA'S MOM (O.S.) Oh my God! You're going to be on TV?? MIA Well -- it's not picked up yet. MIA'S MOM (O.S.) Not picked up? MIA First they make the pilot, then if they like the pilot it goes on TV. Revision 32. MIA'S MOM (O.S.) And you're in the pilot? MIA Well, no, I have a call-back. MIA'S MOM (O.S.) I see... Didn't you audition for a TV thing last week? MIA It's another audition. MIA'S MOM (O.S.) I see... So you might get a role in a thing that might one day be put on TV... MIA ...Well when you put it like that it sounds like a huge accomplishment. MIA'S MOM (O.S.) No, I don't mean that, it's so exciting. What channel? ABC? HBO? MIA Oxygen. MIA'S MOM (O.S.) Oxygen? MIA You know what, I have to go. I love you. She hangs up. Takes a deep breath. Enters the building.46 INT. WAITING ROOM - MOMENTS LATER Mia sits, starts reviewing her script. Looks around her -- the room is filled with ACTRESSES silently MOUTHING THEIR LINES. It's a bizarre sight: a dozen women moving their mouths, with no sound coming out at all. What's more, they're all in variations of the same type of costume: Michelle Pfeiffer's leather jacket from Dangerous Minds. A few stare at Mia, sizing her up. In the corner, another one of them GRUNTS while performing stretches. Then -- a DOOR to the side opens, and Mia can hear -- DIRECTOR (O.S.) ...We'll be seeing you very soon. Revision 33. An ACTRESS exits. Absolutely beaming. And then, a bored voice -- ASSISTANT Mia Dolan?47 INT. AUDITION ROOM - MOMENTS LATER Mia steps in. The pilot's DIRECTOR is seated at a table, looking in his folder at Mia's head-shot. He looks up at Mia. DIRECTOR Whenever you're ready. Mia breathes in. Heart pounding. Sweat percolating. Has been practicing this for days now. Fighting her nerves, she begins -- MIA Two options. Follow my rules, or follow my rules. Kapish? You want to bully, you'd best be ready to get bullied -- DIRECTOR Thanks. Mia is taken aback. MIA I can do it another way -- DIRECTOR No, thanks, that was great. We linger on Mia for a moment, and then --48 EXT. PARKING LOT / INT. MIA'S CAR - DAY Crestfallen, humiliated, Mia hurries to her car. Sees a voice- mail on her cell. Plays it -- MIA'S MOM (O.S.) Dad just helped me find Oxygen on the guide! So exciting! So will you be getting health insurance now? Mia switches her phone off and drives. Clenches her jaw. Turns left and sees a movie theater. The Rialto. Manages a smile. Something she can remain upbeat about... Revision 34.49 INT. MIA'S APARTMENT - DAY Mia in her room, sorting through outfits. Slips into jeans -- ALEXIS Mia? -- then spins around, startled. Alexis is at the door, eating Fritos. Has been crying. ALEXIS (CONT'D) (with difficulty) Greg's here... Mia looks at Alexis -- completely confused. Then -- Greg steps out behind Alexis. Waves to her. GREG Hey... I'm parked out front. But we should hurry, my brother just landed. Mia looks at him, still confused. Then remembers. GREG (CONT'D) Did you forget? MIA Shit. No. Yes. I'll change... GREG (smiles) It's ok. Mia closes her door -- turns -- and we see her face. She's crushed. She goes to call Sebastian -- then freezes. Remembers something else. She never got his number... We linger on her face, as, on his phone outside her door -- GREG (O.S.) (CONT'D) Josh! Yep, just picking Mia up now. Will be there in twenty.50 INT. LIGHTHOUSE CAFE - NIGHT Sebastian's playing a jam session. Excited, distracted. 10pm can't come quickly enough.51 INT. JAR - NIGHT Mia, in a green dress, with Greg, his brother JOSH, and Josh's FIANCEE. The restaurant is posh, modern. Josh wears a Brooks Brothers suit: he seems better-off than his brother. Revision 35. JOSH That's right -- but now we've got a surround-sound set-up, so it's like -- FIANCEE It's like being in a movie theater. JOSH It's better than going to a theater, really. You know theaters these days -- GREG Oh, sure -- JOSH -- they're so dirty, and they're either too hot or too cold, and there's always people talking, which is just -- (his phone buzzes) -- just so annoying, I mean you're trying to watch a movie -- one second -- (opens phone) Hello?... His Fianc�e smiles, looks at Greg and Mia, proud. FIANCEE Probably work. JOSH Yeah, I'll have to call you back. (closes and pockets his phone) So, yeah, we love it. Awkward silence. Mia hasn't spoken a word.52 EXT. RIALTO MOVIE THEATER - NIGHT Sebastian paces. People shuffle in. He looks. No sign of Mia.53 INT. JAR - NIGHT Midway through the meal. Mia is bored, restless, uneasy. JOSH (CONT'D) One word for you. Nicaragua. GREG I've never heard anyone say that. Was it amazing? Revision 36. JOSH Oh my God. A five-star jungle eco-resort. It was unbelievable. Mia stays quiet, in her own thoughts, the voices around her fading away. And then she hears it -- coming from the restaurant speakers, peeking out subtly at first: the melody we now know so well... Her and Sebastian's song. She FREEZES. The radio music seems to have morphed into the melody, and the tune stirs something deep within her... A few seconds pass. And then she can't deny it any longer. It's clear as day to her now. She rises from her seat -- GREG Mia? -- looks at Greg -- MIA I'm sorry. -- and -- as the sounds of a FULL ORCHESTRA swoop in -- -- RUNS out of the restaurant as fast as she can.54 EXT. JAR - NIGHT The MUSIC SWELLS, strings carrying us through and lifting Mia's spirits as she runs down the street in her green dress, for once absolutely sure of what she's doing...55 INT. RIALTO MOVIE THEATER - NIGHT Inside the Rialto, Sebastian settling into his seat, the show about to begin. He's visibly disappointed that he's alone. The lights dim. Projector light cuts through the darkness. And then, as the movie's credits start up, Sebastian spots, out of the corner of his eye, a figure in the aisle... He looks. The figure turns. Looks at him. It's Mia. And, caught like a freeze-frame in the projector light, her green dress incandescent, the giant movie screen behind her like a great piece of back-projection, she looks more beautiful than ever right now. A true old-fashioned screen siren. Sebastian's eyes go wide. He's surprised. And thrilled. He waves. Mia hurries toward him. Takes the seat next to his, as Rebel Without a Cause begins... Revision 37.56 INT. RIALTO MOVIE THEATER - LATER Half an hour has passed. The movie plays, lights flickering on Mia and Sebastian's darkened faces. He puts his arm on the armrest, she moves hers nervously. He scoots to his right, she scoots back. She edges her elbow onto the armrest, he moves his arm. Inch by inch, their bodies grow closer. Hands approaching, breaths quickening, hearts pounding... ...until finally their hands touch... And then, suddenly -- just as James Dean and Natalie Wood arrive at Griffith Observatory, and Mia and Sebastian seem about to kiss -- -- burn marks streak their way across the image. The screen goes blank. Silence. The lights go on. Mia and Sebastian turn around. AUDIENCE MEMBERS start murmuring. Sebastian can barely believe his bad luck. But then Mia turns to him. Energized. MIA (CONT'D) I have an idea.57 EXT. ROAD - NIGHT Sebastian's car, traveling up a winding road, stars glittering above it, the lights of Los Angeles glittering below it. The sky is a deep, painted blue. Music plays... [PLANETARIUM] The car is bending around the turns, making its way up to...A57 ...the real Griffith Observatory. There, our MUSIC crests. Our two characters get out of the car and wander, searching for an open entrance. They find one -- and sneak in...58 INT. GRIFFITH OBSERVATORY - CONTINUOUS They ascend a staircase. Make their way past the exhibits -- the Tesla coil shooting off electric bolts. They reach the pendulum, gaze up at the mural above it, look at one another. Circle the pendulum, and then -- so tenderly, so nervously... Revision 38. ...they begin to DANCE. This is a dance that fulfills all the promise in their earlier duet. They circle the floor, gently and gracefully. The music BUILDS, and they drift into...A58 ...the PLANETARIUM. It's darkened, empty. Mia removes her shoes, feels the soft carpet under her feet. Turns on the projector. The screen STARTS TO GLOW. She and Sebastian take in the sight -- the STARS and GALAXIES... Enchanted, they look at one another, the lights from the screen reflected on their faces. They approach, as though about to kiss... When -- -- Mia's shoes LIFT UP. Float toward the ceiling -- toward the star-filled screen. She and Sebastian trade looks. Realize. And then they too begin to FLOAT... ...RISING from the floor, nothing stopping them. SOARING past the views of comets and moons and nebulae. Eyes wide, their emotions seized, as they HOLD EACH OTHER TIGHT... And so unspools a gravity-free dance. Mia and Sebastian SPIN and TWIRL through the planetarium as though they themselves were in outer space, flying through the cosmos. The music carries them higher and higher, and their spirits likewise soar -- JOYOUS, EXUBERANT -- until, finally... ...the music SOFTENS. Mia and Sebastian drift back to the floor like feathers. They land on a pair of seats. There, once again seated like audience members at a movie, they turn and look into each other's eyes. The music picks back up for the big finish, as the lovers lean in and -- in true movie- movie old-Hollywood big-musical fashion -- -- LOCK LIPS. It's their first kiss, and it's a kiss to remember -- full of all the hope and yearning and terror and wonder of love's first blush. A swoon-worthy kiss, with the orchestra soaring and the camera swooping in to catch the embrace in all its glory. On this triumphant moment... ...we IRIS FADE OUT. Revision 39.59 OMIT60 INT. MIA'S APARTMENT - LIVING ROOM - DAY Mia's scribbling in a notebook. It's dialogue. We see character headings, scene headings. Seems to be some kind of a script... TRACY (O.S.) What's that? Mia turns. Tracy has wandered in -- pajamas, eating cereal. TRACY (CONT'D) Is that a script? MIA It's a play. I'm going to put it on myself. ALEXIS (O.S.) (chiming in from her bedroom) A play? You better give us roles! MIA Actually -- it's a -- it's a one-woman show... A beat -- and then -- AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHT. HONKING outside the nearest window. It's a honk we recognize: TRACY ...Is that gonna happen every time? MIA (glowing) I think so.A60 OMIT61 EXT. MIA'S APARTMENT BUILDING - DAY Mia dashes out -- and LEAPS into Sebastian's car and into his arms. They KISS -- giddy, emotional, as though they'd been separated for years. Sebastian drives off -- when -- MIA (O.S.) (CONT'D) It's one-way!! The car SCREECHES to a stop in front of a TRUCK going the opposite direction. Sebastian goes into REVERSE as Mia cracks up laughing. A BURST OF MUSIC as a title card pops on: Revision 40. SUMMER The MUSIC carries us through the following series of GLIMPSES:62 -- Mia and Sebastian ambling past weathered 30's bungalows in BUNKER HILL...63 -- Mia guiding Sebastian down a street peppered with SILENT- ERA HOMES, past old gas-lamps and palms...65 -- VAN BEEK. Sebastian gestures to the "TAPAS & TUNES" sign. Excitedly tries to deface it. Mia, aghast, pulls him back...66 -- The HUNTINGTON GARDENS, where Mia and Sebastian gaze at the tiny forest...A66 -- WATTS TOWERS, where the two lovers stroll and kiss...67 OMIT64 -- The GRAND CENTRAL MARKET, where they grab food...68 -- ANGEL'S FLIGHT at night, where they stumble and slip into a tipsy, love-soaked dance...69 OMIT Interspersed throughout, WE SEE IMAGES OF LOS ANGELES: 1940's high-rises, green movie-movie lettering, ochre walls shaded by palm fronds, red flowers and Spanish missions, old lamps and Art Deco hotels. It's a gorgeous city, and the music only makes it more gorgeous -- building and carrying us to...
