What Just Happened (2008)

Robert De Niro: Ben

Photos 

Quotes 

• Ben : [discussion about Bruce Willis]  I suppose it took him a long time to grow it, he probably just wants to wait 'til the last minute.

  Cal : That's what I thought last week, but after seeing him today, I got the sense this is going to be his "look", it's an artistic-choice...

  Ben : The extra weight is too? It can't be.

  Cal : It's a feeling.

  Ben : Cal, we got the studio to pay him $20 million to be a leading man. For that kind of money there is an expectation.

  Cal : They expect a good performance...

  Ben : No, no, no no, Cal. For that kind of money they expect millions of menstruating women to want to have intercourse with him. You understand what I'm saying? You want a poster that says "See Santa Run"?

• Ben : [with couples therapist]  Aren't we going to talk about what we're doing to each other *now*? Why don't we *talk* about what we are doing to each other now.

  Kelly : What?

  Ben : Why don't we talk about what we are doing to each other *now*?

  Kelly : Wha, what. You didn't want to talk about *now* before...

  Ben : No, *now*. You know what. *Now*.

  Kelly : Yeah, but now *before* was not okay. Why is now *now* okay.

  Ben : I don't have any problem with *now*, *you* have a problem with *now*.

  Kelly : That is not why we're here.

  Ben : That's why, uh. Doctor, is this some classic case of avoidance?

• Suit : I'm betting beard...

  Ben : What kind of remark is that? People's livelihood are at stake.

  Suit : Make a note, a producer with a conscience.

• Jeremy Brunell : [In the cutting room sanitizing his film, "Fiercely", following a big drunk]  I was seven days away from getting a cake, man. All right? A cake for a year sober. Me, a cake. And you and your diabolical bloody naked treachery took that away from me.

  Ben : No, that's not true...

  Ben : [a short time later]  Let me get you a Valium. Just for now. It's not that I don't... But we're on deadline. This is for us, these changes.

  Jeremy Brunell : Can I have a couple of Vicodin instead?

  Ben : Sure, easy.

  Jeremy Brunell : Go get three of them, Ben.

  Ben : Three? Coming up.

  Ben : [On the phone]  Yeah, get me, uh... my office to get three Vicodin and bring them to the cutting room right away.

• Ben : Life's not that bad, I'm in France, life is good.

• Ben : You're an agent. Delivering bad news is part of your job description.

• [first lines] 

  Ben : Vanity Fair named me as one of the 30 most powerful producers in the business. Power is an elusive term, but in Hollywood it's everything, I don't care what they say, you either have it, want it, or you're afraid of losing it. Where you stand at these things, or who you may be standing next to, may not seem like the most important thing, but it *really* matters.

• Scott Solomon : Too bad about Jack, huh?

  Ben : That's rare. Usually agents kill others, not themselves.