Adaptation · written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman · 2002

Charlie tells Jerry that his script’s truth comes from his own experience, then resists the deadline.

Scene 138 of 202 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Jerry
Kaufman

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 1:12 into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 138

Unable to find a conventional story in The Orchid Thief, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman turns his own crisis into an increasingly self-referential adaptation.

Scenes 1–9
Charlie inhabits an isolated, self-condemning world while Orlean’s book supplies a distant model of obsession.
Scenes 10–88
Charlie wants to write honestly and make flowers matter, while also longing to be desired and understood.
Scenes 89–105
He leaves his familiar writing room and goes to Florida to search for the story firsthand.
Scenes 106–126
The swamp is ordinary, Orlean’s research fails, and Charlie experiments with increasingly personal versions of the book.
Scene 127
Orlean’s imagined portrait tells Charlie to focus on what he cares about, and he turns his own life into the screenplay.
Just before
Scene 135
Charlie lashes out at Donald for pretending to be a writer and collapses in pain.
Scene 136
In the emergency room, Charlie sees a woman ignore him and suddenly finds an opening for his screenplay.
Scene 137
Charlie types a screenplay opening that turns his own self-loathing into narration.
Scene 138
This scene

138INT. AGENT'S OFFICE - DAY

Kaufman, looking tired and wild-eyed, sits with his agent.

JERRY

... we need to talk about the orchid

script. Valerie called yesterday.

They're getting antsy.

KAUFMAN

I think I've got it on track now.

JERRY

Good. She said you sounded weird.

KAUFMAN

No Hollywood bullshit. Just raw truth.

Sometimes that takes a while to find.

JERRY

Okay. What's the time frame here?

KAUFMAN

It's goddamned honest, Jerry. It's true.

JERRY

Oh, hey, my friend sent me this fucked-

up internet thing. It's a girl taking a

shit, but a trout comes out. You got e-

mail yet? I'll send it to you.

KAUFMAN

This is more honest than anything

anyone's ever done before in a movie,

I'll tell you that. The only truth we

can offer is the truth that's our own

experience of the world. "The great

poet, in writing himself, writes his

time." T.S. Eliot.

JERRY

It sounds good, buddy. But we do need to

give Valerie a ballpark --

KAUFMAN

I'm sick of their constant harassment!