A Chorus Line (1985)

Michael Douglas: Zach

Photos 

Quotes 

• Zach : Tell me about the Bronx.

  Diana : What's to tell about the Bronx? It's uptown and to the right.

  Zach : What made you start dancing?

  Diana : Who knows? I'm Puerto Rican. We jump around a lot.

• Sheila : You were a rotten dancer.

  Zach : Why do you think I became your choreographer?

• Zach : Goddammit, now can't ANYBODY up there hear me! Just let your hair down! Can't you talk? All of you, just talk, to me, to each other!... Jesus Christ!

• Connie : Connie Wong. Always Wong, never Wight.

  [Zach looks up] 

  Connie : Bad joke. I was born in Chinatown, lower east side.

  Zach : How old are you?

  Connie : I was born December 5th, four thousand six hundred and forty two, the Year of the Chicken.

• Zach : Is there anything you want to tell me?

  Sheila : What do I want to be when I grow up?

  Zach : Okay.

  Sheila : Young. That light - don't you have anything softer?

  Zach : Come closer.

  Sheila : Can I sit on your lap?

  Zach : Do you always come on like this?

  Sheila : No. Sometimes I'm aggressive.

• Sheila : My mother was kind of middle-aged and frumpy.

  Diana : Whose isn't?

  Sheila : At fourteen she was middle-aged and frumpy.

  Zach : Is that the kind of woman your father liked?

  Sheila : No. My father liked them very young, tall,and filled out in *all* the right places.

• Zach : What made you start dancing?

  Mike Cass : Because of my sister. She was a girl. So, my Mom decided she's the one to get all the dancing lessons. So, very Saturday my mother would take her. Once in a while she'd take me along.

  Zach : How old were you?

  Mike Cass : Four. Five. I'd sit there all eager and...

  [singing] 

  Mike Cass : I'm watchin' sis, go pitter-pat, Said, "I can do that", "I can do that"...

• Zach : Right! I want it strong! Make it sharp. Take it on the downbeat. Ready? And, five, six, seven, eight.

• Zach : Let me explain what I'm doing. This is not gonna be like other auditions. I'm looking for a strong chorus... people who can work together as a group - but I'm going to try to shake you up, see who you really are. We've got some small but important parts to be played by people in the chorus. Since I need great dancers, I can't expect you all to be great actors. So I don't want anybody to try to act. You understand? Just to be exactly who you are, which is just as important to me as how well you dance.

• Zach : Hi. As far as I'm concerned, I'm Valerie Clarke; but my parents seem to think I'm Margaret Mary Hoolihan. Couldn't you just die? I was born in the middle of nowhere. I mean, it wasn't even a town, really. Near Arlington, Vermont.

  Zach : How old are you?

  Val : Old. Twenty-four - and a half.

• Zach : I'm going to ask you some questions. What I want to know is details about yourself. Things you're proud of, things you're ashamed of. So if anybody can't handle it and wants to leave, right now is the time to make up your mind.

• Greg : Finally I got a girl who was actually willing to do it. So, there I am, making out in the backseat with Sally Ketchum. A little of this, a little of that - very little of that. Well, after about an hour she said, "Don't you want to do anything else?" I suddenly thought to myself, "No, I don't."

  Zach : Did this come as a big surprise to you?

  Greg : I guess. Yeah. It was the moment I realized I was gay.

• Zach : How about sex?

  Mark : Sex? Oh, sex! Now, now that - that was *really* terrible!

• Zach : This is for chorus, it's not for you.

  Cassie : But this is the only place there is for me! Oh, Zach, I'm a gypsy. I never had an apartment in my life that wasn't a sublet. All I know how to do is to point my toes and leap.

  [singing] 

  Cassie : I, Oh, Zach, I'm a dancer, That's who I am, What I do, Ah!

  Zach : Cassie.

  Cassie : [singing]  I, I am a dancer, Give me the steps, I'll come through, Give me somebody to dance for...

• Zach : Now what're you giving me? The neglected woman bullshit?

• Cassie : What would you've told me if I told you? "Take it", right? Well, I didn't want you to tell me, "Take it".

  Zach : What're you talking about? You took it!

  Cassie : That's one thing, my taking it. Your telling me "take it" is something else.

• Zach : Look at them. Look at them. Why did you leave me?

• Zach : Cassie, this isn't Vegas!

• Zach : Okay, listen up! Larry's got the exact style I'm looking for. Very thirties. Everybody, just keep your eye on Larry. Let's continue now from "moment in her presence". And, five, six, seven, eight!

• Zach : Helluva day. Larry.

  Larry : Line 'em up, Zach?

  Zach : Yeah, line 'em up.

  Larry : Okay. Everybody on the line.

• Zach : Do you ever think about what you're gonna do if you stop dancing?

  Connie : For me?

  Zach : Yeah.

  Connie : Real life, I guess.

  Zach : Well, what? Getting married, having babies?

  Connie : Go off my diet.