The White Lotus (TV Series)
Mysterious Monkeys (2021)
Steve Zahn: Mark Mossbacher
Photos
Quotes
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Mark Mossbacher : Twenty-two years we've been married.
Rachel Patton : Twenty-two? That's impressive.
Mark Mossbacher : I guess. I mean, I've got friends that, you know, have been married, divorced, married, divorced, so... We're still going. So you never know.
Rachel Patton : That's impressive. What's your guys' secret? How do you keep the spark alive?
Mark Mossbacher : Oh, the spark.
[laughs]
Mark Mossbacher : No, that's not alive. That died. Yeah. I mean, love may be alive but spark... thpbbt
Rachel Patton : Sure. That happens.
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Mark Mossbacher : You, you're gay, right?
Armond : Yes, I'm gay.
Mark Mossbacher : No, my father was gay. I think. He, uh, he had sex with men.
Armond : That's a telltale sign.
Mark Mossbacher : Hey, can I ask you a question?
Armond : Hmm.
Mark Mossbacher : What's it like, like, you know, being fucked up the ass? Like, is that... I mean, it must feel kinda good, otherwise you wouldn't keep doing it, right? Does, does it feel good?
Armond : Do you wanna find out?
Mark Mossbacher : Uh, no, I'll take a rain check.
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Olivia Mossbacher : Dad, what's wrong with you?
Nicole Mossbacher : Your father got some very upsetting news last night.
Olivia Mossbacher : He does have cancer?
Nicole Mossbacher : No. He doesn't have cancer. He found out something about his father that he never knew before.
Olivia Mossbacher : I'm listening.
Nicole Mossbacher : Your grandfather died of AIDS.
Paula : How did he get AIDS?
Nicole Mossbacher : Apparently, Paula, he was having sex with other men.
Quinn Mossbacher : Who was?
Nicole Mossbacher : Your dad's dad.
Quinn Mossbacher : Why?
Olivia Mossbacher : Because he liked it. Why else? He was probably closeted.
Paula : Or bisexual.
Olivia Mossbacher : Dad, why are you so upset, though? You're like catatonic.
Nicole Mossbacher : Well, it was a secret that was kept from him his entire life, Liv. So now, whatever image he had of his father, of his childhood, has been pulverized.
Olivia Mossbacher : You know, he was probably a bottom. That's how you mostly get it. Receiving. Dad, do you feel like your father was less of a man or something?
Paula : He might have not been gay. A lot of straight guys like ass-play.
Olivia Mossbacher : Yeah! Maybe he was just too embarrassed to ask Grandma to use a dildo on him.
Quinn Mossbacher : Oh, Jesus!
Mark Mossbacher : Can we not, please? Uh...
Olivia Mossbacher : Even if he wasn't a top, it doesn't mean he was femme. He could've still been butch, Dad.
Paula : Maybe he was a bossy bottom.
Olivia Mossbacher : Yeah, maybe Grandpa was a power bottom.
[to her dad]
Olivia Mossbacher : Does that make you feel better?
Mark Mossbacher : No. That makes me wanna throw up.
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Mark Mossbacher : After a few years, it doesn't matter how much role-playing you do, or, like, toys you buy, porn you watch together, whatever. Sex just turns into, like, uh, y'know like when they do one of those food challenges on a reality show? Y'know, where they gotta, like, eat, like, a bowl of live worms and you just gotta, you gotta psych up for it, and you're like,
[exaggerated pro wrestler voice]
Mark Mossbacher : I can do this, ju-just hold my nose and, like, suck it down as fast as I can so I don't gag.
Rachel Patton : [awkward sigh] Yeah...
Mark Mossbacher : But, it's natural. It'd be weird if it didn't fade, y'know. Look... I'm just being real with you.
[pause]
Mark Mossbacher : Y'know? Oh, this is my son, Quinn
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Mark Mossbacher : It's natural to want something new. I mean, when you're jerking to porn, do you watch the same clip every time? No. Never.
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Mark Mossbacher : Do you wanna know me?
Quinn Mossbacher : May... maybe.
Mark Mossbacher : Do you?
Quinn Mossbacher : I don't know.
Mark Mossbacher : Maybe it's better if I'm just really real with you. Maybe that's the healthier legacy. I think it is. Yeah.
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Mark Mossbacher : Are you gay?
Quinn Mossbacher : No.
Mark Mossbacher : Hey. 'Cause if you are, it's okay. Just, like, be real.
Quinn Mossbacher : I am being real.
Mark Mossbacher : What's real is... like, gay, straight, whatever, we're just monkeys, we're just fucking monkeys.
Quinn Mossbacher : Yeah?
Mark Mossbacher : Yeah. Yeah, we're just animals. I mean, you know, we wanna be, like... superheroes and respectable fathers and pillars in our communities, whatever, but, but in fact, we're just monkeys... living in our own little monkey pods, driven by base instincts to create these hierarchies and hump each other. I thought I knew my father, you know? I only knew the part that he wanted me to see. He hid the monkey, and that screwed me up, Quinn.
Quinn Mossbacher : You think that's what did it?
Mark Mossbacher : Yeah, definitely. Hey, I thought... My whole life, I thought I was the flawed child of an icon. Like, I put him on this, like, enormous pedestal. Meanwhile, like, he's off in some bathhouse on the DL, getting manhandled by some... like, random dudes. Wow. Oh, I wish I had known.
Quinn Mossbacher : I'm sorry.
Mark Mossbacher : Yeah. But I get it. I mean, you know, you don't want your kid thinking you're some sex-crazed lunatic.