Boardwalk Empire (TV Series)

Nights in Ballygran (2010)

Michael Pitt: James 'Jimmy' Darmody

Quotes 

• Pearl : Tell me a story.

  James 'Jimmy' Darmody : About what?

  Pearl : You. Something happy.

  James 'Jimmy' Darmody : Uh... okay. Well, I was... what, seven?

  Pearl : What'd you look like?

  James 'Jimmy' Darmody : Like I do now. Smaller. Hair down to here.

  Pearl : No!

  James 'Jimmy' Darmody : Yeah. My mother thought it looked aristocratic. Everyone else just thought I was a girl. Anyway, there was this man, Mr. Lancaster. He was worth a few dollars, so my mother figured she could get him to marry her. He had a sailboat.

  Pearl : Make it a yacht.

  James 'Jimmy' Darmody : Sure, a yacht. On the 4th of July, he took us boating, my mother and me. She was in a white tea dress and a Merry Widow hat.

  Pearl : Mmm. She was beautiful.

  James 'Jimmy' Darmody : She was. She still is. We sailed past the lighthouse up along to Brigantine, where the pirates used to hide. Mr. Lancaster showed me how to use the mainsheet, put me at the tiller. I steered us into Little Egg Inlet like I'd done it my whole life. We tied up at Egg Island. We went ashore. My mother told me to go away for a while. I was used to that. So I ran around, pretending to be a pirate. And when it was okay to come back, Mr. Lancaster dug a pit in the sand, loaded in some coals to roast the lobster and the corn he had brought, and we just ate like kings. When the sun began to set, Mr. Lancaster told me to go get this box from the boat, and be very careful. Inside was stars and stripes he said that his father had carried at Gettysburg, which had to be true 'cause there were bullet holes on it. So we stuck the flagpole in the grass, and we sang "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" with our hands on our hearts. We watched the fireworks go off all the way down the Boardwalk. We sailed home under the moon. My mother was combing the sand out of my hair. That was a good day.

  Pearl : Tell me he married her.

  James 'Jimmy' Darmody : [looks away]  Sure he did. Happily ever after.

• Johnny Torrio : [on seeing Pearl]  Jesus Christ! She's fuckin' ruined.

  James 'Jimmy' Darmody : Come on, it's not that bad.

  Johnny Torrio : If she was a filly, they'd shoot her. I know you took a shine to her, but she's gotta go.

  James 'Jimmy' Darmody : She hasn't even had her stitches out.

  Johnny Torrio : This is a cathouse, not the Hotel Sherman. She don't earn, I don't earn.

  James 'Jimmy' Darmody : What if I cover it?

  Johnny Torrio : A hundred dollars a day?

  James 'Jimmy' Darmody : [stunned]  She makes that much?

  Johnny Torrio : She *did*. She got 'till Friday.