Play It As It Lays

Chapter 2 flashes back to the films Carter made with Maria. In one called Angel Beach, Maria played a girl who was raped by a biker gang. Maria likes the character she played because, despite the rape, the girl seemed “to have a definite knack for controlling her own destiny” (19).

The other film in which Maria starred was a sequence of footage Carter shot of Maria without her knowledge. Maria dislikes this film, which shows her in vulnerable moments and was produced without her consent. 

Maria goes to see her agent, Freddy Chaikin. The receptionist says he is not available, and as Maria leaves, she has an awkward encounter with a B-list actor and his agent. The actor’s agent compliments Carter’s latest film, and the actor looks at her “with sexual appreciation, meant not for Maria herself but for Carter Lang’s wife” (23). When Maria gets home, instead of calling her agent, she lays “face down on Kate’s empty bed” (23), cradling Kate’s pillow. Maria thinks about calling Les Goodwin, the screenwriter with whom she is having an affair, but decides against it. 

In October, Maria and BZ are sitting outside by her pool, and BZ tells her about an actress who recently slit her wrists and was “admitted to UCLA Neuropsychiatry” (24). The narrator observes that Maria called BZ over because he might understand her depression. BZ tells Maria that Larry Kulik, a well-connected gangster, is throwing a party and that she should attend.

Maria changes the subject, asking BZ who Carter is sleeping with. BZ avoids Maria’s question, alluding instead to her affair with Les. 

Maria, in a phone conversation with Freddy, reveals that she has failed to get work for the past year because she walked off the set of her last film. She counters that she was sick and worried about her daughter, but Freddy does not accept the excuse. He reminds Maria that Carter was able to parlay Maria’s films into a successful career, implying that she has not. Freddy finally says that he will reach out to a television director on Maria’s behalf, which she finds insulting. 

Later in October, Maria is again driving on the freeway. This time, she unconsciously drives toward Las Vegas. She realizes that she is close to where Carter is shooting in the desert with BZ and Helene. She fantasizes about calling Carter and being invited to join them. Instead, Maria realizes that if they spoke, their conversation would devolve into an argument as it always did. In touch with her true intentions, Maria gives up driving on the freeway.

BZ persuades Maria to go to another Hollywood party. When she arrives, she feels alienated: “Everywhere Maria looked she saw someone who registered on her only as a foreigner or a faggot or a gangster” (35).

At the party, BZ tries to persuade Maria to socialize with Larry Kulik, implying that he can get Maria work, Maria refuses to associate with Larry, who is courting an underage girl. The next morning Les calls Maria, and she cries, saying that he makes her happy.

Maria asks BZ if he “ever get[s] tired of doing favors for people” (39), meaning creating hookups for people like Larry. The question seems to hit home for BZ, and he responds, “You don’t know how tired” (39).

Carter returns home unexpectedly, and Maria carefully asks why is staying at the house because they have been “kind of separated” (40). Carter begins a passive-aggressive conversation, saying “If that’s the way you want it” (40), which confuses Maria about who initiated the separation. The narrator observes that Maria feels “like Ingrid Bergman in Gaslight” (40).

Carter changes the subject, asking Maria how many times she has tried to see Kate in the institution. When Maria replies that she has only been there a few times in the last few weeks, Carter replies that she has visited four times that week alone. Both he and the medical staff believe her visits are bad for Kate, although Maria does not understand why.

It is still October and Maria is at another party with BZ, Helene, and Carter. Carter is trying to read a script and is annoyed at the meaningless chatter around him. When Carter storms off angrily, Helene remarks: “‘Faggots make Carter nervous’” (46). BZ laughs at this comment.

Meanwhile, Maria becomes sick and tries to convince herself she is getting sunstroke from lying in the sun for too long. When she runs to the bathroom, she sees that “for the 51st day she was not bleeding” (46).