Melinda Dillon: Sharon Anderson

Shattered Innocence

Sharon Anderson

Sharon: [after Pauleen moved away to Nora's] We should never have given her an ultimatum.
Del: What could we could, Sharon? Ground her? We don't have that power anymore.
Sharon: God only knows where she is and what she's doing.
Del: She's alright. It's, uh, it's a phase.
Sharon: Oh, Lord, it's not a phase. She's not putting glitter on her fingernails and dyeing her hair green; she's taking her clothes off. You can't dismiss that.
Del: I'm not trying to dismiss it; I'm trying to be realistic.
Sharon: Realistic? Driving her away is no more realistic than walking away.
Del: I did what I thought was right.
Sharon: I know you did.
Del: Then why try and make me feel guilty about it?
Sharon: [exhales] I'm sorry.
Del: [chuckles] I know Pauleen. She'll get homesick real fast.
Sharon: You want to talk realistic? Del, you don't know Pauleen. For the first ten years of her life, you were not home to get to know her.
[Del trys to answer]
Sharon: And then when you came home to work, you didn't get to know her - you were never around. She's still a little girl with stars in her eyes to you. But she's not; she's grown up and she's grown away, and she's stubborn when she gets an idea in her head. Nothing can shake it. She can find all kinds of justifications, even if she has to manufacture them. And that scares me, and that's your reality.

[Pauleen is enraged with her mother for not letting her see someone]
Sharon: Pauleen, now you got to understand something: these things you've done, they just don't disappear because you want them to. I mean, the pictures are still around, and even if they weren't, people don't forget so quickly.
Pauleen Anderson: [sobs] You mean you don't? You were embarrassed to be seen with me!
Sharon: That is not true!
Pauleen Anderson: Yes it is, and you know it! I'm an embarrassment to you, to this family, and this entire town!
[Pauleen runs off in tears]