How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).
Quote #4
ED, PLAYED BY RIGGAN: What's the matter with me? Why do I always end up having to beg people to love me?
TERRI, PLAYED BY LESLEY: Eddie, please, give me the gun. Look at me, I was drowning. I'm just not capable of—you, you deserve to be loved, Eddie. You do.
ED, PLAYED BY RIGGAN: I just wanted to be what you wanted. Now I spend every f***ing minute praying to be somebody else, somebody I'm not. Anybody.
MEL, PLAYED BY MIKE: Okay, j-j-just put the gun down Ed. She just doesn't love you anymore.
ED, PLAYED BY RIGGAN: You don't, do you?
TERRI, PLAYED BY LESLEY: No.
ED, PLAYED BY RIGGAN: And you never will?
TERRI, PLAYED BY LESLEY: I'm sorry.
Those "me's" in the first line are italicized to show Ed's emphasis. We can see that this desperate act of violence, first against Lesley and Mel and then against himself, is selfishly motivated. It's people loving him that he's concerned about, not him loving Lesley.