Katherine Watson Look beyond the paint. Let us try to open our minds to a new idea.
Most-quoted character in Mona Lisa Smile (2003): in 12 of its 22 quotes
Most scenes with: Bill Dunbar (6), Betty Warren (3), Joan Brandwyn (2)
I thought that I was headed to a place that would turn out tomorrow's leaders, not their wives.
More lines from Katherine Watson
4 quotes Katherine Watson Katherine Watson I don't think I can go a year without a hot plate.
Katherine Watson This is all they're really doing here, isn't it? They're just biding time until SOMEBODY proposes!
Katherine Watson A girdle to set you free. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN!
Scenes with Katherine Watson
7 scenes
Don't disregard our traditions just because you're subversive.
Katherine Watson Don't disrespect this class just because you're married.
Don't disrespect me just because you're not.
Katherine Watson Come to class, do the work, or I'll fail you.
If you fail me, there will be consequences.
Katherine Watson Are you threatening me?
I'm educating you.
Katherine Watson That's my job.
It was my choice... not to go. He would have supported it.
Katherine Watson But you don't have to choose.
No, I have to. I want a home; I want a family, that's not something I'll sacrifice.
Katherine Watson No-one's asking you to sacrifice that, Joan, I just want you to understand you can do both.
Do you think I'll wake up one morning and regret not being a lawyer?
Katherine Watson Yes, I'm afraid that you will.
Not as much as I regret not having a family, not being there to raise them. I know exactly what I'm doing and it doesn't make me any less smart.
Katherine Watson I didn't say that.
Sure you did. You always do. You stand in class and tell us to look beyond the image, but you don't. To you a housewife is someone who sold her soul for a center hall colonial. She has no depth, no intellect, no interests. You're the one who said I could do anything I wanted. This is what I want.
Katherine Watson [hugs Joan]
Congratulations. Be happy.
[voiceover]
All her life, she had wanted to teach at Wellesley College. So, when a position opened in the Art History department, she pursued it single-mindedly until she was hired. It was whispered that Katherine Watson, a first-year teacher from Oakland State, made up in brains what she lacked in pedigree. Which was why this bohemian from California was on her way to the most conservative college in the nation.
Staunton's Secretary
I was in California once. How do you get any work done with all that sunshine?
Katherine Watson We tan in class.
Katherine Watson [about Betty's Wedding]
This is quite the event. I'm surprised I was invited.
Well, look around you. [beat] Who wasn't?
Katherine Watson: Slide. Contemporary art.
Now that's just an advertisement.
Katherine Watson Quiet! Today you just listen. What will the future scholars see when they study us? A portrait of woman today? There you are ladies. The perfect likeness of a Welesley graduate, Magna **** Laude doing exactly what she was trained to do. Slide. A Rhodes scholar. I wonder is she reciting Chaucer while she presses her husband's shirts. Slide. Heh, now you physics major's can calculate the mass and volume of every meat loaf you ever make. Slide. A girdle to set you free! What does that mean?... What does that mean?... What does it mean? I give up. You win. The smartest women in the country... I didn't realize that by demanding excellence I would be challenging... what did it say?
Katherine Watson [walks over to student's desk and picks up newspaper]
what did it say? um... the roles you were born to fill
Katherine Watson [looks up at Betty]
is that right? the roles you were born to fill?... It's, uh, it's my mistake.
Katherine Watson [drops paper and walks out of classroom]
Class dismissed.
Katherine Watson [Looking over Joan's file]
Pre-law? Well... have you decided which law school you're going to?
Well, I haven't really thought much about it. After Wellesley, I plan on getting married.
Katherine Watson And then what?
Ms. Watson, can you get me in touch with your friend at Greenwich Village?
Mrs. Warren
[rudely pulls her to the side]
What do you need at Greenwich Village?
[confronting her mother]
An apartment. I filed for divorce and since you know I'm not welcome in your house. You remember Giselle Levy. What did you call her? A New York ****, that's it. Well, she and I are going to be roommates.
Hi. [going to Betty] Are you ready?
Yeah.
Katherine Watson [Betty leaves with Giselle to reunite with Katherine. After watching them leave, Mrs. Warren regrets how she's mistreated Betty in refusing to help her out when she was facing marital problems with Spencer and even Giselle for insulting her.]
You ok. [Betty nods] Greenwich Village.
For a while. Then who knows, maybe law school. Maybe Yale.
Katherine Watson [proud of Betty]
Well, I wouldn't go up against you in any court, anywhere.
