CHAPTER 11

Creating the Character

Everyone has her own method of creating a character. Each actor develops a unique approach that works for her. Whatever your method, there are some elements that should remain universal to all approaches. Preparation work should always be preceded by some form of relaxation. Relaxation is a step that cannot be excluded; whether you have a few months to prepare a role or a few minutes to make a choice, the process should always begin with relaxation.

Tension, undiscovered and unreleased, will only cramp your impulse and cloud your judgment. Sometimes, all it takes is one breath and a second of concentration to investigate the tension and relinquish the impulse in the tension’s release. Regardless of the amount of time that you have to prepare—and sometimes, it’s precious little time—the relaxation process must be incorporated into every new choice. A systematic method of investigating the tension, finding it, and releasing it into the impulse will always yield a choice that can be used, either as it is offered to the director or changed through his direction.

Here are some suggestions that I have used for character preparation while in the process of shooting a film. This framework can be used for any character but is of particular use if you are playing a lead or supporting role that will occur throughout a film. I hope that you can take away some of my suggestions and develop them in ways that work for you.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

Movies are planned and shot around the availability of their locations, rather than in the order of the sequence of events as they occur in the screenplay. Most of the time, all scenes that take place in a given location will be shot on that location sequentially, regardless of their placement in the screenplay. For example, if the movie is centered around an interior location of an apartment where the main characters live, and there are many different exterior scenes that these characters go to throughout the movie, then all the apartment scenes will be shot in sequence, and the exterior shots will be shot when their locations can be secured.

A “secured location” is one that has been confirmed for the film crew to come in and shoot, with all necessary permits and equipment in order, for a particular date and time. Exterior locations are always subject to weather conditions and other unpredictable circumstances, so a location shooting date may change often and easily. It is not uncommon for you to show up one day expecting that one scene will be shot, only to find out that for unforeseen reasons that location could not be secured for that day and you will be shooting a completely different scene.

A famous actor’s schedule may be taken into consideration when planning a production, but this can only be done to a certain extent. It’s only the bigger-budget movies that can afford a big name actor to begin with and, furthermore, can wait for that actor to become available. Most productions do not have that privilege. Location and the technical needs of the script will reign supreme when planning a movie’s shooting schedule. The actor’s performance is rarely considered, simply because the actor, a human being, can be reasoned with, directed, cajoled, and convinced. This is not the case with camera equipment or the weather.

Everyone involved would like to start somewhere near the beginning of the script and work his way through to the end as much as possible. And it’s certainly true that no one is interested in sabotaging an actor’s performance, but the simple fact remains that films are expensive to make, and the technical needs of the picture take precedence over the actor’s needs. No matter how wonderful an actor’s performance is, if it is not photographed correctly and captured on film, it will not be seen. Therefore, the technical requirements and locations reign supreme in planning a filming schedule.

Actors need to realize what they are up against when making a film and take these priorities into consideration when preparing the character.

CHARACTER’S LOG

In order to prepare for the disjointed succession of time in a shooting schedule, I suggest making a special log of your character’s scenes in the order that they appear in the script. I would suggest using:

• A loose-leaf notebook, to add and subtract pages as needed.

• Scenes listed by number and slug line, in the order they appear in the script.

• Tabs to separate and identify each scene by number, so that you can easily find it.

This log should include not only the scenes where the script says that your character is present, but also the scenes where your character has no dialogue, but, by association with place, may appear in the shot. For instance, if you are the owner of a restaurant and many scenes take place in that restaurant, you may want to include these scenes in your log, because you may be a silent observer to the action of other characters’ scenes. A silent observer is not a still, unthinking object in the background. An observer in a film is often an active participant or witness.

If there is a party scene and your character is in attendance, there may be times when you are in the background, and although the script hasn’t given you anything to say or do, you should be prepared to have a relationship to your surroundings and to the people around you. You should also be clear about your relationship to the action portrayed in the scenes being performed by the characters that are given action and dialogue. These are just two examples of assuming your character’s presence in a scene through association with place. There are many others, and with little effort you will be able to identify them for yourself.

See your character as an inhabitant of the world in which the film takes place, a native, an active participant, not just an innocent bystander who every now and then steps into the spotlight when he or she has something to say.

OBSERVATIONS, THOUGHTS, AND JOURNAL NOTES

To create the world of the character, bring in aspects of your world that will help you. This could be any number of things, depending on what speaks to you the best. Notes from your research and observations should be included, as well as any other support material that inspires you. Include these things in the section that corresponds with the scene where this information might be helpful.

Keep a journal of your character preparations and include in your log the quotes that reveal vital information to you. An insight that you have while working can appear complete and clear in your mind, and in that moment, you know exactly what you want to do with it in your acting. But on the set, with exhaustion and the pressures of filming, this same insight might get lost or thrown by the wayside. Keep track of these insights and be sure to include them in your log. You only need a small portion of a greater discovery to bring it back fully to the forefront of your mind. In the journal, you can write it all full out; in the log, a sentence or two or a picture will bring it back to full recall.

As I looked back on my various logs, I found many notes that surprised me. I used to make collages from magazine sheets that would describe something I was going after in the character that I could not yet express in words or in acting choices. These images would clarify various overriding facets in the character’s life that inspired me. In some cases, when I had a more intimate relationship with the director, I would show her these collages as a sort of visual guide to bring about a further discussion of the character. Because the directors were more visually oriented than I was, they would often be able to understand the elements in my collages better than I did and offer some advice to realize these characters more fully. When I look at these collages now, they instantaneously bring back vital elements of the character I was working on at that time. The discoveries you make from playing one character will often do well for playing another, even though your application of them might be completely different.

Don’t leave out whatever inspires you on your journey deeper into the existence of the person you will play. To know a concrete usage of an inspiration is not as important as being inspired; the usage will make itself evident at a later time.

TIME LINE: CONTINUITY

Each scene section should have a time line for your character. If the information is given to you in the script, by all means use it, but many times it is not specifically given; you have to make it up from the given circumstances of the screenplay. In doing so, you are creating the life of the character when she is not seen in the script. You should note the following:

• The time of day.

• How much time has passed since we last saw the character?

• What do you think the character was doing when he or she was not on the screen?

• Where is the character coming from before the start of each scene? Pay particular attention to connecting scenes, like walking down the street or riding in buses or trains. These scenes may have no dialogue but show the character in transit. Prepare something for each of these circumstances.

• Always answer the questions:

• Where am I coming from?

• Where am I now?

• Where am I going?

• Remember that film scenes are always occurring in the present moment. The audience is seeing what is unfolding at a particular moment in time, and that moment is now.

ENTRANCES

Entrances into rooms or locations can pose special problems. When you enter a scene in a film, you start from a stationary fixed point and begin moving when “action” is called. Sometimes, there is a count or a cue that you enter upon. There is no wing space on a set; you are usually cramped between light stands, sandbags, and cable coils. Where you are coming from and the condition of your character must be immediately seen upon your entry. In some cases, this has to be practiced; you have no time to warm up into what you are going to do. You go from absolute stillness and inertia into the full moment.

Where you are coming from, as seen in the finished picture, might easily be a completely different location from where you are entering into, even though it will look like a continuous flow of time and place. This is where the character log comes in very handy. In order to make your character’s life appear continuous, you need to be at first intellectually aware of your character’s movement and then carry some form of preparation from the shooting of one scene into the shooting of the next. You do this regardless of how much time has passed between the shooting of the two scenes.

In the theater, this continuity is achieved through decisions made in rehearsal. It is solidified and improved upon by the continuity of each performance. In film, it is conceived, on one hand, by an elaborate engine of checks and balances of the film crew and postproduction team and, on the other hand, by the actor’s ability to create the illusion of a continuous life on the screen.

Some actors try and hold all of this information in their heads and seem to have no trouble doing so. I find this difficult and prefer to write it all down where I can quickly check on the information and then clear my concentration for the focus of acting the scene. Successful actors may have assistants who, along with other duties, assist them in keeping everything straight, but most actors have to take care of it themselves. If you are playing a small part, it isn’t difficult to remember a few bits of continuity information, but if your role is large, the amount of information can become enormous. It’s best not to rely on the person who is doing continuity or the other members of the crew whom you deal with; they have plenty of their own problems and will not have time to help you deal with yours.

PLACE

Once you have made a concerted effort to position your character in time, you can start to work on place. Go through each scene and see if you feel you need an imaginary parallel place for that scene. Many times you won’t because the actions are so simple, but many times you may be called upon to exhibit very large and specific emotions and reactions to a place. In these instances, some solid preparation may be a good idea. For instance, any scene that involves fear, apprehension, looking for something, or surprise may require a place preparation. Any scene that is supposed to be taking place in a dark or shadowy location should definitely be prepared. Darkness doesn’t exist in filmmaking; it only looks like that on the screen. Film, and even its modern cousin, digital video, require light. Where there is light there is a picture; where there is no light there is no picture; it’s as simple as that. If the script says that you’re walking down a dark, deserted alley at night, rest assured there will be enormous floodlights on you and the crew. You will have to reach into your own dark, deserted places and come up with one that you can project in the space around you. This is accomplished through the creation of a place sense memory. Sight and sound are the obvious choices here, but whichever of your senses brings back a place for you is the one you use. Each acting instrument is unique; each actor finds the way to interact best with his or her imaginary objects.

Another scenario where place should be used is if the actor is required to tell a story from memory and the script will edit back and forth between the flashback and the actor narrating the story. In this case, the actor is a guide who leads the audience through the transition of seeing into her memory. It is a popular device in screenplays, and not such an easy one to accomplish from an acting point of view. We do this type of thing in life all the time and are often taken by surprise at the fullness of the emotional recall when recounting a memory. There are events in our past that we won’t speak of because the recall is all too painful and too real. Recalling an experience of great happiness can produce unexpected responses of yearning for good times long gone. Observe what the nature of such an experience is in preparation for such a scene. The memory is easier to create if you have sensual recall happening in the moment when you are speaking.

You should thoroughly explore the intricacies of this emotional landscape in your preparation time before you attempt to use sense memory as a character element on a set. Journal work, for yourself and then for your character, is a good idea. Writing in a journal as the character while in the midst of a sense memory can be very useful in creating the character’s inner life and history.

Go through the script and make sure you know where each scene takes place and give some thought to the nature of each place and what behavior occurs there in everyday life. Make choices. Don’t be a character drifting in space somewhere. Be as specific as possible; try and unlock the frozen assets of each location.

THE SENSUAL CHARACTER

Sensualize the world around the scene. Take note of all sensory elements that are mentioned in the script specifically and work on these elements either separately or within the context of the scene.

Check each scene for any mention of the five senses. We know what they are, but be hyperaware of them now. This would include elements of the environment, like heat and cold, as well as conditions of the body, like drunkenness or fatigue. If the scene takes place in a garden, take time to smell the roses. If your character has a hangover, be aware of what that condition does to you and modify it for the character. In the previous chapters, many of the senses were specifically discussed, and exercises were given to enhance these senses in an acting context. Now you must take what is useful from those exercises and modify it for the context of the scene and the conditions of the character. Your log should contain any sense memory keys that you may want to incorporate into the scene.

CREATING RELATIONSHIP

When you rehearse a play, your relationship to the other characters is developed through the time and discoveries in the rehearsals. Films are rarely rehearsed; therefore, each actor has to create relationship with the environment and the other characters through her imagination. Just because you don’t have a scene with another character doesn’t mean that you don’t have a relationship to him. Relationships can be formed quickly on a film set, but you have to have given it some thought beforehand.

Ask yourself—what is the relationship? There are the obvious ones, the primal ones of mother and father, sister and brother, etc. There are the professional ones: teacher and student, boss and employee, policemen and civilian, etc. Extend your thinking of relationship beyond that. Question yourself about how you feel about the other people who inhabit the world created by the script and what is your place among them.

Some roles imply social position, but some don’t; you have to surmise it. Every character is situated within a hierarchy of a social order. What your character’s position is and how you feel about it affects all of your actions. There is no such thing as a character who has no relationships; there is always a choice involved. The more conscious you are of your character’s choices, the easier it will be to realize her as a living human being.

The decisions you make about your relationship to the other characters should be included in the notes of your log. Remember that decisions are not written in stone and that posing a question that is not yet answerable is also a form of decision making. Always permit yourself to be persuaded or convinced, just like you are in life.

NEEDS AND ACTIONS

Let’s not forget all of the other acting axioms, such as finding the needs and actions of the character. When you find the action of the character, you have a motor that will drive the car through the scene. Film acting is still acting, even though it’s done in disjointed little segments that finally make up the whole. Directors will often speak in terms of needs and actions of the character, or even of a scene. If you have identified what you would like to accomplish in your preparation time, you will have the ammunition to fulfill the requirements of your direction.

Many directors know quite a bit about acting technique, but they cannot be acting teachers on the set; it’s too late for that. You, the actor, must be loaded with the ammunition of your talent and preparation. The director, like a general on the battlefield, simply tells you when and where to fire.

The actions and the needs of the character should be noted for each scene. Make the sentences short, to the point, and include an active verb. This way, on the set, you can look at your notes and quickly remember what you wanted to do.

The character log is a way of putting all the work together in one ordered place. You have a log of your character’s journey that you can refer to on the set. You have a continuity of time and place, regardless of the order in which the scenes will be shot.

Be as creative and individual with your log as possible. Keep it simple and direct, so that the useful aspects of the log are clear and easy to find. It is your own personal blueprint for the building of your character, a professional tool of inspiration, and a compass in times of confusion and indecision.