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[MUSIC PLAYING]
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It's absolutely critical in
any film to have a character
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that you're willing to
go on the journey with.
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And people use the term a
fully-realized character.
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But I think it's important
to understand that film
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is a very stylized art form.
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It it's not capable of the kind
of novelistic detail of a 600
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or 1,000-page novel.
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So you're never going
to know everything
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about that character.
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You have to fill in
the blanks with bits
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and pieces of your own life,
and those of your friends,
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and so on.
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So how do you do all that?
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Well, you have to find
little, universal things
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that you can relate
to from one's life,
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as an audience member,
and have the character do
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something or do things
that you recognize.
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You can set huge
challenges for yourself
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if it's a nonverbal character.
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And you're putting
so much on the actor
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to express with their
eyes, with their face,
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with their yearning
expression, or whatever it is.
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But every character is a
creation that exists between
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the screenplay-- the
imagined character--
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which is still out of focus,
we don't apply a face yet,
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and then the director's
imagination of what
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that can be on the screen.
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And then the actor fills in the
final and, ultimately, the most
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important piece, what does
this person look like?
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How do they move?
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How do they speak?
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So a character is really
never more than a sketch.
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But it has to be a
very compelling sketch.
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Giving an average person, a
relatable, average person,
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an enormous problem
and seeing how
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they solve that problem
or process that problem
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is a good way to get buy-in.
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You basically want the audience
to buy into the narrative.
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And they usually buy
into the narrative
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through the characters.
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It's key in the way that
you introduce a character
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to understand where they are
in their life, what they're
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feeling, and what
their problem is.
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Any character that you're going
to follow has got a problem.
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And that problem needs to
be declared fairly early on.
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Sometimes you can do it
in the very first scene.
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And then the whole movie should
ultimately be about somehow
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that problem gets addressed,
gets resolved, or at least
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we understand that
it's the thing that
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drove that character into
whatever situation evolves.
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And the problem may
escalate as well.
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But I do believe in the kind
of principle of character
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is destiny.
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That character winds up in a
situation of their own creation
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in some way.
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And it's somehow related to
them solving their problem,
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whatever their problem might be.
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It might be that
nobody sees them,
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that they're kind of invisible
to the people around them,
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that they haven't
found who they are
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yet or a way of expressing it.
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It may be that they don't have
love, or that they've lost love
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and are now incapable
of opening themselves
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to a new relationship.
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Whatever the
character's problem is,
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you need to define it early on.
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And you need to do it in
an interesting way where
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the audience can
sympathize because we
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have this capacity for
empathy and for understanding
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other people.
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It's innate to who we
are as human beings.
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So you introduce a character.
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And then we somehow
relate to that character.
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Even if that character
is Frankenstein's monster
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and the story is told from the
perspective of the monster,
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we must somehow find a
way, a sense of empathy.
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The film must create that in us,
an interest in that character.
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I think it's about
expressing something
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that the audience can relate to
and you care about the outcome.
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Or at the very least,
you care about seeing
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what this person
is going to do next
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and what they're what's
around the corner for them.
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In the case of "The
Terminator," the initial idea
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was that there was an
entity sent from the future
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to kill somebody in the past
whose life had great meaning.
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I pretty quickly went
to a female character
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whose son, in the future, will
become a great sort of prophet,
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so basically a kind of
Virgin Mary character,
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because that's an archetype
that we all get quite quickly.
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And she was, in the biblical
story, of very humble origins,
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basically a kind of a peasant.
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Her husband was a
tradesman, a carpenter.
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So I said, all right, a
waitress, a very common job,
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a very dismissible person.
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I wanted the most dismissable
person you could imagine.
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It could have been a secretary.
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It could have been a
waitress, somebody like that.
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It like, they
couldn't possibly be
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an important,
earth-shaking existence.
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And I thought that's
good because that's
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how most people feel.
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Most people going
to a movie theater
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are not presidents, or
heads of major corporations,
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or big, important people.
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They're average people.
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And they could,
I thought, invest
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in the idea of an average person
who is suddenly snatched out
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of their daily
existence and finds out
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that their life has great
meaning in another framework,
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in another frame of reference,
which the film supplies.
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And all of a sudden, not only
is she fighting for her life,
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but she's fighting for the
future of the entire world.
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She becomes the most
important person
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in the world for a
moment in history.
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So now I'm telling the story
from a female perspective.
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So now I have to draw
upon all the women
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that I've ever known
in my life and/or read
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about in anything from comic
books, to novels, to the news.
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Now, it just so happens that
just before I wrote that,
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I was married to a
Bob's Big Boy waitress.
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So I went, Bob's Big
Boy waitress, perfect.
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Write what you know.
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So I basically wrote my
first wife, which was plucky,
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a lot of humor, kind of
cynical, but likable.
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And so, boom, there's
your character.
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Now put that character in an
extraordinary circumstance.
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And I think what
I would advise is
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that people be kind of authentic
to their own life experience,
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but not to the extent that
you're literally just telling
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your own life story.
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I happen to enjoy writing
female characters.
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That's controversial now.
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There are people
that say, oh, well,
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female characters and films
about female characters
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should be directed
by women and they
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should be written by women.
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It's like, okay,
so I can only write
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paunchy, middle-aged
Canadian white guys?
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I don't think that's
how art works.
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The whole point of acting, the
whole point of storytelling,
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I think, is to live
outside yourself.
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But you have to do it
with some connection
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to your own personal experience.
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You have to make it personal.
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But that shouldn't prevent you
from writing a character that
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is not like you.
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How am I going to introduce
my main characters?
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And how am I going to
do that in a way that
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is the quintessence
of that character?
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What is the quintessence
of that character?
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And how can I encapsulate
that in a kind
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of almost a synecdoche.
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A synecdoche is-- if
I get this right--
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it's like if you
call somebody a suit.
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You're using the
suit as a stand-in
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for an entire
description of them
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as a corporate
executive or whatever.
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It's basically taking a
person or reducing them
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to a single object or principle.
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But you want a kind of creative
synecdoche of your character
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when that character's
introduced.
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So I think that there are
interesting ways to do that.
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Colonel Quaritch in "Avatar,"
he was a military guy.
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He was very formal.
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And he was in a position
of command and authority.
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And he was introduced with the
image of his military boots
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on a steel floor.
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We hear the creak
of the leather.
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We hear his voice.
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He was a very verbal character
and he carried a lot of power
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in his voice.
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We see his pistol.
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We see his broad shoulders.
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We see the back of his
tightly-clipped Marine Corps
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haircut.
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And we think we
know who the guy is.
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And then he turns to us and
he's got these massive scars.
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And he delivers a
line on that turn.
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Wants to kill you and
eat your eyes for jujubes.
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I was reasonably pleased
with that as a as a character
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introduction because,
once again, he
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was reduced to that synecdoche
of his greater character.
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He was also a character that
didn't exist in shades of gray,
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kind of to a fault. He was,
what you see is what you get.
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And there wasn't a lot of
nuance to his character.
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There was just a lot
of flourish in creating
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that relatively simplistic
character, which
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is another way to go.
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I use the Darth Vader example.
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Darth Vader didn't
have a lot of shades
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of gray in the first movie.
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But there was some
subtlety that was
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brought into it later,
obviously, which
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was interesting then.
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But he was kind of archetypal.
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And that was okay
because it was just
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do the archetype really, really
well and in a new creative way.
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You also look
forward to the moment
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where that main character
meets that main character.
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So that moment of introduction
is also very important.
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So when you went to
Titanic, and you probably
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knew from the poster,
at least, that there
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was going to be a girl
and going to be a guy.
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And if you knew more about
the film, that there was Rose,
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and there was Jack, and
Leonardo, and Kate Winslet.
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Well, how are they
going to meet?
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Are they going to meet cute?
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Which is the sort of classic
screenwriter term for,
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do they get in a car crash,
and have a big argument,
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and then realize they
actually like each other?
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And there are infinite
number of variations of that.
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And people generally look
forward to that moment
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when the characters collide.
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In "Terminator" it was
interesting, structurally,
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because it was
the end of act one
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was the three main
characters meeting.
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And they met in a violent
life-or-death confrontation.
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But we had been following them
as individual story streams
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for an entire act, and literally
just jumping back and forth
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between three plot lines,
and watching these plot lines
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slowly converging to a
point in space and time
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where everything exploded.
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[SHOTGUN BLASTING]
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And that turned out to be a
powerful storytelling method.
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00:11:25,370 --> 00:11:27,380
There's a stylistic
cinematic relish
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in how you introduce
Character A and Character B.
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And then you look forward
to the inevitable moment
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where Character A meets
Character B, interacts
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00:11:36,080 --> 00:11:40,390
with Character B. And then
you, I think, as a filmmaker,
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as a screenwriter, you
have fun with that.
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00:11:42,140 --> 00:11:44,610
And as actors, you
have fun with that.
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And typically, where the
characters are going to wind up
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is not where they are initially.
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There's the classic sort of,
you get two characters together
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that you know are going
to be together later
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and you create conflict.
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And there's an art to
that because the audience
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can smell that a mile away if
that conflict feels forced,
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00:12:08,850 --> 00:12:11,250
like the screenwriter
really needed them to fight.
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00:12:11,250 --> 00:12:12,917
So put a lot of
obstacles in their path.
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00:12:12,917 --> 00:12:14,542
And if it doesn't
feel authentic and it
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00:12:14,542 --> 00:12:16,170
doesn't feel natural
to the situation,
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it feels overblown, the audience
goes, yeah, predictable,
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I knew that.
246
00:12:25,700 --> 00:12:28,265
If you're doing a character
from a certain period,
247
00:12:28,265 --> 00:12:31,820
a historical period or a
certain specific situation
248
00:12:31,820 --> 00:12:35,930
that you're dramatizing,
do your research.
249
00:12:35,930 --> 00:12:39,065
Learn everything you
can about that world.
250
00:12:39,065 --> 00:12:40,940
And if it was a real
person, learn everything
251
00:12:40,940 --> 00:12:42,670
you can about that person.
252
00:12:42,670 --> 00:12:45,830
Ask yourself what
was really going on.
253
00:12:45,830 --> 00:12:48,650
Because we can't even
get the facts right
254
00:12:48,650 --> 00:12:53,740
in a news story about something
that happened the day before.
255
00:12:53,740 --> 00:12:57,580
And different outlets
will argue with each other
256
00:12:57,580 --> 00:13:00,430
over what actually
happened and what it means.
257
00:13:00,430 --> 00:13:04,060
Now imagine history
as a distillation
258
00:13:04,060 --> 00:13:08,560
of a little bit of coming down
to us of, basically, a bunch
259
00:13:08,560 --> 00:13:10,600
of news stories from back then.
260
00:13:10,600 --> 00:13:12,160
How much can we trust that?
261
00:13:12,160 --> 00:13:17,080
So as you go into history--
and I found this on "Titanic"--
262
00:13:17,080 --> 00:13:19,267
you have to ask yourself
questions about like,
263
00:13:19,267 --> 00:13:20,350
what was really happening?
264
00:13:20,350 --> 00:13:22,190
Who was really doing
what to who here?
265
00:13:22,190 --> 00:13:23,590
So you got to do your research.
266
00:13:23,590 --> 00:13:25,090
You got to understand
the character,
267
00:13:25,090 --> 00:13:28,150
if it was a real historical
person, really understand them.
268
00:13:28,150 --> 00:13:32,290
If it's a made-up person in
a real historical setting,
269
00:13:32,290 --> 00:13:36,290
what would the forces be
at work on that character?
270
00:13:36,290 --> 00:13:38,800
What would expectations
of them be?
271
00:13:38,800 --> 00:13:41,440
How is this character unique?
272
00:13:41,440 --> 00:13:44,530
What makes this
character interesting?
273
00:13:44,530 --> 00:13:46,750
It's relatively
easy, in a sense,
274
00:13:46,750 --> 00:13:52,570
to write outstanding women
outside of the present time
275
00:13:52,570 --> 00:13:58,750
because they were always
misunderstood and dismissed.
276
00:13:58,750 --> 00:14:01,505
And audiences hate
it when they're
277
00:14:01,505 --> 00:14:03,880
investing in a character and
that character is dismissed,
278
00:14:03,880 --> 00:14:07,840
or misunderstood, or
judged harshly, or not
279
00:14:07,840 --> 00:14:10,270
seen for how great they are.
280
00:14:10,270 --> 00:14:14,740
So these are all techniques
for getting your character
281
00:14:14,740 --> 00:14:16,240
to be interesting.
282
00:14:22,800 --> 00:14:25,890
Ultimately, what's important
is that your characters
283
00:14:25,890 --> 00:14:28,580
come to life in your mind.
284
00:14:28,580 --> 00:14:31,430
And then they're going to
come to life again when
285
00:14:31,430 --> 00:14:32,690
you cast the film.
286
00:14:32,690 --> 00:14:34,370
How you imagine
that character is
287
00:14:34,370 --> 00:14:38,040
going to find its final
expression through a living,
288
00:14:38,040 --> 00:14:42,650
breathing human being who has
a look, has a physiognomy,
289
00:14:42,650 --> 00:14:44,270
and has a skill set.
290
00:14:44,270 --> 00:14:48,740
And they are going to
change that character.
291
00:14:48,740 --> 00:14:54,830
The key to it is to get
the actor to a safe place
292
00:14:54,830 --> 00:15:00,470
where they can explore and
they can feel empowered to go
293
00:15:00,470 --> 00:15:02,930
as far as they feel like going.
294
00:15:02,930 --> 00:15:04,430
Maybe later in the
cutting room, you
295
00:15:04,430 --> 00:15:06,097
say that might be a
little bit too much.
296
00:15:06,097 --> 00:15:10,040
Or maybe on the set, your
own instinct kicks in
297
00:15:10,040 --> 00:15:15,890
and you say, you know,
maybe let's try muting that.
298
00:15:15,890 --> 00:15:21,207
And let me feel that that crazy
energy is going on in your mind
299
00:15:21,207 --> 00:15:22,790
but there's something
holding you back
300
00:15:22,790 --> 00:15:25,080
from saying it quite that way.
301
00:15:25,080 --> 00:15:27,950
And let's feel that tension.
302
00:15:27,950 --> 00:15:30,080
I mean, after a
while I think one
303
00:15:30,080 --> 00:15:34,370
learns to speak a language
that actors can hear.
304
00:15:34,370 --> 00:15:36,620
Because I think the most
sacred part of the job,
305
00:15:36,620 --> 00:15:43,120
ultimately, is to help the
actor achieve their best work.
306
00:15:43,120 --> 00:15:48,620
I like to have done rehearsal so
that we can talk through ideas,
307
00:15:48,620 --> 00:15:50,720
not lock them in,
but stand them up.
308
00:15:50,720 --> 00:15:51,700
Try it, workshop.
309
00:15:51,700 --> 00:15:55,880
But I think of it more as sort
of work-shopping the script.
310
00:15:55,880 --> 00:15:59,480
And often I'll find the
dialogue shakes out.
311
00:15:59,480 --> 00:16:01,370
Because I'll say,
all right, just
312
00:16:01,370 --> 00:16:03,440
forget about the written word.
313
00:16:03,440 --> 00:16:05,060
Forget about the page.
314
00:16:05,060 --> 00:16:07,243
Just improv the scene.
315
00:16:07,243 --> 00:16:08,660
This was very
helpful in "Titanic"
316
00:16:08,660 --> 00:16:10,910
because some of the
language was a bit stilted
317
00:16:10,910 --> 00:16:12,650
because it was of its period.
318
00:16:12,650 --> 00:16:14,540
And I wanted these
two young actors
319
00:16:14,540 --> 00:16:16,970
to get a sense for,
well, just play
320
00:16:16,970 --> 00:16:20,390
the scene the way you'd play
it now in your current idiom,
321
00:16:20,390 --> 00:16:21,910
the way you would speak.
322
00:16:21,910 --> 00:16:24,620
And so they just played it
as themselves, essentially.
323
00:16:24,620 --> 00:16:27,793
I mean, the sort of halfway
between the character
324
00:16:27,793 --> 00:16:29,210
was the character,
but interpreted
325
00:16:29,210 --> 00:16:31,790
through contemporary language.
326
00:16:31,790 --> 00:16:34,490
And some interesting
ideas came out of that.
327
00:16:34,490 --> 00:16:37,557
An interesting dynamic
came out of it.
328
00:16:37,557 --> 00:16:39,140
I said, all right,
I'm going to go off
329
00:16:39,140 --> 00:16:41,060
and I'm going to
rewrite the scene.
330
00:16:41,060 --> 00:16:44,630
And I'm going to put it
into the idiom of the time.
331
00:16:44,630 --> 00:16:46,340
But it'll be these ideas.
332
00:16:46,340 --> 00:16:49,070
It'll be these things that
we discovered in rehearsal.
333
00:16:49,070 --> 00:16:51,230
I mean, a really good
example that I think really
334
00:16:51,230 --> 00:16:54,420
added value to a particular
scene in "Titanic,"
335
00:16:54,420 --> 00:16:58,820
we were rehearsing the scene
where Cal, her fiancee,
336
00:16:58,820 --> 00:17:02,150
grabs her arm and tries to
drag her aboard the lifeboat,
337
00:17:02,150 --> 00:17:06,050
tries to control her, not
listen to her, as usual.
338
00:17:06,050 --> 00:17:08,390
And the way I had
written it, she
339
00:17:08,390 --> 00:17:11,510
pulls a hatpin out of her hair
and sticks him in the arm,
340
00:17:11,510 --> 00:17:13,520
forcing him to release her.
341
00:17:13,520 --> 00:17:17,000
And she runs away
into the crowd.
342
00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:20,150
But then we were
talking about the hatpin
343
00:17:20,150 --> 00:17:25,119
and Kate said, well, why
don't I just spit in his face?
344
00:17:25,119 --> 00:17:26,467
And it was so brilliant.
345
00:17:26,467 --> 00:17:28,300
I don't even think she
realized how great it
346
00:17:28,300 --> 00:17:32,080
was because it was a callback
to a previous scene, the scene
347
00:17:32,080 --> 00:17:34,450
in the film where Jack--
348
00:17:34,450 --> 00:17:38,820
Leonardo's character-- teaches
her how to spit like a man.
349
00:17:38,820 --> 00:17:41,020
So it was a perfect
closure of the ellipse.
350
00:17:41,020 --> 00:17:43,810
It was something Jack
taught her how to do.
351
00:17:43,810 --> 00:17:47,110
And she used it in
that moment to break,
352
00:17:47,110 --> 00:17:52,210
to end the relationship, or at
least she thought so, with Cal.
353
00:17:52,210 --> 00:17:54,320
Where are you going?
354
00:17:54,320 --> 00:17:56,350
What, to him?
355
00:17:56,350 --> 00:17:59,140
To be a whore to a gutter rat?
356
00:17:59,140 --> 00:18:01,090
I'd rather be his
whore than your wife.
357
00:18:05,080 --> 00:18:06,910
No.
358
00:18:06,910 --> 00:18:09,175
I said no.
359
00:18:09,175 --> 00:18:13,360
WOMAN: Rose, please stop.
360
00:18:13,360 --> 00:18:14,150
It was perfect.
361
00:18:14,150 --> 00:18:17,820
It was like it was like a
moment a writer would go aha,
362
00:18:17,820 --> 00:18:19,300
this is great.
363
00:18:19,300 --> 00:18:20,840
I've solved the problem.
364
00:18:20,840 --> 00:18:22,500
And she solved it.
365
00:18:22,500 --> 00:18:23,500
So that's how we did it.
366
00:18:23,500 --> 00:18:25,540
Now, poor Billy Zane
didn't particularly
367
00:18:25,540 --> 00:18:29,005
like having a big old loogie
shot into his face 50 times.
368
00:18:29,005 --> 00:18:30,880
By the time we were done
shooting that scene,
369
00:18:30,880 --> 00:18:32,680
he was well over the idea.
370
00:18:32,680 --> 00:18:36,630
But I think it turned
out to be a nice moment.
30215
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