Chris Gore, Founder/Owner of FilmThreat/Author/Filmmaker: What are we going
to do, go through every single ethnicity, gender,
sexuality and remake all the stories with characters that fit every single check box?
Film Courage:
How important is it for audiences to see themselves in the characters they see on screen?
Chris: How important is it for audiences to see themselves?
I think they should see themselves in whoever the protagonist is but I think the thing that people
confuse is that person should look like you. I there are so many times I've seen movies where I
identified with a character who wasn't my age wasn't my gender wasn't my ethnicity and
I think we live at a time now where people are so narcissistic they look at movies like video games
when whereas in a video game you can actually design for many games design a character that
looks like you that looks almost exactly like you for certain video games for movies I think what
people are talking about is representation I think I do believe that representation
is something that is important it's it's important to have different types of people represented
within a story where possible but if you are only capable of identifying with a character who looks
mostly like you I would say that you're a narcissist and I think that you you would benefit
greatly from identifying with characters who don't look like you and quite frankly
I tend to gravitate towards stories where I mean look I spend all day with myself I don't want
a story about me i'd like to see a story about a character that takes me to a different place
that is experiencing different challenges in life that I may never have faced so that I can
safely experience that story through through them
and they don't have to look like me I think that there's been an over emphasis put on that that
there needs to be characters that look just like you well what are we gonna do go through
every single, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and remake all the stories with characters
that fit every single checkbox I think that just gets exhausting I think it gets exhausting and I
really actually tend to gravitate towards stories in particular world cinema I grew up watching a
lot of asian cinema as a kid and I loved it it was an opportunity to explore another culture you're
going to think this is crazy but I saw a movie called Godzilla's Revenge when I was a kid
and I Godzilla's in the movie and is a hero to a young boy and he has these fantasies in his head
about Godzilla and befriending Godzilla's son Minilla and within that story with this little
child which is around the same age as me but not the same ethnicity he was Japanese and but
it was interesting to see how he he ate you know these different experiences in the culture were
very different and I found that just really fun I connected it with him because he was my same age
it really mattered very little to me that I looked like the the kid in that movie
so I think you're missing a huge opportunity to experience the world differently through someone
else's eyes I think that's the whole and I've said this before it's the purpose of all fiction
comic books movies video games novels to see the world through the eyes of someone else
and and movies give us an opportunity to do that and if you're
wholly obsessed with a character's got to be like you go play a video game design a character that
looks just like you and go play that video game but you're missing an opportunity certainly when
it comes to comes to movies is there a healthy aspect of narcissism in cinema I mean imagine
you go through life never seeing yourself in a film or never seeing yourself in magazines and
then finally now you're seeing people that look like you that have gone through the same thing
yeah now here here's here's a caveat to that I would say that it's I think it is important to
have different types of people represented but help me to identify with that person
with their plight their story their challenges their struggles I think this
it's it's a challenge I would lay out there to independent filmmakers right
have an audience identify with a character that where the majority of people will identify with
someone who isn't them tell their story I get involved in the story and the challenges
for that character I don't necessarily tend to focus so much on on who the person is from their
outward traits right I mean one of my heroes growing up was the character Ripley from Alien
that one is brought up quite a bit Sigourney Weaver is so great I mean even even in the
even in the episodes or the the the sequels in the Alien movies that are not that great
she's always great Sigourney Weaver always seems to deliver and I saw that when I was a kid
wasn't her age wasn't I was not a woman and like I still identified with her mainly because
I thought she was the smartest person the other thing people forget about the first alien movie
I mean there's a book about this save the cat right she went back and saved Jonesy the cat
and I think that that that was one of the things that and this happens late in the movie
right so obviously she has a relationship with this cat Jonesy and identified with that because
what I have a cat at the time I had a cat I pretty much have always had cats so or it just
I think that that's an easy way to identify what is self-insert a self-insert in a movie is when
someone will literally take themselves and just make them the hero of the story
and I find that to be kind of off-putting we we've seen it happen it happens it's happening
now with more frequency where you see you you see a move and you're like okay well that's
interesting who that person is and then when you find out the backgrounds of the creators
it tends to just be almost exactly like them down to even some physical attributes and I'll say that
many are guilty of this if you look at the work of works of say David Cronenberg or even David Lynch,
Kyle McLaughlin is pretty much a self-insert for for David Lynch kind of wide-eyed about the world
and if you compare their haircuts at the time they pretty much had the same hair same thing with
same same thing with David Cronenberg right? I mean when he used
Jeremy Irons in was it dead ringers he I mean it looks like David Cronenberg let's be honest
right so you see when filmmakers do this sometimes I think they do it subconsciously
but you're seeing I think it more and more and it can be used to good effect and I mean George Lucas
named the lead character of his Star Wars saga Luke kind of after himself Luke Lucas
that could be argued so self-insert I think as long as you're aware can work I think when it's
done almost to an exacting point I don't know that it that it succeeds every time what if we just own
our narcissism and say okay I like to see myself on screen like that well I think the very act of
thinking that someone would be interested in a story that you thought up in your brain is kind
of narcissistic to begin with to think well I have this idea in my head i'm gonna make a film
write a film make a film produce a film direct to film whatever part of the process you exist in i'm
gonna do that and then you're gonna give me money to see this story yeah that I mean look you have
to have sort of a healthy level of narcissism but I think that needs to be balanced with
self-awareness I think it's absolutely critical that you have a profound self-awareness to be
able to balance that narcissism and just keep it so it's it's not the thing that dominates I mean
one thing I would if I could throw some couple tips out to writers one keep a blazer in your car
wherever you go you never know where you're gonna be where throwing on a blazer whether
it's a casual one like I have now or whatever you just throw it even over a t-shirt it immediately
sort of ups your game right some level of upscale casual the other thing is I never
go anywhere without carrying notebooks right so I always have a tiny notebook
very tiny that fits in the back of my pocket and I'll carry this notebook around and I'll jot down
ideas and it's better than yeah I know we want to use the notes function in your phone no this
is better there's something about sitting there with a pen and I always carry a pen the space pen
the space pen is in my pocket currently oh great okay but this goes in my back pocket and then the
problem is I believe leading a creative life where there are financial concerns you have to
balance two things one is obviously being able to be creative the second thing is being successful
from a business standpoint and that's why you need a notebook that's a little thicker probably like
this and I hate to tell you this you're gonna spend your creative time probably like this and
your business time in order to succeed in the film industry a little more like this notebook this is
like a a moleskin and I think completely describes my sentiments for dealing with that aspect of the
industry and where does everybody's narcissism fit into that so they've got their blazer they've
got the two books the small one for creativity the large one for business but then we're all
narcissist in one way or another where how do we balance that you you balance that with being
humble so that you keep that narcissism in check but be bold right and and that comes with asking
questions it comes with relating to people and not by text and not by social media posts
I mean actually talking to people and I and especially when I meet young filmmakers today they
I just see that they haven't learned all the lessons and they're maybe out of balance
and the thing I see most often is just relating to people one-on-one face-to-face
so throw on a blazer or something upscale casual that you feel comfortable in that represents you
and how you feel about yourself and and and go out there and
ask questions and don't be afraid don't be afraid to say hello don't be afraid to say hi
don't be afraid to say hi if you run into me I'll probably say hi back and and we may get no
conversations probably because if if you meet me in person you even know who the heck I am
we probably are into the same things movies is a great place to connect with anybody because who
who doesn't like movies why are you why are you watching me why are you watching this channel
yeah I've had some great conversations with total strangers after movies and it's great I
know I've said this before but it's it's movies are a way to have a conversation about anything
anything in life so be fearless about having those conversations and keep your narcissism in check
I'll say just like when it comes to people I've met in the industry people at the highest levels
i'm talking about major celebrities superstars are the most humble people I've ever met and then
it's generally the people that are sort of trying to claw their way to the top that
that you see are kind of having that that that struggle with their own ego.
What are your thoughts?