Film Courage: What mistakes do writers make when writing characters?
Robert Rippberger, Filmmaker: I think the mistakes that writers make when writing characters is that
everybody kind of sounds like themselves or just sounds too flat or that they put too much of the
characterization into the description and that's ultimately just a tiny tiny sliver of it
that comes so much from the dialogue and how they interact with people and what they say in response
to a line if somebody says how is your day and then they completely take it off topic or they
they fire back at them or it's it's it's the way in which these interactions happen and I think
ultimately film is about representing vitality and representing life and so characters too should be
as engaging as possible and as fired up as possible and I think sometimes
sometimes it's maybe playing it a little bit too safe with with certain characters and
and having the freedom to really really go out there and really really be bold
are there certain screenwriters who you love their dialogue whether it's understated or or even
like an Aaron Sorkin where it's so there's such a performance from each line it's great to listen to
certainly Aaron Sorkin is that I mean when anybody talks about dialogue it's hard to hard to not just
zero in on him and what's phenomenal about him is how the exposition can roll on and on and on but
you're still there right and he also is so great at non-sequiturs and then sort of bringing it back
home about why this particular story was important or why this was said and the nuance to language
that he brings with with different characters of why they say certain things and how it's crafted
is is really I think something to to be admired and studied what questions should a writer be
asking themselves about their characters while they're writing it I think the one chief question
writers should be asking themselves constantly is is this true to life is this
somebody I know is this what is the is this reality and then if if there is another question
it's is this somebody I would want to spend time with for an hour and a half in a theater
it's and it could also be there's so many ways to answer that it could be like well
they're they're kind of a dumpster fire but that could be entertaining like
but but then also weaving that it you always have to for me you always have to look at it in the
in sort of the gestalt of how does it how does it interact with these other parts so
you obviously don't want to have somebody who's a complete villain as you're trying to
trying to get audiences to empathize or tell a story about about somebody who's a hero right
those things just won't match so it's also what's the what's the intention with this character
and then is it somebody you would want to spend time with and are they a real person that that
you could point to in the world right he's a young adult she she was sort of a dumpster
fire for a while in the movie and fascinating journey to be on that and same Leaving Las Vegas
so yeah there's there's some that are fascinating to watch and yeah there's others that are painful
to watch and it's like this is maybe a little too much yeah I mean I think the reason we're
drawn to those types of characters is like often the light is shining brightest before it goes out
and and those are people really on the brink who are struggling to
to struggling with their their own inner demons and so their behavior is is just bombastic and
and yeah it's it's certainly certainly something to watch how do you find out what a character
wants I think in looking what a character wants it's a really tricky question and as a director
I always will do that with the actors because we need to be in alignment and ultimately I need them
to be more connected to that than ultimately me because that's what is a good performance
and and I think that comes with writing down the facts writing down the facts of the script
and sometimes the character might directly tell you or the director or the the actor might might
lie might say I want this and you can say well look at these other facts right he may say that
he wants a good job but he's showing up every day drunk right and so what is it that he does really
want and and that is I think is finding the spine and and and asking those questions and and kind of
referencing them back to the facts in the script and you said that dialogue you often let actors
bring their own like it doesn't have to be on the nose in terms of what the script is and you feel
that that that helps in terms of the believability the chemistry yeah I'm always hiring actors who
are bringing themselves doesn't mean they can't play another character but that
that they're bringing their own good ideas and we will workshop things and then we'll go back
and rewrite the script based off of what they've said or we'll do a rehearsal or we'll do an improv
and something will come out that is brilliant that's going in and I'll add it into the script
it really it really evolves and and and that too is so helpful for actors when they're
doing the scenes because they they really have a sense in which everything is alive everything is
changing and everything there's things at stake and so they need to be super engaged they need to
be listening to one another and also that if they get a wild hair they're free to express it and
and it's gonna be welcome what techniques do you use to strengthen your characters the techniques I
use to strengthen characters are again pointing to the real world and and again doing that with with
the actors but ultimately in a script I can only do so much it it's only real when it's on screen
and and I really encourage the actors to to ask those questions and to have those conversations
and ultimately it's it's for for me I know there's different things that are more playable and that
will work in engaging a scene and making it feel more lively or hitting specific plot points or
having the pacing be a certain way and so all sort of yeah direct and and mold things here and there
but the it's the actor's job to really build that depth and and really make it make it playable and
and and to connect it and and find find a way to bring it to life on on screen and that I think is
is solid script analysis and and we always spend a lot of time doing that and it's really one of
my favorite parts of the process and it's so collaborative and it's it yeah it's always a
lot of fun I really do love working with actors what character in a film that you've watched just
really hits home for you that just it's so real that you're convinced that that person
lives somewhere and some walk up in New York City or something I think certainly making characters
that are more complex makes everything a lot more playable and and so that too I'm in more in
writing I'm really an advocate for of of finding where they just completely are irrational or
yeah where we're where on paper you're like that doesn't really make sense but then there's that
person right that just brings the complexity I mean J.J. opens so much so often it's like good
narrative structure is about having a question right and and whether it's a mystery or whether
it's it's like that's what draws an audience in and so I think if you have more complex characters
that it draws people in again it's like what what does make this person tick and yeah and and
certainly certainly for me it also has been sort of the most engaging characters I’ve seen on
screen what was it about Jonah Hill's character in Wolf of Wall Street that really struck you
I mean so many of the characters in in wolf of wall street whether it was Matthew McConaughey or
Leo Dicaprio I mean I think it was everybody's obsession with wealth for wealth's sake
and I thought Scorsese handled it so well that no character in that ever gets off easy
even goes he even goes to such depths to show well this this hooker and this traitor went off
and got married but it didn't end well like he he literally went and showed that it did not end well
as just a moral story like that this world does not lead to bliss right that this leads to despair
leads to suicide and that was fascinating watching all of those characters explore that
where that emanated from how it was this sort of constantly perpetuating cycle
and certainly the glitz around it that made it feel worthwhile.