Film Courage: Do you believe that characters drive plot?
Jay Fingers, Screenwriter/Author/Youtuber: No, I think character character is definitely
drive plot. it's because what we're showing what we're telling we're showing like these characters
like their reaction to what's happening around them what's happening to them right
I feel I feel like if you have it the other way around it's just so contrived it's like you don't
you want something to happen to a character and based on who that character is they respond and
then that response leads to the next action it leads to the next thing you don't want to
have to just hit certain plot points because it's mandated oh I want to have uh Jim and George fight
because the plot demands it no they have to fight because there's there's an actual
conflict between these two characters Jim did something that George didn't like and because
of George's character he's going to react in say a physical way right it has to be natural it has
to be organic so character definitely definitely drives the plot so one character whether it's in
your screenplays or your books that you were very precious about and it was hard for you to
let bad things happen to oh that that's all the time that happens to so many of my characters
[Laughter] yeah actually in Potter's Field there's a character and I I'm not going to go into detail
because I don't want it to be ruined but there I will say there's a character that I held on to for
a very long time I mean through numerous drafts this was a character that essentially lived to
the end of the script just because I thought it was cool and funny and yeah I thought it worked
but then I realized that this poor character had to had to go and I think that the story
it works better because of it so yeah yeah I mean it but even in like the romantic comedy
I I have bad things happen to characters that I but here's the funny thing I think that the
worst things happen to the characters that I love the most because I want I think I want the
audience to really feel for those characters like those are the cat you want to come away
say oh wow like that hurt my heart or I can't believe that that happened to this person and
interesting so if you if it's not a character that you really are invested in maybe the stuff that
happens is just minor I mean I guess relatively speaking you could say that I mean I'm invested
in all of my characters I love I love all of my characters I mean there are some that I
love more than others but I mean I I do love all of my characters and so I I do want that that
feeling for all of them I want the audience to to care for all of them so even the bad ones I even
give the bad ones the villains or the monsters I even give them moments where it's like all right
I might not really like that person but I understand or I can
some way empathize with them I mean Potter's field we've got these these Undead creatures running
around but they're monsters but you feel for them because you you learn what happened to them
you see so what advice do you have for writing the antagonist they can't be just like
cookie cutter one-dimensional monsters you got to give them some depth one of the things I I
don't remember where I first heard it but the antagonist is the protagonist of Their Own Story
they believe that they are the good guy even something Thanos for instance uh with the Avengers
clearly he's the bad guy he wants to decimate all life or half of all life in
the universe but he believes he's doing he believes he's doing something Noble
and that's the thing you you have to you have to give your villain these layers you have to give
your antagonists these layers make them believe that what they're doing is the right thing or
that they've got I don't want to say Noble reasons but that they've in their mind the
reasons for their actions are Justified in Real Genius to to do we see that in this professor
huh interestingly enough I think that the professor is pretty he's pretty one-dimensional
to be honest because his goal is just to sell this this laser this technology to the government
but what we do we do get some layers like we learned that he
hates popcorn it's a small thing but it plays out in the end we also learned that
he sleeps with his students he has he has a fling with one of his young students
so there are little little pieces here and there but yeah I don't I don't know that
I don't know that we would root for him I tell you though who we would root for
in Real Genius that could be considered villainous which would be Kent the bully
who's essentially the professor's underling like I think he's like the TA or whatever
um ultimately Kent just wants to be liked he wants to be accepted by the cool kids
and that comes out so if we're if we're looking for a villain example
in Real Genius I would say it's him he's doing all the things that he thinks will
will make him popular he'll be liked he'll also please the professor because he wants to do that
he thinks he's doing all the right things for all the right reasons and in the end in
a weird kind of way he gets accepted by Our Heroes he's embraced by them and it's yeah
so he's redeemable in some sense whereas the professor character is just all we know about
him is just he makes horrible choices right yeah okay and he feels No Remorse for them right right
what mistakes do writers make in writing their characters I think that one big mistake is
trying to recreate something or recreate a character that they've seen elsewhere right
it's great to draw inspiration from as I mentioned my protagonist in Potter's field is inspired by
Eddie Murphy but I wasn't trying to recreate like I wasn't recreating Reggie Hammond from
48 Hours I was taking elements that I thought worked for that character and seeing how they
could work for my character but I think that a lot of writers try to recreate characters
wholesale and you can't do that you have to you have to find something unique about your
characters and I think that that uniqueness comes from within you have to this kind of goes back to
why I think I love all of my characters is because every character that I write has a piece of me and
I know that that's probably cliche but I mean like really have a piece of me like there's always some
aspect about these characters that's an aspect of me and I think that that's what a lot of writers
should do is they need to find like those aspects that they can imbue in their characters to make
the characters more unique so if I'm a writer that's so inspired by a story and I want to make
something so similar it would be better if I just did a fan fiction
maybe story based on this rather than try to infuse that same kind of character into my own
world that's the thing if if you're if you're trying to tell an original story no create that
character like create that original character can be inspired by like whatever but imbue that
character with with with your uniqueness if you're writing fan fiction you're trying to
play in somebody else's sandbox there's nothing wrong with that I think that that's great but
you're you're dealing with you're dealing with a world and you're dealing with characters and
relationships and things that have already been established even if you create like a new like if
I'm writing Star Wars fanfic and I create a whole new Jedi character to throw into that fanfic I'm
still dealing with the world that was created by Lucas and that's been shepherded by so many others
but if if if if you want to create like a truly original character you've got to tell your own
story and I think that in putting yourself in your characters and making your characters unique like
that's that's really telling your story that's really telling your truth because this is coming
from you as opposed to working within parameters that have already been established you see what
I'm saying what questions should a writer be asking themselves about their characters
what makes their character tick why is this character doing what they're doing
when a character every story is about a character that wants something
why does that character want it you think of the opposing forces to getting what you want why are
those the opposing forces that give your character a hard time just you've got to really put yourself
in your character's place like what can you do how can you navigate this world and and these
obstacles in order to get what you want this is why I say you have to imbue like
a portion of you because this is going to be like this is you as as a writer
you are going on this journey along with your protagonist you are the protagonist
essentially right so what would you do how can you face these obstacles how can you face
whatever adversaries come your way in order to achieve that goal
why is that goal so important that you would endure like all this conflict
and to remember that the antagonist is the protagonist of their own of Their Own Story
right right what suggestions do you have for writers developing character I would say that
writers definitely need to know themselves so that they can dig deep but also I would suggest writers
pay attention to those around them whereas I'd like to give my characters characteristics of me
I also draw inspiration from people I've met my friends my family
and and I think I think that that's really important because when you pay attention
to other people you just kind of pick up on everything about them from the way they speak
the way they carry themselves like their posture or whatever even little decisions will in inform
you tell you so much about a person whether they take sugar in their coffee or or not which then
it can lead you down to rabbit holes just like well why doesn't she take sugar in her coffee
that's that's an interesting choice and you can just go so many places but I think that
paying attention to other people is is really key to developing a wide variety of characters
we find that something when you're out in the world that you are constantly sort of observing
just to see from a character's perspective not necessarily like judging someone but just just
sinking in how someone's approaching the Barista and asking maybe they're Whispering for their
and we don't know why there was right right no absolutely and that's that's a great example
because that's a choice that's a choice that that person made was to whisper to the Barista
as opposed to just loudly yes I would like a Fenty whatever and and those choices informed character
so yeah you're absolutely right that's yeah so I'm always intrigued by people that are really
picky about their orders and they're they're very like specific and they seem very concerned and I
remember we went to some place where the man wanted to watch them cut up the pizza at one
of these pizza and I know this seems trivial but to me it spoke volumes about who this guy was and
they weren't cutting it up right and he was upset this was just one of these made so you just then
wonder what is his life like outside of that pizza place exactly if he was so concerned with the way
they were cutting the pizza and this is one of these made order places it's not even like I mean
people it's it's quick fast and so just just watching little interactions like that yeah.