Gary Goldstein: everybody's process is different and I know when I learned a lot about process
and would listen to other people you know you take it really seriously what
people who have succeeded you know do have done as I call I've got to do it
that way and I do my stuff very specific to me you know and and and it'll work
for anybody if you just do it but at the same time you know it's like edges I
hope it's like it feels like it's opening up like this is just what I do
but don't you know don't you don't have to do this you know this is just oh it's
not coming across as like you know no no not not at all you know stopping people
do courtesan yeah no fee but I think it's good too because you know people
could dig a little bit from here and a little bit from there but ya know it's
not coming off as this is the ultimate way we talk about where your characters
come from and what's your process for developing okay well you know they say
that you want to put a character when you move it you know for the beginning
of a movie or something you want to put your character where they would least
like to be you know it's at a moment of crossroads where their life is gonna
change and you're gonna take that journey with them and you have to you
put them out of there you get them out of their comfort zone basically and the
reason they're there in a comfort zone is because they're kind of doing
something wrong their personality there's a there's something in that
personality that's that's you know right as bootcamp calls it a misbehavior it's
a great word it's a adjective to describe what they're doing wrong how
they're negatively affecting other people but we still care about them
anyway and it shows how they can change so you find somebody you create a
character who is doing something wrong or ineffectively and somebody's gonna
have to come into their life who's gonna kind of turn them around and compliment
them and get the best out of that personality and then have them make that
personality work for them so you just try to find a character had a crossroads
who's gonna do something interesting especially you're writing things that
are not plot driven necessarily like you know the Bourne Identity or something
you know you're writing you're writing a character if you run character driven
things whether it's a comedy or drama or you know whatever but but there's you
know it's it's it's driven by character which always make for the best stories
and and so then you figure out who needs to come into the
character's life to help help them on this journey help them accomplish this
mission you know movies are basically about a relationship about two people on
a journey you know with with effort with people around them and supporting
characters and an opponent and all that but it's basically I boil it down to the
main character and who comes into their life to go on that journey with them and
what is that relationship like so in creating the main character you know
whether it's a man or a woman you know they always say that that we we are our
main characters whoever we're writing we could be writing a serial killer but you
know they're they are us you know that we weren't fusing them with with our
point of view not our value is not our history but what maybe what our point of
view is or how we see what their point of view should be that makes sense so
part of it is knowing what the journey take setting the character creating an
interesting character in an interesting environment but knowing that they need
to be on a journey to solve the issue of their life and the movie and I start I
start there is it different for stage plays versus a little bit different you
know it's um it can be very similar but still even a stage play you know you you
you you want to want that stage playtest to begin at a moment of a very important
moment for that character's life the moment that changes it all or you know
that the time that's gonna shift them as people and and and their lives you know
so they walk over they they they emerge from that that story you know kind of a
different person you know April May and June is these three sisters come
together and they're all pretty much set in their ways and they're okay the way
they are but by the end of this afternoon they really have a better
understanding of who they are why they've done done what they've done in
their lives and why they've reacted to both of their dead parents like parents
in such different ways and it's all because of this kind of like combustion
that happens during with three people these three women over the course of a
couple of hours in the afternoon so you want them to come through the come
through their journey you know as a changed person in some way some
characters don't need changing so that may not be as an interesting a character
but we all need to do something better to do something more effectively even
its if it's to learn how to have a relationship with somebody what's a
romantic comedy except to you know basically unexpected or mismatched
people who sparks fly and then they realize that they can make each other
they can complement each other make each other better people and and be with
somebody that they never expected until maybe they can't and then of course at
the end they do you know but it's finding people at an interesting point
in their life you know who have something to learn so let's take a right
er that's maybe has to dull or flat of a character versus one that's it's too
much stuff they're putting too much right how do you know well you know it
you know you want to keep your character on on a track you know and and you you
want to have that having a goal in mind you know whether the goal is to have
that romantic relationship to rob that bank
to to you know to come to terms with their addiction you know whatever it is
you you you want them to have an end goal and and keep them on a track and as
soon as you start getting away from all of that sort of like the the kind of
interesting human moments that may happen along the way of a journey then
you then you realize you're kind of diffusing your story and you know that
we're losing the focus of the character so I think usually pretty enough pretty
much know when you're when you're going off the track when your character is
just not acting the way they you'd like them to well I know you've seen so many
films and uh you're also a film reviewer can you talk about some of your favorite
films where that character starts out in a very uncomfortable place yeah yeah
well you know comedies are always great you know one of my favorite my favorite
movies favorite movie companies are sixteen Candles the John Hughes movie
with Molly Ringwald and you know the great thing about that movie it's just
you know it's such a it's relatable you got the you know the annoying
grandparents you got the clueless parents you got the the annoying sister
you got all the dweeby kids in school it's like everybody can X can relate to
all of that and you know Samantha Molly Ringwald's character she's just you know
she's in the worst moment of her life you know she's w Burt knows it's her
birthday she's sixteen everybody forgets the dorky guy likes her the hot guy
doesn't pay attention to her you know it's just this little microcosm and
she's like so uncomfortable and so self-conscious and by the end of that
she just gets little bit of confidence you know and
like the cute guy likes her and that's I love that movie you know it's just funny
but it's so sweet and so smart yeah that's one of my favorites I mean and
even Tutsi you know is you know he's he's he's such a self possessed guy but
he's in such a bad place because he has no money and he can't get a job and he
doesn't want to play a tomato the way they want him to on commercials and all
of that and he just he just really goes to the wall to try to do something to be
successful and it completely up ends his life you know so he's definitely he's
out of his comfort zone but he makes the best of it the mood that movie is all
about being out of your comfort zone but yet making it work for you which I like
but you know on a dramatic front you know when you deal with with thrillers
or something you know those characters have put in you know you know how it
silence of the lambs you know a great film great book you know she's somebody
who's thrust and she's somebody who's almost not ready to be thrust into this
horrifying world she is and and she's got like such a a she's got somebody in
you know an Anthony Hopkins character that you know who's such a tests her so
much and you know it was so smart you know it's such a spider and the fly kind
of thing and she's so out of her league that you know that that's an interesting
character who we begin with in a very uncomfortable place who is made even
more uncomfortable if he uses that discomfort uses that her past you know
the difficulty of her past to really emerge through and really succeed that's
kind of fascinating
you