Marc Scott Zicree, Screenwriter/Author: I think a lot of films are too clever for their own good
because they're just twisting and turning the plot in violation of the character and you never
want to do that because the moment the audience distances from the character you've lost them.
Film Courage: How do you build a character from scratch?
Marc: It can come from a lot of places. What I do is I keep a list of people that I’ve known in my
life and actors that I love. all of whom are very distinctive and have different ways of talking.
Every time I write a script I cast it with people who are very distinctive in my mind. In some cases
it's actors I’m going to be working with so for Doug Jones and Bob Carter and Mira Furlan
and Bill Mumy I wrote those roles for them for Space Command. But in some cases it might
be an actor that I'm not going to get like for instance I wrote a script called Future to Space
and the template I used for the lead was Ed Harris in The Abyss because it was a great character and
a great voice. It seemed very clear in my mind. I knew that Ed Harris wasn't going to play that role
(he's too old for that role now for one thing) but it made the character very real, very alive to me
and so you just make sure that nobody is just flat, nobody's just there for exposition.
I don't tend to describe the physicality of a character because often you might have
something in mind but there might be an actor who doesn't look a thing like that who's great
and you don't want to limit it and I also very much want diversity in my in my cast
asian black different countries as more the better you know and so that's also part of the
part of the design I cast a lot of actors from restaurants I eat at the waiters are all
the waiters and waitresses are all actors and actresses and I'll if I find someone who's
good or who intrigues me I'll say send me your reel and I'll cast them
yeah I've done that a lot that's great I like that yeah and also too you can see how on they are yes
there's a restaurant called Granville in the valley and there was a young actor who looked
exactly like he could be the son of Ethan Mcdowell who plays Jack Kemmer the lead in space command
and he was an actor and I and I cast him he's he's in the bonus episode and he's great he
does a great job so I'm gonna he'll be in more episodes coming up what mistakes do
new writers make in writing characters new writers make a lot of mistakes in writing
characters usually the biggest mistake is they're just flat they all sound alike and they just are
saying exactly what they're thinking in real life people don't say what they're thinking generally
they might say what they're thinking directly in an argument but often not not even then
so you want to think about how people really talk and also remember that a script is not a
representation of real life it's like a 120 page haiku and it's so it's an illusion of reality
but it isn't reality and so often the lines have to be a lot briefer and a lot punchier
but I always like to have characters who talk differently from each other
who are very different in their outlooks their world view also a mistake many writers make
not just in the beginning of the career their careers but throughout is that it's about the
plot and the characters are just serving the plot and that's not not a good idea you want the plot
to be servicing the characters in other words for instance aliens has a wonderful plot but Ripley is
at the core she's the heart of that movie and if that movie were about people you didn't care about
that and that movie also by the way introduces a wide variety of characters
incredibly well so if you look at when they all wake up from the sleep pods and you see you meet
all of those characters they're very different from each other and they have their own take
and they're very you get who they are really quickly and there's a lot of them
and so studying that just saying okay how did that work and it works like a charm it's great
it's great and if you said so so because Ripley was not a flat character but if some things have
been slightly well if she were a flat character you wouldn't care about that movie it would just
how many movies are based on aliens were there where they're like big science fiction movies
and because the characters are forgettable the movie is forgettable you you don't you don't
love movies because of the plots generally you love movies because of the characters
and you know and I think a lot of films are too clever for their own good because they're
they're just twisting and turning the plot in violation of the character and you never
want to do that because the moment the audience distances from the character you've lost them
and you know I don't I don't like puzzle boxes as as a structure I like I mean you can have mystery
you can have revelations all of that that's fine but I like to have characters who don't
you don't lose the characters because of what the plot is doing you know and so that's yeah and you
don't throw them away either you you respect your character that doesn't mean they can't die they
can but but you give what they do meaning you know you never just you know you never treat anyone
as disposable and in my opinion and so with the dialogue knowing that it's going to be distinct
for each character do you think a lot of new writers start out thinking okay I'm going to do
sort of an Aaron Sorkin-eque sort of you know very talky it's well also that's another mistake that
beginning writers make which is they're they're they're talking talking talking and talking
like get in and get out you know it's like make your point and then on to the next scene don't
belabor it you know so they they're they're much too wordy and also yeah imitating quentin
tarantino imitating aaron sorkin try not to you know I mean you know sterling said when he started
out he everything he wrote was bad hemingway and he said everything began it was hot you know so
you know and that's forgivable in young people but again you have to find your own voice you have to
find and the way to find your own voice is what do I care about what do I know about what do I alone
know what you know and that it doesn't mean you can't write things that are different from what
you've actually lived but what do you know about and what do you care about what gets you riled
up and what's where do you live emotionally and find and you know and then when and if you hear
someone say something just in their your your day I always carry a little notepad with me and I jot
things down because if someone says a line that's like wow that's great you know it's like I'll you
know I'll utilize that you know and try not to rip off dialogue from other movies because god it's so
so many people rip off lines from aliens it's like oh please don't and you know so that's part of it
and and don't bore if if something's boring to you on the page it'll be boring to everybody so keep
working on it until it works and sometimes a scene doesn't work and the only way to make it work is
to get rid of it and so be willing to do that it's funny I was giving notes to someone last week and
they were saying well does this character work I read their script and gave them notes and it was
a script that had been developed at big companies and he said there's this character work I said no
lose them they don't work and I said and they're saying what about this sequence no it doesn't work
and I said here's what your story is about emotionally it's about a father and a son
and son doesn't think his father loved him but in reality his father did love him and shielded him
and sacrificed his own life but the son doesn't know that and ultimately our the son is willing to
to do that for his own daughter but the father's spirit saves them you know this father comes back
as a spirit it's a fantasy film and once I said this is what your plot is and everything else is
distraction and so don't keep pulling it in this direction pulling in the right direction follow
the emotional line and because that'll work and so then I just kind of took it you know helped
it along and again they don't do they have to do my version of their film no but they have to
do a version that works and if that if my version helps them find their their path great and because
many films don't know what they're trying to say or they have nothing to say you know you know what
what are most films about most films are about two hours so you know it's like know what you're
trying to say and then remove the stuff that doesn't say that what's your favorite piece of
dialogue that you overheard personally that you jotted in your little notebook yeah gosh you know
I don't remember and sorry about that it's like you know I remember one of my favorite
lines that I ever wrote it's a terrible line it's terrible they're in future space
which is about a future where we trade our worst prisoners with alien prisoners they
they breathe methane we breathe oxygen they're the prison that's holding the humans is on a
methane world so we can't escape they can't escape our prison here on earth
because it's oxygen they don't breathe oxygen and it's about a prison break that erupts at
the handoff point a space station between the two races and the aliens are like
eight foot tall jelly vertical jellyfish they communicate via chromatophores really fun and
we're gonna be doing that as a tv show but the this guard who is like really sadistic and at the
end he saves one of our characters and he dies and when he dies he says I don't know why I did that
and his boss the prison the head of the pre the guard says he was a prick but he had balls
it's such a stupid line but it's like that's pretty good that's funny
yeah you know and again you know you but again it has to be that character who would say that line
you know and I think he was a d*** but he had b**** whatever it is you know this you know
but again the reason that line I like that line is because this is a script that has
rougher talking characters you never have that line in space command for instance which is
much more family show but fugitive space has very rough language because it's convicts and
but it's about the industrial military prison complex because ultimately two prisoners one is
a woman helicopter pilot who's been framed for a wartime massacre and the other is a former cop who
killed his fellow officers because they were going to murder a family he was a dirty cop and that was
the line he could not cross but he killed them with premeditation his brother officers and so
he's a trustee now in the prison but a convict but they find out that the earth government has struck
a deal with the aliens the aliens are fighting a war that they're losing and so the earth has
struck a deal with them that they can invade earth empty out all the ghettos and use all
the poor people to fight in their war basically as slave soldiers and so our heroes have to get back
to earth and warn everybody and build a counter insurgency so so it's about something meaningful
to me which is the people the underclass the people who anything can be done to them because
they don't quote unquote count and I write about that thematically a lot the people that people
need to be given respect people need to be seen as human and as as equal to us in every way and
so so it's going to be a very interesting show but but I created the characters who
speak a certain way so that line works in that in that context but the hero doesn't say that
I just have this tough prison that you know the boss of the prison guards or Charles Durning I
used Charles Durning as a model for that guy and even though Charles durning is an older actor who
passed away but it's very vivid in my head so that allows me to write him so ah there you go
but I've written other lines you know but you know it it depends you know on any given day.