Actors Describing Their Characters is the Worst
/In a world where global warming is a looming threat and where we are so divided politically, there is still possibly nothing worse than actors describing their characters in third person.
You know what I’m talking about. This typically happens at press junkets or on Inside the Actor’s Studio, where an actor is asked “tell me about your character in the film.” If you can’t picture it here’s an example:
Yep, to use this guy’s words, something sure is a floater. I’m not picking on this movie or this actor specifically. Everyone does this.
Usually when actors are asked to describe their characters, what follows is either a recitation of what happens to the character in the film, some vague illustration about the character we could have gleaned from the film in general, or some pretentious too-deep imaginings of the character’s inner being that maybe helped the actor in their process but does nothing for us.
This line of questioning is completely pointless, usually used to fill time in an interview or as a BluRay extra, but ultimately doesn’t add any understanding or depth to the story you’re telling. And I make that assertion for two reasons:
- If you learn something essential about a character from an interview that helps you understand the film better, then the film wasn’t effective in its characterization.
- Descriptions of the character vague enough to not touch on specifics of the film will almost inevitably be able to describe characters from lots of other stories or films. E.g. “My character wants to find himself, but he’s torn between a path that he knows is right and a path that is more seductive but dangerous.” Is that describing Luke Skywalker? Batman? Clarice Starling? Frodo? Useless.
If you’re still not on board, let’s try a thought experiment. Let’s imagine it’s 1991. Terminator 2 is being released. Arnold Schwarzenegger sits down for a press junket where one (if not every) interviewer asks him to describe the character of the Terminator. What would Arnold say?
“He’s a killing machine. But he’s been reprogrammed and sent back in time to save someone. So there’s conflict in that way. There’s a budding friendship with John Connor but Sarah Connor doesn’t trust him because he looks like the Terminator that tried to kill her. It’s sort of an exploration of humanity. Does he have the capacity to care about people as a machine?”
That’s me putting words into someone’s mouth twenty years ago, but can you imagine anything better coming from it? The above is, again, just rehashing what’s in the movie or themes so general as to be worthless.
I’m putting out a call to interviewers and actors. Can we just not do this?
