The worst situation you can have in a thriller is a lead who looks like he can handle himself.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Every thriller needs a good bad guy; without a bad guy, there's no thriller.
The most satisfying thrillers send ordinary people into battle against the forces of evil - otherwise known as greed, ego, rage, fear and laziness - and bring them out bloodied but whole.
In 'Breaking Bad,' we have a lead character who definitely finds himself in a situation he would never have expected to find himself in normally.
I'm a character actor, so I don't take the hit if the movie's bad, the lead does. So, I don't want to be the lead. He takes the hit, I don't.
With a thriller, you're going to have your red herrings, as different suspects are thrown up as possible culprits. You can only explore that for so long - if you do that more than a few times, it starts to get a little redundant.
Thriller novelists get asked - berated, sometimes - about whether their work glorifies bad behavior, even, exploits human tragedy for entertainment.
The way to write a thriller is to ask a question at the beginning, and answer it at the end.
Thrillers provide the reader with a safe escape into a dangerous world where the stakes are as high as can be imagined with unpredictable outcomes. It's a perfect genre in which to explore hard issues of good and evil, a mirror that allows the reader to see both the good and not so good in themselves.
I have never done a thriller, and it will just be really fun for me to heave and pant and run and climb and break windows and scream every once in a while.
It's not often a thriller keeps me wound up as well as 'Headhunters' did. I knew I was being manipulated and didn't care. It was a pleasure to see how well it was being done.