I designed all the characters, anyway, and Frank Doyle was doing all the writing. I didn't have any more input on what direction they were going to go with Josie.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I'm not one of these 'the characters write themselves; the story just fell out of me' kind of writers. Wish it was like that.
When I first started writing the books in the 1980s, all of the female detectives were flawed in some way because they were based on noir characters.
I'm drawn to the classic antihero, the guy who's probably made a bunch of mistakes and really has the capacity to go either way. That's the most interesting type of character for me to watch, to see what decisions they'll make. There's a lot of gray area there for a writer to explore.
I'm hopefully making the reader feel a lot about the characters and then about their own life.
I think all characters are facets of the writer. In a way, they have to be if you're going to write them convincingly.
I do not choose characters because I think, 'Wow, that woman is so strong.' I chose these characters with utmost conviction because I think they were realistic enough to exist, and I really liked the scripts.
It ended up being a very good thing, because they finally started writing for the character, and I realized that you have to go to work with a purpose. I learned from the experience and then moved on.
Josie needed more of a personality than what the cartoon had to offer.
I read the script and try not to bring anything personal into it. I make notes, talk to the director and we decide what kinds of shades should be in the character.
There's a lot of Doyle in me. I don't know where I begin and Doyle ends or where Doyle begins and I end.