Often my characters don't know what the issues of the play are. They think they're doing one thing, but something else is actually orchestrating their lives.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I don't consciously start writing a play that involves issues. After it's done, I sit back like everyone else and think about what it means.
A lot of the characters I play have problems, they are marginalised, they have serious psychological problems, problems with relationships, with childhood. These are big subjects, big subjects. You can't balk at work like that. As an actor, that's as good as it gets.
I've seen plays that are, objectively, total messes that move me in ways that their tidier brethren do not. That's the romantic mystery of great theater. Translating this ineffability into printable prose is a challenge that can never be fully met.
A lot of readers want characters to behave in a responsible way, or they want to understand the characters' dilemma and act, in a way, on their behalf.
I'm constantly being surprised and finding unplanned things - because the writing is a process of experiencing things on the ground with the characters.
There's something to play if there's conflict going on. Whatever that conflict is, that's where drama is; if the character is grappling with something you've got something to play, there's layers to it.
The way I live my life or conduct myself when I have a problem is very different from many of the characters I play.
If you let the plot be determined by what you feel is in the character's mind at that point, it may not turn out to be a very good play, but at least it will be a play where people are behaving in a kind of truthful way.
I prefer playing characters that are going through turmoil. Most movie characters are just in service to the story.
There is a comfort zone of knowing where things are going and having characters in place, but the action gets more and more dramatic and is very challenging to describe.
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