In order to make characters real - no matter what the character is doing - you have to see yourself as capable of having done that.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
What makes characters real are details, and if you're crafting a person from scratch, you're probably not going to pay as much attention to a question like, 'Does this person bite their nails?'
You need the audience to become invested in the characters and in order to become invested, they need to identify with the characters... and that's why the characters need to be real.
I don't think anyone can do any character that doesn't have at least some ounce of themselves in it. You are who you are, and your brain is drawing on things that you've experienced.
Among adults, we can admit that of course, characters are creations. They aren't real people.
When you're portraying someone that really existed, there has to be a time as an actress where you leave reality and move into the fantasy world so you can do your job of creating a character.
One has to be able to twist and change and distort characters, play with them like clay, so everything fits together. Real people don't permit you to do that.
Even when you are playing someone who is real, you get their mannerisms and you get their little quirks, but, it still has to be something inside of you that connects with the role, or else you will not be any good.
You can say to actors that you've got to be the character and really get into it, but you have to make it realistic by bringing an element of yourself into it.
I never base characters on real people. There are people who do that but I really don't know how to do it.
All I can guess is that when I write, I forget that it's not real. I'm living the story, and I think people can read that sincerity about the characters. They are real to me while I'm writing them, and I think that makes them real to the readers as well.