I love exploring the characters that I play, but the reason I sign on for something isn't the details of the story but the universal message.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
There are always certain things that you tap into, your own personal experiences, and I try to base my characters on someone I know or someone I've seen.
When you sign onto something, you want the character to be redeemable and likeable, hopefully, and understandable.
I always try to find something I admire about every character I play.
The goal is to have every character take on a life of his or her own. Sometimes characters will come into the story that I haven't planned.
Sometimes it's less about the character and more about the story for me. I'll play a rock in the background if I think the story is fantastic and I can be a part of it somehow. That's what I look for.
Characters are so important to a story that they actually decide where the story is going. When I write, I know my characters. I know how things are going to end, and I know some important incidents along the way.
I do sometimes play characters that are a bit ambiguous. You've got to be brave about that sort of stuff. I like the sense of people not feeling too secure, not immediately knowing what they have in front of them.
I always like to play roles where I either love the character or think that it's a story that I can tell better than anyone else. There are always reasons for me to do whatever I do.
I never try to give a message in my books. It's about living with characters long enough to hear their voices and let them tell me the story. Sometimes I would love to have a happy ending, and it doesn't happen because the character or the story leads me in another direction.
When I write fiction, I never try to deliver a message; I just want to tell a story. But I admit that I want the story to be memorable and the characters to touch the reader's heart.