A lot of times, scripts are written so the character is all one way. Even with 'Bringing Out the Dead,' the character was written a little more generic.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
At dramatic rehearsals, the only author that's better than an absent one is a dead one.
Even in horror novels where you know most characters aren't going to make it to the end, it's crucial to have fully fleshed-out characters. If you don't do that, the reader doesn't care what happens to them.
It's a dead give away of an inexperienced writer if every character speaks with the same voice.
I didn't know how to kill off a character unless I was able, as a narrator, to get really complicated. Because it was a big deal. I'd never killed a character before.
Having been an actor and a writer for so long - 20 years or so - I felt that it would be daft to go to one's grave without having directed. It's a natural extension of writing and acting, and so I knew it would happen one day.
I really believe that when you're playing a character that everything is contained in the script. If I'm pulling from things from my own life, then I think I'm being disingenuous to the character and the story.
I try to research or make up for myself what happened in any character's life. From when he was born until the first page of the script. I fill in the blanks.
The important thing is the storytelling and having a script that makes you feel you're living and breathing through the characters.
I didn't even realize this at first, but there's almost no central character in any of my 24 books who doesn't have a dead mother or a lost parent.
When you find you don't like a character, you just type four letters and he's dead.