I ask this question quite seriously, since I’ve seen a few articles
suggesting people do precisely this. It would be a waste of time for me as I’d
have difficulty in putting faces, let alone other characteristics, to more than
half a dozen actors. It’s not that I don’t admire their skills, simply that
when I watch an actor at work I lose myself in the character portrayed rather
than watch the person playing that part.
For me, the essential aspect of a character is personality. Hemmingway
suggested we should write about people not characters, as he described
characters as caricatures. I agree with his first point. But his second is off
the mark. A character is only a caricature if it portrays the person in an
unlikely or exaggerated manner. A character, as used in drama and fiction, is or
should be an imagined person drawn in such a way that the reader or audience
will accept them as real.
Having said that personality is the vital aspect, I don’t mean to suggest
that appearance is unimportant. It’s simply that appearance is a secondary
consideration for me. In fact, when I create a character I always do so with
some image in mind. I generally use a picture of a person collected from the
internet. These are unnamed human beings who I use as visual frameworks to
which I apply a history, relationships, likes and dislikes, traits and faults
to bring them to life. Having a picture of the person I intend to create helps
me develop a more rounded human being for the story.
I suppose I could search the internet for pictures of actors and then
apply my method to those pictures. In fact, I suspect I’ve done so occasionally,
without actually realising it. There is, of course, a very ‘good’ reason for
using the physical type of a known actor as, if the work is seen as suitable
for a film or a TV play, the producer may recognise the character more easily
and use that recognition for casting. On the down side, however, if the chosen
actor has always played ‘baddies’ and my character is actually a ‘goody’, such
recognition could well prove an obstacle.
For me, applying the idea of the actor to the role of a character in my
fiction would involve extensive viewing of films and TV works simply to
identify potential models. I don’t have time to do that. I do, of course, watch
TV and go to the cinema. But I do that in the spirit of escapism and don’t want
to turn my leisure into an extension of my writing. In any case, I prefer to
use my imagination, and employing ‘unknown’ human beings gives me far more
scope to overlay the model with the characteristics I determine as necessary to
the story I’m telling.
So, for me, picturing Emma Watson as other than Hermione Grainger, Johnny
Depp out of pirate’s costume, Julia Roberts outside the role of Pretty Woman,
or Robin Pattinson other than Cedric Diggory would be difficult. It’s not that
I’m unaware of them playing other roles, simply that my experience of them is
in these parts only. So, these images would overlay them as characters in my
fiction and that would be counter-productive. It would limit my choices. I don’t
blame the actors or their roles, simply my own lack of cinematic attendance.
So, to return to the opening topic. Do you make your own characters in
fiction fit particular movie stars? And, if so, how do you get past the roles
they’ve played? I’m intrigued, you see, and you may be able to pass on valuable
lessons to me.
