Acting craft

Character Development for Screen Actors

Build playable characters through circumstances, objectives, relationships, behaviour, and choices.

A convincing character is more than a list of personality traits. Audiences understand character through choices under pressure, relationships, habits, contradictions, and the pursuit of what matters.

Advertisement

The core idea

Identify script facts: where the scene occurs, what has happened, what each character knows, and what is at stake. Keep those facts separate from imagined backstory.

How to apply it

Ask what the character wants from the other person. Use an active verb such as persuade, reassure, challenge, hide, or buy time. Let the relationship and obstacle influence how the character pursues that goal.

Try this next

Write one sentence for the objective, one for the obstacle, and one for what changes by the end. Perform the scene, then adjust the tactic while keeping the objective.

Keep learning

Related resources

All articles ↗