What’s something an actor brought to your writing that surprised you or made it better?
On Writing : Has an Actor Ever Interpreted Your Script in a Way You Didn't Foresee? by Debbie Seagle
Other topics in Authoring & Playwriting:
Check out Trending Discussions
Register / Log In
3 people like this
Great question Debbie! I call myself the Actor's Director because it's a partnership of creatives. Actors (the more experienced) are phenomenal creators and have the ability to stretch a character like silly puddy. I give them 49% of the vision and they give me 49% and the 1% is where we come together to make magic! Early on , in one of the films I directed one of the actors interpreted the mental breakdown in a way that had me mesmerized. It was a scene that was written to be sad and teary and the actor gave me the opposite which made the scene more intense and made the hair stand up on my arms. When I asked what was the motivation behind it, she said that most people see a mental breakdown as a person is crying and angry and all over the place. In her mind she saw it a a moment of controlled chaos. She laughed hysterically and went to a dark place where it took her and us a minute to come back from, and it worked very well.
3 people like this
During my time at university when I was at Film and TV production, I had written a script for a short feature film that entailed of fantasy and action. This short feature film was to be our final assignment, worth 200 points.
I managed to get a couple of the theater kids to play the role of the major characters, and there was this one guy who got past our auditions (playing the protagonist, mind you) who interpreted his character (meant to be a cowardly and mousy role) to take on a much more heroic facet with bravado and determination. I was so impressed that I actually altered the script a little bit to fit in with his character.
We later won first place out of 4 other films and I ended the course with a hard A. I'm seriously grateful for his contribution to my student film.
3 people like this
Hi, Debbie Seagle. I was at a mini online table read where actors read pages from people's scripts. One actor read a line of dialogue differently than how I wrote it, and it was better than the way I wrote it.
3 people like this
Most of the time it's pretty much aligned, buy sometimes they do it their own way and it's usually better. I also encourage them to find their own way of saying their lines and we only keep the ones that are critical to the story.