Reflections on Scripted Introductions of Female Characters

By now I’m sure many of you have seen something about this Twitter feed: @femscriptintros. Here is its description from movie producer Ross Putnam who hosts the site:

These are intros for female leads in actual scripts I read. Names changed to JANE, otherwise verbatim. Update as I go. Apologies if I quote your work.

Here are some examples:

The Twitter feed currently has 52 tweets and 62K+ followers. Its emergence in February kicked up a ruckus including articles here, here, here, and here. Ross has been interviewed by KPCC and featured in an episode of the John August-Craig Mazin podcast Scriptnotes. All of which is to say, the way females often get introduced in screenplays points to a bigger, more systemic issue about attitudes toward women, a concern which is clearly resonating in our zeitgeist.

In a chat with Jezebel, Ross made these comments:

But the more that I read, the more I started to recognize some pretty awful constants. For every confused “you’re” and “your,” there’s just as much latent misogyny and sexism in the scripts I read. Women are first and foremost described as “beautiful,” “attractive,” or — my personal blow-my-brains-out-favorite, “stunning.” They’re always “stunning” in a certain dress or “stunning” despite being covered in dirt because they’re a paleontologist — or whatever. I found myself posting to Facebook far too often “here comes another script with our 45 year-old male lead dating a 25 year-old woman,” and decided I was going to keep track of the female character introductions in scripts I read for a few weeks.

Women are almost always, first and foremost, described based on their physical attractiveness. Which is, you know, subjective anyway depending on the person. But there’s a standard of beauty to which you know these writers are referring. The suggestion is that women are only valuable if they’re “beautiful.” It’s not always true, but it’s an underlying current. Beyond that, scripts always make a point of quite distinctly saying when someone “isn’t beautiful.”

Changing the names to JANE for me, while maintaining that focus on systemic issues, also — at least, I think — demonstrates how female characters are often thought about in the same, simplistic and often degrading way. Giving them all the same name, I hope, emphasizes that. Jane is described in all these ways, because Jane has no control over her role in this world — which is far too often to be solely an object of desire, motivating the male characters that actually have agency in the script.

To drive home the point, Slate staff writer Christina Cauterruci wrote a recent article: If Male Characters Were Introduced in Scripts Like Women. Here are some examples:

A vision in brown robes that caress his shapely curves, OBI WAN strides toward LUKE, placing his thick, pleasure-ready fingers over LUKE’s eyes before revealing the supple visage beneath his hood in a rapid striptease.

New Boston Globe editor MARTY BARON, as quirky as he is adorable, gazes through spectacles and a fringe of sultry lashes. His muscular, feline torso is poured into a “fuck-me” button-down.

All conversation stops, all eyes turn to look JED BARTLET up and down. Though he’s an alluring, auburn-locked looker, he will let slip a few crucial bits of knowledge from inside his pretty little head.

JACK strides with purpose into the hotel ballroom. Fit but not fussy, his is a solid, powerful body you want to be under; his carelessly masculine features inspire a heady mix of attraction and intimidation. His hair may be thinning, but his cock-confidence is as full as ever.

While it’s great to point out bad examples of scripted female character introductions and even make fun of them, I thought we could go beyond that and take this learning exercise in a positive direction. So I went through several scripts which made the 2014 and 2015 Black Lists, zeroed in on screenplays written by women, figuring they would be sensitive to this issue, to see some good examples of how women characters were introduced. Here are several:

Wish Upon written by Barbara Marshall

Wearing oversized dark clothing — her camouflage and armor — CLARE SHANNON (17) stands at the window grimly watching her father drive off.

The exuberant little daredevil she once was is a long forgotten memory. There’s a sadness to her now. Deep and enduring. She’s tough but insecure.

Set It Up written by Katie Silberman

But then we STOP ABRUPTLY — at one lonely office with its light still on, where HARPER HALL (27, bright, always too eager) has her face pressed up against the glass, a low-paid, under-appreciated prisoner of war.

The Takeaway written by Julia Cox

EMMA DOYLE, 27, bundled up, peers into the storefront of an art gallery. She’s sweet-faced but serious. Smart. The belief that the world is her oyster — that she can have it all — has nearly been beaten out of her. But she can still dream…

Plus One written by April Prosser

Summer — 29, (think Rebel Wilson) our boisterous anti-hero, she ranges between the life of the party and the guest you can never get to leave.

Situation Comedy written by Cat Vasko

CLEMENCE JANIKOWSKI, 29, a plain-looking dishwater blonde, sits alone at a table, slumped in her chair. A bottle of wine and two glasses in front of her. At the tables on either side of her, HAPPY COUPLES are talking and laughing.

If there is one takeaway from these descriptions, it’s this: A good character introduction is more about personality than physicality.

I used to offer a one week online writing Craft class called Character Introductions. Do to a lack of interest in the subject, I dropped it. Perhaps now with this brouhaha, I should resurrect it. Here is an excerpt from one of my seven lectures on character introductions. NOTE: Following the pattern laid out by Ross Putnam, I have changed all of the characters’ names to Jane:

We began our exploration of character introductions looking at the subject from the perspective of the reader, how with every script they crack open, they are set upon by a heretofore unknown cast of characters — strange names, voices, personalities. The reader’s experience is exacerbated by the fact that a majority of a script’s characters are introduced in the first thirty pages, meaning it’s one character… after another… after another… after another, all in a compressed and dizzying time-frame.

Then we moved onto the writer. Make a strong impression, editorializing, narrative voice — these are all concerns and tools of the trade for an individual crafting a story. They represent a first stage of understanding how to handle a myriad of character introductions so that what goes onto the page makes a positive, memorable impact on the reader, enabling them to sort through the various players they meet.

Our next stop shifts the point of focus to the character for how can a writer know what to say in an introduction if they don’t understand the figure they are ushering into the story universe?

Which raises the inevitable question: What is it we need to know about a character to help us craft an effective introduction?

This semester, I have been teaching screenwriting to an energetic group of college students. Here is a random selection of character introductions in their scripts before I schooled them on a better way to approach the task:

JANE (20), a pretty, young girl wearing a weathered dress.

JANE, 25, is tall and ungainly. Gentle and soft-spoken, she does not fit in with her surroundings.

JANE, a frumpy 25 year-old, sits across a desk from a STUFFY BUSINESSWOMAN conducting a job interview.

JANE, late twenties, attractive and conservatively dressed, makes her way to the podium amidst applause.

Each introduction is comprised of some physical description, followed by a ‘talking heads’ scene [two or more characters exchanging dialogue]. What do we really learn about the characters? What can a reader take with them from these descriptions to identify the character as being unique? What about the introduction is at all entertaining?

The fundamental issue here: The writers described external aspects of each character when what helps a reader learn something meaningful, grab onto something unique, and find something entertaining usually lies inside the character — what I call core essence.

There is a key takeaway from this entire discussion and it’s this: As writers, if we dwell on the surface of our characters, male or female, our scripts are going to fail. If, however, we go into our characters, engage them directly, learn about their personal histories and backstories, come to know them as unique individuals worthy of our respect and understanding… then our scripts have a chance.

Not only that, we put ourselves on the path to crafting multidimensional characters and in knowing them, in reaching out to them, in embracing them, the story will emerge from those interactions. After all, it’s their story.

But specifically with regard to female character introductions, we need to move beyond their physicality and focus on their persona, who they are, communicating something of their core essence, providing the reader a sense of their unique humanity.

Here is what I propose: I’d like to crowdsource good female character introductions. Go through movie scripts. Black List scripts. Spec scripts which have sold. Head to comments and post introductions of female characters which focus on personality, not physicality. On their inner life, not their exterior looks. On the totality of who they are, not the surface level of what they look like.

We can use this exercise not only to elevate our collective consciousness beyond a superficial take on female characters, but ALL characters, to present them to readers in such a way that speaks to their depth of being.

Spread the word and see if we can turn this thing around from just a focus on bad writing to inspire good writing.

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