Screenwriting “Hats”: Actor

Scott Myers
Go Into The Story
Published in
6 min readJun 23, 2021

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When we write a screenplay, I like to think of the process as one in which we wear several “hats”. Primarily, of course, we wear our Writer Hat where we get in touch with our vision for each story and give evidence on the page to our unique voice. That is the foundation, to write something that is a reflection of our distinctive creative expression.

But there are other “hats” we can don in the writing process which can help us craft a script which has the most resonance with other people key to the filmmaking process: Director, Actor, Editor.

Today: Actor Hat.

A key job of a screenwriter is to immerse oneself in the lives of our characters, learn as much as we can about them to help them come alive in our imaginations, step back and discern what each of their respective narrative functions are, how their relationships play out as plot and subplots, get them talking so we hear their dialogue, and essentially have them lead us into and through the story-crafting process.

But here’s the thing: Since a script exists to produce a movie, that means all of those characters we spend our time getting to know eventually — if we are lucky! — are inhabited by actors. Therefore it stands to reason it behooves us to don an Actor Hat as part of our scripting process. We put on our Actor Hat when…

We delve into our characters asking what they Want and what they Need.

We track their transformation arc.

We discern in every scene where each character is in relation to the script’s physical and psychological storylines.

In this regard, what we do as writers is quite close to what actors do when digging into a role, so when we put on our Actor Hat, thinking of our story through an actor’s perspective, the one word which gets at the heart of that process is this: Connection.

We want to write characters with whom actors feel a connection because if they do and the part is a good one, we can attract them to the project. While computer generated imagery is increasingly an important player in getting a movie green lit, actors still play a vital role in the success of a movie project going forward.

Furthermore, if an actor feels a connection to characters, there’s an awfully good chance that everyone else in the script development process — agent, manager, producer, studio executive, director — will, too, even ultimately a movie-going audience.

Here are two tips on how to use an Actor Hat to a script’s benefit. Consider these scenes from the Academy Award winning movie The King’s Speech.

In The King’s Speech, screenwriter David Seidler uses the relationship between the story’s Protagonist Bertie (Colin Firth) and his father King George V (Michael Gambon) to crystallize the nature of Bertie’s struggle.

We get an inkling of the father’s role in Bertie’s life in the opening scene where the Prince tries to make a public speech:

The King, growing impatient, hisses:KING GEORGE V
Get on with it. Show what you’re made of!
Bertie moves forward diffidently, without an ounce of
confidence, knowing deep within he’s doomed. His stomach knots,
chest muscles contract, constricting his breath.
“The King’s Speech”

The pressure his father — the King — puts on Bertie can only contribute to the anxiety Bertie feels about speaking in public, thereby making his stutter worse. In a way, the father’s pressure on Bertie is a form of mockery:

LIONEL
Did David tease you?
BERTIE
They all did. “Buh-buh-buh-Bertie”. Father
encouraged it. “Spit it out, boy!” Thought
it would make me stop.

And a more direct example of the father’s communication regarding Bertie’s condition:

KING GEORGE V
Show who’s in command. If you don’t, this
devilish device will change everything.
Used to be, all a King had to do was look
reasonable in uniform and not fall off his
horse. Now we must creep cap in hand into
people’s homes that smell of boiled
cabbage, and speak nicely to them. We’re
reduced to that lowest, basest of all
creatures...we’ve become...actors! Don’t
give me a look of defeated pathos. This is
a family crisis!

So the pressure Bertie’s father puts on him in terms of his stuttering comes off as shame, personal failure, royal responsibility, and a “family crisis.” That’s a huge emotional and psychological weight on Bertie.

But then Bertie’s father dies, so the father’s shadow should be gone, yes? Not so because Bertie’s shadow is not just the father’s persona, it is also — and perhaps more critically — his position: Being a King. That is the ultimate fear Bertie has looming over him his entire post-stuttering life — the possibility that one day he would have to become King:

He exits quickly. Cosmo continues nervously as they walk
through the Abbey, the Archbishop pointing out the preparations
in progress, particularly a booth for broadcasters.
BERTIE
Is this the scene of the crime?

That throwaway line as Bertie prepares for the crowning ceremony — Is this the scene of the crime — has so many levels of meaning. On the surface a joke, but reflective of the inner turmoil Bertie feels about ascending to the throne — a crime that he of all people, who can’t speak well in public, should be forced to assume the mantel of monarchical responsibility. How downright criminal!

What the script does with this key son-father relationship is create a sense of clarity about the Protagonist’s Disunity and this plays right into the wheelhouse of an actor’s approach to their craft: To have a clear understanding of who their character is and why they say and do the things they do.

A second way we can use an Actor Cap to elevate our writing is this: Give the characters memorable moments. Check out this scene late in The King’s Speech. It’s interesting to see how powerful the actual King’s throne is to Bertie. Note how he reacts when Lionel sits in it:

BERTIE (CONT’D)
What’re you doing? Get up!
LIONEL
I’m tired.
BERTIE
You can’t sit there!
LIONEL
Why not? It’s a chair.
BERTIE
It’s the Chair of Edward The Confessor! The
throne upon which every King for six and a
half centuries has been crowned.
LIONEL
It’s falling apart. People have carved
their initials into it. Needs a stone to
keep from blowing away.
BERTIE
That’s the Stone of Scone! The Stone of
Destiny that was once Jacob’s pillow.

By sitting on the throne, Lionel is attempting to demystify Bertie’s Shadow — his father / King / throne. Note where Lionel takes the conversation immediately following Bertie’s previous line:

LIONEL
You believe such ballocks I don’t care how
many royal backsides have sat on it, it’s a
building block with handles attached.
You’re just like me, an actor with tawdry
stage props you choose to believe are real.
BERTIE
Listen to me... !
LIONEL
Listen to you?! By what right?
BERTIE
Divine right, if you must! I’m your King!!!
LIONEL
Noooo you’re not! Told me so yourself. Said
you didn’t want it. So why should I listen
to a poor stuttering bloke who can’t put
one word after another? Why waste my time
listening to you?
BERTIE
Because I have a right to be heard!
LIONEL
Heard as what?!
BERTIE
A man! I HAVE A VOICE!!!
LIONEL
(quietly)
Well then...you’re cured.
BERTIE
Stop trying to squirm off the hook.
LIONEL
Bertie, you’ll make a bloody good king. And
you know it.

And there you have it — the truth behind the Shadow. Bertie has been caught up in the power of his Shadow for so many years, he has been unable to see or unwilling to admit a reality that exists deep within his soul: that he could be a good king. So while on the surface Bertie’s journey has been about overcoming his stutter, in the story’s Internal World, it’s fundamentally about confronting his Shadow and ‘defeating’ it — symbolically by making it through his big speech at the end (Final Struggle) in order to claim a deeper reality: He is a king. And that along with the conflict plus the visual of Lionel sitting in the King’s chair makes this a powerful moment.

When we write, from time to time it pays to don an Actor Hat and think about the characters we are crafting. Have we achieved clarity in conveying a character’s inner life and resulting motivations? Have we given our characters moments allowing the actor to shine in the spotlight and create cinematic scenes which help make the script feel like a movie? If we achieve both, we elevate the material we are working with.

Character clarity and character moments help actors do this:

Part 1: Director Hat

Tomorrow: Editor Hat.

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