THURSDAY'S SCRIPT TIP:

CHARACTER SIGNATURES

You're watching a rerun of SEINFELD and Jerry's door bursts open and a character comes hurtling into the apartment like a runaway train, arms flapping to slow them down. Which character is that? Is it Elaine? George? Newman? Jerry? George's Mom?

That entrance is Kramer's signature. An action that distinguishes his character... but also helps to illustrate the force of nature that is Kramer. It's both a way to identify his character and a way to sow his character. One simple action that sums up Kramer - his whole life is a burst through the door. He dives head first into schemes without any thought to repercussions (what if Jerry is standing at the door when he bursts in?) - he is unpredictable (bam - he just comes in unannounced) - he doesn't do anything the "normal way" (knock) - he gives every action all of his energy (entering a room is a huge production) - he is focused on the moment, not the past or the future (his reasons for going to Jerry's always have to do with immediate needs - he's run out of cereal or his hot tub has sprung a leak) - and countless other aspects of character that Kramer's entrances reveal. It's a simple action that not only makes Kramer easy to remember, it gives us information about who he is.

I used to work with a guy who wore cowboy boots with metal reinforced soles that click-clacked when he walked. Actually, he didn't walk as much as speed-march. You could hear him coming from across the store. Click-clack-click-clack-click-clack. Here comes Robert! You'd know he was coming before you saw him. That's a good signature. I'll let you figure out why a guy would want to make that much noise when he walked for yourself - it did show all kinds of things about Robert's character. Everything we do shows our character, but screenplays only give us 110 pages to work in, so we have to find the ONE thing that gives us the most information in the most memorable action. Something that sums up the character in a few seconds of screen time.

In KILL BILL Vol. 2 the Sensei Pai Mei played by Gordon Liu is always flipping or stroking his beard - it's fun to watch the film and wait for him to fuss with his beard in every scene - sometimes he reaches for his beard, hesitates... then, when you've forgotten about it, flip the beard. He's a fussy, demanding, but wise old man, and the beard flip seems to sum up those different character traits in a single memorable action. Here's a clip from YouTube (in Spanish - sorry!).

In the original SCARFACE (1932) George Raft played the second in command, Rinaldo, and flipped a coin before killing someone. This character signature was so popular, Raft did it in almost every other movie he starred in (and Raft was a huge star, playing gangsters in many of the Warner Bros films from the 1930s and 1940s). Flipping a coin became so identified with Raft that he shows up in the comedy version of CASINO ROYALE in a scene just to flip a coin!

Groucho Marx taps the end of his cigar and wiggles his eyebrows. In MEAN STREETS Charlie (Harvey Keitel) holds his hands over a flame to test his endurance. Bogart tugged on his earlobe in films.

In my script for THE BASE there's a character who does slight of hand magic to make money magically appear in his hand to pay for drinks. I needed a little thing to make him distinctive and memorable and the bar magic worked well with his character. He was all about illusions - tricking people into doing his bidding.

Im those SCOOBY-DOO movies, Scooby jumps into Shaggy's arms at the first sign of danger... that not only makes him more memorable than all of the other talking dogs in the world, it also shows us his character. Okay - he's a talking dog - maybe we didn't need a character signature to help us remember him... but jumping into Shaggy's arms at the first sign of trouble gives us character information about Scooby. Stories are all about exploring character. We want to find the most interesting and *memorable* and *character oriented* actions for our characters.

Giving a character a signature action or phrase is a great way to give them identity and some insight into their character... plus get a great reaction out of the audience. "Hey, it's that guy again!" Or "Hey, it's that talking dog again!"

Completely rewritten - Last ran in 2001!

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