In Walks a Tall Dark Stranger: Character Description Do's & Don'ts

It's common, when reading an amateur screenwriter's work to see the protagonist described using what I like to call the APB method. Here the author takes the idea of visual story telling a little to literally and feels the need to describe the protagonist solely as we would see him or her--to the point where we have a definite picture in our mind of the character and could even pick him or her out of a line-up, hence the All Points Bulletin.

While this might work in literature, where the movie is in our head, in a motion picture the movie is cast with real people, who are going to have a little more trouble changing their physical appearances to fit your APB (unless we're talking about Ron Pearlman). Not only that, but you don't want to write up a character description so specific that it is going to rule out a potential star like Leonardo DiCaprio or Angelina Jolie.

The challenge becomes striking a balance between the physical and the abstract, creating a character that has a definite physical presence and persona, but could be played by anyone. The common adage is that a character description has to serve as actor bait. To craft a character description that achieves this goal there are a few things to keep in mind:

1. A character is more than just a chiseled jaw and glaring eyes. In fact, there are three aspects to any character: the physiological, the psychological and the sociological. Try to include these characteristics in your description.

2. Give the actor something they can use in preparation. While actors are likely to create their own back-story for a character, regardless of how many tomes you have filled with your own, it can help to give them something abstract for them to internalize.

3. Introduce your protagonist in some sort of conflict that is indicative of their character.

4. Don't be afraid to use figurative language, i.e. similes, metaphors and allusions.

5. Don't play dress up with your character. Unless it's important to his character (which is rarely the case) leave it to wardrobe.

6. Don't distract from the story. Strive to keep your character description to a few lines.

7. Unless it is essential to his character, keep his appeal as broad as possible. Think Damon Wayans in The Last Boyscout, Danny Glover in Predator 2 and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury--all roles that were originally intended for white actors or were broad enough that an actor of any race could portray the character.

Now, let's see some examples of character description being handled deftly.

Star Wars by George Lucas

Braveheart  by Randall Wallace

Braveheart  by Randall Wallace

Get Low  by Chris Provenzano and C. Gaby Mitchell (Omitted parts indicated by ellipses)

A ray of light reveals the half face of a fierce gray bearded man, Felix Bush... [He] pushes open the door and gives Tom a sad look that the boy will never forget... Bush (72) steps into the sun and watches the boy run off with a look of muted anger, sadness, and something much deeper.

What screenplays do you feel handle character description well?