DZ-03: Making Unlikeable Protagonists Compelling

David Brent yeah

And that is actually a very striking difference that probably actually says a lot about how unlikable characters have changed within comedy. So, moving on from there, as you say all that, what I noticed in Hot Fuzz, As Good as It Gets in Groundhog Day, is it's not just that we perceive the characters as unlikable. The characters within the film tell us that the main character is unlikable. They tell the audience, you are not meant to like this person. The exception is Anchorman, and this is why it's a good counterpoint. In Anchorman, everyone thinks he's a great guy. And that's why when I was reading it, because it was one of the other modern comedies when we're trying to talk about something that was modern with an unlikable character, we went, oh, Anchorman, maybe. And I looked at it and I'm like, well, everyone in that film, in that world of that film, loves him. That we as the audience might find him slightly uncomfortable, it kind of works because it's more of a satire than a straight up comedy. But in all the other three scripts, yeah, they very much about how the characters are a-holes and how everyone perceives them. So, in that case, I would say it's not subjective. Objectively, on the page, the characters treated as a-holes, and that's actually part of the plot setups. And we'll get into more detail as we go further down. So, I'm going to bring up a definition of comedy offered up by Steve Kaplan, who's a great teacher. I don't want to call him a guru because I think that's being unfair and it's not necessarily what he's trying to do. And I was very fortunate to spend some time with him last year, thanks to a workshop being put on by Epiphany Artists. Steve Kaplan's definition of comedy, I think, is very useful for understanding what can make unlikable protagonists compelling. And that's really what we're trying to do here, is kind of unpick how to make someone that's unlikable and make them compelling. He says that comedies, most comedies, are about an ordinary guy or girl who is struggling against insurmountable odds without any of the necessary skills in order to win, and yet they never give up hope. All right and you start thinking about that and and Hannah that she is she's just an ordinary girl who's struggling against insurmountable odds within her world without necessarily the kind of self-awareness to overcome them yet she always still you know pushes forward and that's where the comedy comes from and then you know he talks it gives examples and you can even think about it within your own one you can come up with a comedic idea a character who is bumbling always trips over regardless of what they're doing and then the great way to create a comedic scene is someone that we know is uncoordinated like myself trying to go up set of escalators backwards right and something you can see how that comedy comes from that because they're never going to give up hope as soon as they turn around and go the other way the comedy is over and as soon as they actually have developed the skills in order to overcome the uh the escalator the comedy is over as well and that's actually something that's very interesting in comedy is the character change if it comes at all needs to come quite late because as soon as the character overcomes their flaw, the comedy kind of ceases to be comedic, which is probably why what you've talked about, that sometimes in comedy's third acts tend to be more dramatic.

With the exception of Anchorman, which is a very different kind of film than these. It's still a comedy, but it's very different.

Will Ferrell plays a character who's worshipped by people,

And then, after they've done that kind of, like, escalation, then they start deconstructing it. And this is a pattern that will, that As Good as It Gets, does very well. There's this kind of yin-yang or this peak and trough with our perceptions of the character that they play with to make it, in my mind, make the character both unlikable yet compelling. Which is, so you have this great, great action opening. And then you have this scene with Angel and the sergeant, which escalates. It's a classic escalation game from comedy where it's, you know, the sergeant basically wanting to send Angel to the country. And then Angel's like, but why? I'm like this great cop. You should be keeping me in London.

And so then the sergeant is... Well, it's like, fine, then talk to the inspector. And that's important because yes, it's escalation. He's going to the inspector, but he also, you get a sense of the character of Angel is he won't take no for the answer that he's willing to go to the, plead to the higher authorities and he's oblivious to the people situation. Right. And so then the inspector comes in, they basically have the same conversation and they even replete some of the same lines, give you that idea. But basically he's like, well, I can't believe I'm not going to, you know, I'm going to stay here. Let me talk to the chief inspector. and then the chief inspector finally gives the truth and this is the moment on seven page yeah page seven all right which is he he both tells the audience and the character the floor of the protagonist right which is you know we all appreciate your efforts but you're rather letting the side down you know I'll try and find the exact line I mean it's I mean obviously there's you know he says but my record is 406 higher than everyone else and the chief inspector exactly you know you're making the rest of us look bad well that's

Yes yeah and I think that's actually no that is a really good point I think there is what is interesting about the scene is they're telling the audience why the character is unliked, right? And then the next scene is about clarifying that into a flaw. And I'm not necessarily into the classic literature idea of every character needs to have a flaw, like a very specific one-word flaw pride. But in this case, it works very well. And so, you've got this set up. And then they kind of ram it home because the end of the scene is Angel saying, well, you know, you know, we're going to see what the team is going to make of this. And then he steps out and then the whole office is like saying, good luck, Nicholas. They want to see him gone. So, it's showing that the character is completely oblivious and it's escalated it from all these different, you know, right up to the chief inspector and then showing that the whole audience, the whole office finds him unlikable and they want to be rid of him. So, by page eight, we know that he's not liked, right? And then the scene with Janine and Angel on page nine, as you say, goes and tells us what his flaw is.

I think that's what makes it clever is it's the, yeah, the character flaw manifests itself in the very scene where he's told about the character flaw. Yeah, the line that I highlighted, you've got the, you can't just switch off, I've highlighted the, and until you find a person you care about more than the job, you never will.

No, and in fact, this actually makes me think of that definition of comedy that I read out to you, because I was like, well, is he an ordinary guy? The context of London, no, but go to the country town and he becomes a city cop in a world that he doesn't belong. So it's a fish out of water story. And does he found insurmountable odds without the necessary skills? But we've just seen him as this great cop. The thing is, it's not the cop skills that he needs to develop. It's actually all the people skills. You know, it's him overcoming that flaw that will make him be able to put it down. And again, I think this meets that definition because he tries, but he tries thoroughly without the skills that he should have. Like the pub scene's a great example to try and he never gives up hope that he's doing the right thing. But what makes him to me, I'm, yes, I mean, this point by 20 pages, the mystery plot hasn't kicked in. Right. So what is it making me, I mean, there's obviously some great funny zingers and everything, but I think it is the the yin yang structure so you have the idea that he's oblivious to the fact that he's unlike you see that he's broken up with his with Janine and that he was incapable of having a relationship and I think and it's very telling on page 12 after it's basically a travel montage but it says Angel leaves the section house striking a lonely figure on the pavement with his suitcase and a pot plant under his and they make a couple of references in this montage to him being lonely. And you can see the both that they do that on the page and the way they can shoot it as well to create that sense that he's actually lonely, he's oblivious. And the pop plant thing is funny because it is, I mean, it made me think of Léon, you know, the professional where he's like, you know, carefully tending the plant. And it seems like such a, you know, classic or cliched Hollywood note where you got the bad, you know, the unlike will tag us, but they care for the pet or they dog.

Actually I think what is difference between As Good as It Gets from Groundhog Day is the character of Angel is not a funny person in both those other characters part Their meanness manifests itself by being funny, which is one of the criteria that you've mentioned. Yet, Angel is not funny. It's the situation. And I think this is a great example of the situation coupled with a degree of sympathy towards an unlikable character makes you compelled to want to. It's like watching a car and a train, like it's a car crash moment. You're watching going, oh, man, I want to see how this goes on. And that's why the pub scene is important. Yes, it comes from character with him being oblivious, but it also shows you where the clash is going to come from, and you bizarrely want to watch the clash.

Yeah and I think what's interesting about Anchorman is they had to introduce the romance in order to show him he's someone that has taken for granted his success. And then him having to overcome insurmountable odds without necessary skills is him trying to romance Alicia. That's the way it kind of manifests it. And we see him like when he talks loudly and he tries to chatter up the first time, we see how

We see how his arrogance is failing, yet he doesn't give up hope because that arrogance hasn't failed him. So I think in that way, it's a comedy, but it is a different kind of comedy. I mean, I just think that whole Will Ferrell kind of deconstruction of masculine heroes is its own kind of genre and it's a very clever genre, but it is an interesting contrast to the scripts that we're talking about.

So it's more of a character flaw.

Yeah.

I think there's a lot of really interesting writing in the big print here that helps us understand the characters and how they're going to be played. And, yeah, I mean, both the overall character introduction, so Simon we introduced as a, and this is great, Simon has been born and raised with gothic car and it's strange that what that sort of trauma has produced is a gifted, decent man. That's very clear in the film that that's exactly what he is, right?

And that's because the next scene after this is the first confrontation between Simon and Melvin, where Simon is asking Archerie's dog. And that's where we're beginning to see... How unlikable Melvin is right which is he's he's racist he makes references to the the color of Simon's lover I mean he makes reference to Simon being a homosexual and we're beginning to go Melvin's not just throwing his dog away he's cruel to other people right and and because the story is just told us in big print that Simon is a gifted decent man that somehow makes that scene even worse because Simon, and it even describes him in a, in a beat as terminally non-confrontational. I think that's beautiful. Like it is actually, if you read the big print, it's an adjective subclause because it's Simon comma terminally non-confrontational comma still finds himself compelled. And it's the kind of note that people would try and get you to take out of your big print because I mean, it's not just an adjective, it's an adjective. Yeah, it is an adjective subclause, right? Yet it's super important because it explains the whole way this scene's played and explains who Simon is and so you have this whole scene and then we're told at the end of it on the on the top of page four what I perceive is the character flaw of of Melvin which is said by Simon Simon directly and actually has in parentheses directly you don't love anything Mr Udall

Doesn't

It if

Yeah and I think it also complicates the clear statement of theme yeah because otherwise it's just what you would call it it's just a tag uh for the scene like it's a comedic tag and it doesn't really add much if not confuse this thing so it is it does make sense that they've cut it out and as you say they then go and introduce Melvin's OCD which is important so you have this moment so so just to recap we see Melvin is horrible he's hated by person we see a dog pee he throws it away then we see the guy come and ask about his dog and Melvin is homophobic and racist and then he gets called out on on basically being loveless and then what the script does is

Yeah. And he's, and it's very important that, but yeah, he's funny and then we'll talk about it. There's a couple of little moments where you can see that they're very much writing a comedic character who is saying funny lines, right? And he's using very transgressional humor, that very kind of uncomfortable humor. And that's really important because it is, they're building up like the sound and the fury of him, right? And then they take us into his apartment and we start seeing his OCD. So, we see him, you know, counting to the five as he does each lock. We see him unwrap the soats. One washes his hands and then gets rid of the, you know, there's a couple of little beats. And then we cut away with it and then we follow Simon discovering the dog, right? The dog's been rescued for those who haven't seen it. And then we cut back to Melvin's apartment. And what's beautiful in the big print is they, as soon as we cut back to it, it is quiet, dash, dash, safe, dash, dash, just Melvin's voice reading aloud as he writes. And that's important. The safe is this beautiful little, just one word that tells us everything about what is about to happen because Melvin feels safe in his apartment. And we begin to understand that this is a guy who's threatened, that his meanness is a reaction to the fact that he feels insecure, right? And so, then we get, you know, obviously see that he's a writer and we see him being really good. And it's interesting that he's writing romantic novels. He's writing love because the whole thing is he doesn't love anyone. You know, he could have been writing crime fiction. He could have been writing, I don't know, techno thrillers. He could have been like a Tom Clancy character, but he's not. He's a romantic novelist. And obviously, they are clearly playing for the irony of that. It is not an accidental choice, you know. And then we've got the knock at the door and then we get the second confrontation with Simon. And Melvin right

Never never interrupt me even when I'm dead yeah right I

So extreme and makes you kind of laugh at him and with him in this kind of awkward moment but what's also really interesting I thought this was what makes this writing so beautiful is there actually a moment there it's like this little hint of them bonding right which obviously pays off later on but which is the idea of do you like to be interrupted basically when you're working he's mean about it and then Simon says no actually I even shut the phone off and put a little piece of cardboard in So there's this moment of them actually, like they're not connecting, but you can see that they've got the potential to connect. It's only two little beats, but so important as in with everything this script. And then obviously this, well, obviously, so this scene escalates. So you've got Simon and Melvin and ultimately Simon is basically, you know, Melvin has won. Like Simon's gone back and Melvin goes back inside. And there's another knock, which is, comes from Frank, which is Simon's art dealer. Right. And Frank then again puts it almost on the nose about what Melvin's problem is, which is you may think you can intimidate the whole world with your attitude, but I grew up in hell. My grandmother has more attitude. You don't intimidate me. So that's his, that's what he says to him. So we understand that Melvin is attitude, but he also, there is action, which is in the paragraph before, which is basically Frank grabs Melvin by his shirt and jerks him forward. And Melvin is scared. It's the first time that we see Melvin is scared. And that comes back to that quiet, safe note of the apartment, which is that they're now showing him as someone who is scared of the world and all his sound and fury hides the fact that he can't handle physical confrontation.

And then the dialogue, no touch, no touch, no touch. You could have cut Melvin is scared because you could argue that the dialogue says the same thing. They have to get it right. And, you know, and I think it's very easy to start cutting out all that stuff because, oh, my dialogue says it. But, you know, sometimes I think you've got to actually explain the performances. You know, acting is something we don't have on the page. We don't get the richness of a performance. So, you have to try and use those words as much as possible.

In New York.

Yeah, because there's no clear situation by the end of page 20, right? I was, just because we've been talking about it, I was like, I don't actually think this follows Blake Snyder at all. Or even The Hero's Journey, which is, even though it is effectively a romantic comedy in so many ways. You know, it is, yeah, it's not about the situation at this point. In that case, I'm still going to talk on, and like you, I have analysed some of this, but I noticed some beautiful little bits and pieces in terms of the writing. I didn't rewatch this in preparation. I wanted to just talk about the writing. There's the moment at the end of the scene with the confrontation with Frank. Where it ends with Frank smiles as he re-enters the other apartment. Melvin appears impressed.

It is too. That's my eyesight.

Yeah. And I just thought it was an interesting, again, this kind of yin-yang, very subtle, you know, black and white. Black and white creating shades of grey in that got him seen scared, but he respects the fact that Frank stood up for Simon. And all those little moments are about building where Melvin will ultimately go with his relationship with his people. And you're right. Look, once we hit page 10, we introduce Carol and then we start kind of breaking into Carol following Carol's story and all those kinds of things. What happens after this, there's still some really interesting little moments that we can talk about. I mean, we see the moment of Melvin going out into New York and then taking great pains to avoid stepping on cracks. And it's a great moment in the film. And, you know, it is another beat reinforcing.

And, you know, what's interesting, and it just popped into my head when we talked about the fact that he lived in a New York apartment. He says to the dog, if you make it in New York, you can make it anywhere before he tosses him out. And weirdly, the whole thing is he can't make it anywhere else. He needs New York because, weirdly, the city itself is alienating. I mean, in some ways that's trying to- there is definitely elements of them trying to show New York is alienating. And that's part of the reason he's more comfortable there than elsewhere.

Yes. And so, we have the introduction of Carol and there's some really great big print to do with Carol. And that's, yes, they're introducing other major character, but there's also her relationship with Melvin. So, on page 11, you know, she puts two hands lightly on his waist to move him out of the way because Melvin's coming to talk to him. He gulps at the contact in brackets since no one else ever touches him, but he covers his self-consciousness. That big print's beautiful and it is something that is playable The very line, since no one else ever touches him, it tells us a lot. There is already the sense of permission with Carol. And then it pays that off later where it actually describes as there is in Carol's attitude towards Melvin some ingredient of self-satisfaction, that she is the only one in the place who can handle him. All right. So, there is this stuff in the big print that is explaining the dynamic in this, I think it's about three or four page scene that I think is really important to understand in their relationship to each other. And we're beginning to see someone that isn't as scared of Melvin as Melvin everyone as we talked about unlike showing someone that likes him we're not showing someone that yet likes him but we're showing someone that can handle

And I think that probably ties to the fact that she's got her own sick child and she's a very caring person and all those things. But it is absolutely important. It does help us beginning to change our perception of Melvin. So, we see all that niceness, kind of quasi-knightness. And then Melvin F's it up on page 13.

Oh, it's going to get marked as explicit on iTunes anyway. You could have warned

No. We're writers. We're going to- We got the love of language. Which David Milch style, she says, you know, you're going to die soon with that diet, you know, and Melvin steps over a line and he uses something that is a classic one, two punch joke structure, which is we're all going to die soon. I will, you will. It sure sounds like your son will. And we're like, and it actually says on Carol stunned. And that's that moment where you're like, well, he stepped over a line. Right. And then it says some crazy street freak has slipped under a perfect guard and momentarily devastated her. And again, in the Big Print, Melvin senses that he's gone way too far. He wipes his eyes. And the scene plays this moment on screen beautifully. You absolutely get that sense of, oh, he actually has a line. He realizes it. He doesn't know how to deal with it. And she tells him off, you know. She calls him a crazy fuck. And he's got him a beat. And then Melvin nods, hardly breathing, backing down. So, we've seen that Melvin also has a line. So, we're getting more sense of this character and more of their relationship. But we- It's not that we begin to like this guy, but we're kind of getting to get our head around him and maybe beginning to empathize. And it's a beautiful little moment. And the performance writing absolutely kills it for us. And then this is important because then on page 20, the very last page we agreed to read in this exercise, he sees Carol at another restaurant. And look, he's giving us running commentary. He's being mean. And she says something to him as, just give yourself a little pep talk. Must try other people's clean silverware as part of the fun of dining out. And then Melvin completely changing the topic. This is an absolute topic change. It's a new beat. He says, what's wrong with your son anyway? And she says, what do you care? And Melvin just looks at her. But I think what's really interesting is because it's such complete topic change, because it comes out of nowhere, we know that he's actually been thinking about it. That that moment where he went too far has met, he's beginning, he is beginning to care. He doesn't know what to say when she says, why do you care? And so, by the end of page 20, we've actually beginning to see the beginning of this change, that he is going to start caring about Carol. I mean, that is a meet cute, even though they've met cute before. Really, the meet cute moment is him offending her and then him beginning to want to make it up for her.

And what

That's when we're beginning to get a sense of who Phil is. But it's not, it's kind of filtered a little bit more throughout the script in terms of the Big Print.

Yes. Oh, yeah, we get a sense of through his character. it's just interesting that they made a choice more to kind of the Big Print only alludes to it rather than very much like he's unliked and unsettling but coming back to your point about the compelling there is this line on the bottom of page three and I haven't really watched Groundhog Day because I wanted to focus on the script but you did so you can tell me whether it's still in there which is he says I'm not going to get stuck with the groundhog for the rest of my life that is and there's a couple of other references about him not wanting to be the groundhog day there is this sense of this foreshadowing of what's going to hype. It doesn't necessarily create a strong dramatic question, but it's interesting that they've made that choice to foreshadow it because I think it creates a little bit of, well, it sets it up. Like in terms of you saying they can get rid of the curse, I think that foreshadowing allows them to get rid of that curse. I don't think that

Wow, that's interesting. Obviously, an important thing they do about Phil is they make him funny. And there is a great line where Rita says, do you always joke? And he says, no, about 70% to 80% of the time. Inside, I'm a very shy and sensitive person, so I kid.

Does her line that follows it, which is a lot of people around here think you're not very sincere, did that make the final film?

The car crash. It's the fish out of the water comedy, but it's not, it's like fish out of water. It sounds like it's non-deliberate. It is like mixing oil with water to try and see what happens. And I mean, do they have, cause obviously you're saying that they cut the film with the same as Stephanie, which is true. And she on the page, page eight actually says to Phil, you know, what's wrong with you, Phil, you're selfish. You don't have time for anyone, but yourself. All right. So that whole stating the flaw is, can you remember a moment in the actual film where they state the character flaw?

Yeah.

And what's interesting, because I was going to say one of the reasons to read the screenplays is so you can go and see what's sold. Well, effectively, we're only reading the Harold Ramis versions when it's already got into him. And as you say, they've actually pulled it back in the film versus what's on the page. Because it is more extreme in both in calling out the flaw. He's super mean to the ex-girlfriend, which is a great contrast to Hot Fuzz where he's been broken up with. He's been doing the breaking up, right? You know, and it is such an easy way to make an unlikable protagonist least sympathetic is that you, yeah, you see him getting broken up with because he's an a-hole. Mm-hmm. I've been wanting to just mention for a while is there's this great quote from Steven Soderbergh, which says, if you want to learn more about screenwriting, understand editing. That screen writing and editing are so interrelated that it's very easy to forget that what we're seeing is the finished film has gone through this whole process of editing, which has got incredibly, which is so intricately involved with how the story is told. So who knows what they shot? They could have shot a lot of this stuff and then pulled it out in the editing and they've had to have it on the page because they needed it to work as a read.