Lessons on Creating Characters from Method Actors

Never allow yourself externally to portray anything that you have not inwardly experienced and which is not even interesting to you. -Constantin Stanislavski

The idea of creating a “character” may seem like a vague concept, but it needn’t be!

Photo by Kyle Head on Unsplash

The thing we can help ourselves with when thinking about “character” is to read the classic writings of Constantin Stanislavski (1863-1938), co-founder of the Moscow Art Theatre, and who directed Anton Chekhov's plays. His teachings on acting are directly useful for writers in creating memorable and believable characters.

As we know, Stanislavski’s teachings known as “method acting” greatly influenced the work of great actors such as Marlon Brando, Meryl Streep, Jeremy Strong, Natalie Portman, Dustin Hoffman, Daniel Day-Lewis and others.

I believe his classic An Actor’s Handbook can just as easily be used as a writer’s handbook.

You cannot use everyone else’s feelings, or made-up feelings. They always come from you. So you will always be playing yourself, but it will be in an infinite variety of combinations of objectives, and given circumstances. -Constantin Stanislavki