Who Is Your Protagonist?
And why is he a white guy between the ages of 24-45?
Fellow UCLA Screenwriter alums caught on to where I was going next in my Chick Flick Rant: Angelina Jolie’s role in SALT was written for a male, Tom Cruise to be specific. As was the part of Lieutenant Ripley in the ALIEN franchise, Jody Foster’s role in FLIGHT PLAN, Lucy Liu’s role in EKS VS. SEVER, and there are other examples.
It’s striking to me that Sigourney Weaver kicked ass in the original ALIEN in 1979 – I wish I could ALL CAP numbers- and this didn’t launch a plethora of new female protagonist roles? (Kudos to James Cameron for the iconic Sarah Connor.) Weaver reprised her role in 1986, 1992 and 1997. In 2010, we are still only marginally and with great exception “allowing” women to play strong action protagonists and heroes, and some of those roles are still won by stealing roles written for men.
I have a great variety of writer, actor and filmmaker peers, of differing ethnic backgrounds and physical ability and age. A handful of whom keep blogs, a running theme of which echoes my sentiments above, only fill in the blank with their particular angle: “Why aren’t more protagonist roles written for ________.” I agree.
In a screenplay, it is preferable NOT to indicate the race or physical ability/disability of a particular character when writing character description, unless it is integrated into the story (it comes into play specifically story-wise, where the event/plotline/action would not otherwise occur without the specific race/ability in question.) Screen Actors Guild promotes this practice, the thinking behind it being that visionary casting directors will/should call all types and ethnicities of actors to read for each role, unless otherwise stated. As well, writers providing such description unnecessarily contributes to out-dated thinking. Leave room for the part to be filled by someone interesting, new and unconventional.
Unfortunately, most casting directors are bound by the same antiquated ideas as many producers, etc., and unless otherwise stated, imagine, “WHITE MALE” when reading the protagonist’s part.
However, and this is not to dismiss or make light of their legitimate viewpoints and the arguments above: the one thing a screenwriter MUST provide on the page (with few exceptions) is the gender.
Writers gender their protagonist by naming them “Tom” “John” and “Mr. Whomever”, provide the age and that’s it. Unless integrated, we don’t need to know if they have a mustache, brown hair, are Chinese, or hard of hearing: the casting director will use their vision to provide the best actor for the role (in theory). BUT – the writer MUST gender! I argue this is where writer’s need to exercise a unique vision.
Artists are supposed to be forward-thinking, leading edge, non-conformists. Leave conformity to the Blue Suits*.
What blows my mind is that Hollywood Execs don’t trust the numbers that they cling to so dearly. In 2009, what movie grossed over $90 million? Julia and Julia. What movies grossed MORE than $100 million? The Proposal, It’s Complicated and the big surprise — The Blind Side! All movies with female leads. Yes, you could make the argument that It’s Complicated and The Proposal both had famous males among the cast — but really, the WOMEN were in the driver’s seat! It’s Complicated was all about the amazing Meryl Streep. And Blind Side — which had no name male leads — grossed more than $255 MILLION! All thanks to Mrs. Sandra Bullock. You’d think that would buy ladies some cred…
And lets not forget Twilight: New Moon. Yes, there are men in it — but it’s not 13 year old boys driving those ticket sales. Who saw that movie? GIRLS. In crazy large numbers. Almost $300 MILLION in tickets sales worth.
What about 2008? Twilight and the Sex and the City Movie (whether you like them or not) both took in over $150 million. Mamma Mia — a VERY female driven film despite appearances by Colin Firth and Pierce Brosnan — grossed $144 million. And Wanted — starring the lovely Mrs. Jolie-Pitt — grossed $134 million.
The only reason there aren’t more examples of Female-driven movies garnering big box office dollars is because studios just don’t make them. Instead they prefer to try and write to Fanboys and 13-year-old guys. I’m not saying there isn’t an audience for it — clearly there is a big one — but there are other audiences too. And Fanboys and Teenager Boys aren’t always a reliable audience, as this Hollywood Reporter article proves:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004109599
Hollywood Execs need to realize what Television Executives have known for awhile time now. Female audiences drive consumer spending and can be a big financial draw. Hence why ABC is one of the top networks at the moment. Yes, they are trying to shoot for the “four quads” — women and men, young and old — but many of ABC’s long-running success stories [with the exception of LOST] have been due to catering their shows to women. Look at their roster of current shows: GREY’S ANATOMY, PRIVATE PRACTICE, BROTHERS AND SISTERS, DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, COUGARTOWN…and in the reality realm, THE BACHELOR AND BACHELORETTE. Lets face it, those are shows primarily aimed at women. And even some shows with male audiences on ABC have strong female leads — look at V and MODERN FAMILY.
TV seems to understand the importance of diversity-minded entertainment in a way that Hollywood just has not. Look at LOST, GREY’S ANATOMY, V, HEROES, COMMUNITY, THE OFFICE, 30 ROCK, and LAW & ORDER.
Dear Hollywood: This is 2010. Please cast accordingly.
Great comment, agree completely. I just don’t get it. The idea that making movies aimed towards women is a losing proposition, or worse, when done, tries too hard to guage “what women relate to,” missing completely. I’ll tell you what women relate to: HOT, MOSTLY NAKED, YOUNG MEN! Ok, TWILIGHT is the subject of a coming blog post, the real answer is: great story. The numbers prove otherwise! This is along the same lines is how “drama audiences will only attend movies in November” – it’s the “proven” release month for “Academy Award condendors” – no drama dare be released any other time of year (God forbid Summer) because the audience simply won’t buy tickets.
What?
So thiiiiis is why Will Ferrell is cast into every character.
[...] too. Even the spec I’m working on isn’t safe. My manager instructed me to make the lead a male (see my other post about protagonists) and stated that the only actor who could get an action-adventure financed would be –you guess [...]