Screenwriting : When you’re creating your characters, do you picture specific actors playing the roles? by Phillip E. Hardy, "The Real Deal"

I do. I picture every moment in my head, and I also picture great actors speaking the lines. I think it has helped me write better dialogues, and even leads to revisions.

Bill my friend, great actors both living and dead? I'd think we'd both have loved working with Steve McQueen. I just printed out the treatment I cowrote with David Blyth and I'm about to start writing the first draft script. Other than age, I have no character descriptions or any idea what these people look like yet. I'm a blank F*#king slate. However, there is one main character David and I both agreed should be modeled after an old, hippie version of Donald Sutherland. Sort of Oddball at age 70. I'm figuring on writing a Merry Prankster's, magic bus ridin', LSD poppin' kind o' guy.

Damien: Dennis Hopper in "Apocalypse Now", perfection! When he's the sanest person in the camp, you know you're in trouble.

There's a say: don't cast before you write. I guess there are two ways this can happen, and maybe we should take that with a grain of salt. I'd say that if you have an inspiration and start writing your characters, and then you realise that this character looks like some actor you know, I guess it doesn't hurt much. The second alternative is that you have an actor in your head before you start writing, and that can be a problem since you will 1. copy the character from another movie and 2. limit the scope of your own inspiration to an already existing frame. Of course I'd recommend you never stick to an actor in your mind if it ever goes against or limits your inspiration, for the role of an actor is to embody the written part. If you repeat what he can do, you will never get the best of an actor that is pushing him beyond his confort zone. It's a tough job to cast and it can make or break your movie. I'd recommend that you ask for a casting director if you ever fall short on your list.

I never think about any actors as certain characters. I create the characters that fit the story I am trying to tell. When the story is finished I'm sure certain actors would fit the characters in the story.

So far, i only think about actors when writing for an existing tv show. then i think about them constantly! as i'm writing my film, i see visual portrayals of the characters but not actual actors. i am guilty of scouting while watching movies though :)

I never do. Think it would cloud my judgement and block my path in some ways.

I think for the sake of being inspired, one may imagine a role in the story they're writing and attribute it to a specific actor. This should rarely occur but when one's inspiration goes low, I think a picture or a phrase said by an actor, that can suit a given character might help.

For example, I admire the character of Calvin J Candie in Django Unchained such that I picture him talking and telling Schultz and Django the story of Old Ben to get sarcastic with a character in my story. I don't think it's harmful unless it really doesn't speak well for the character in the entire course of the story.

I'll admit I'm guilty of this on occasion. I also listen to song lyrics and somehow those circumstances end up in my writings. I need to lock myself in a cave so there are no distractions.

I'm guilty for lead rolls, and sometimes the romantic co-star.

Phillip D. Smith....Phillip Sedgewick...Phillip Hardy....they must have 50 scripts between them...."Phillip" is like a magical name for prolific screenwriters! Good luck, Phillip trio!

With most script I write lately, I have a concept art folder. I'm a visual person so I love to look at pictures for inspiration. Now it's the script or idea that inspires me to find the art as I have an image in my mind that I will try and capture in a pic. These pics are not always real actors or actors I would want to get but they are my inspiration while writing. I do that with locations too. Of course not every location but if I'm inspired by something I'll put it in my concept art folder.

I have used this for one screenplay due to the subject matter, as the 2 characters I was writing into the script had a great deal of experience with the premise.

Funny you asked, Phillip D. I only did this at the beginning, no not even. Only did it with my first screenplay. Now, it's not important. It's something I can control and don't need to. I do need to visualize the world, the colors, the clothes, the speech pattern of my characters. Period. I let the other characters describe one another IF they're close or IF they hate each other. Great question. I hadn't ponder on this in years.

True Jorge. In essence, that's supposed to be the exact way to stand out and make a unique script. Other than make a movie that might resemble some other.

Scarlett Johansson is in all my scripts - can't think why.

I try not to but I can't help it. One script I'm working on, I can picture my two main characters and the actors playing them, as I write and nobody else playing them. But in reality, that may not happen. I try not to, so I don't get attached like that, but you can't help it sometimes.

I think it's great that other writers imagine actors while they are writing and rewriting dialogues. It opens up another avenue of creativity while you're thinking and writing dialogue because you're also imagining someone saying it. Another good creative tip is to say it while you write it. To paraphrase Steinbeck, It adds to the authenticity and the actual sound of speech.

"Say it while you write it." Love it, Billy. I acted out, while I write it and find myself reliving my characters pain, tears, joy, all moment by moment.

Jorge - just be careful with those exorcism scenes, and under no circumstances should you play with a Ouija board or ever recite the phrase "attenrobendum eos, ad consiendrum, ad ligandum eos, potiter et solvendum, et at, congregontum eos, coram me." Oops...so sorry.....if you read that phrase....immediately surround yourself with a circle of white candles and goat heads, never leave the circle nor let the white candles extinguish, and you'll be fine. Probably.

Bill you need salt for protection. I try not to picture actors, HOWEVER, I have one screenplay that i have fully cast and it's actually helping me build their characters. I don't describe my characters as looking like those actors though. Mostly I have a generic image in my head.