Characters and Role Analysis Questions

The following resources supply approaches used singularly or in combination to analyze the character you are playing.  None of them are academic exercises, but rather important tools to unlock the character process for the actor.  Included are the following four character development tools:

1.      Character Analysis Questions

Although the questions are many and very involved, in order to create the full life of the character, the actor should know the answers to all these questions regarding:

            Physical

            Social

            Psychological

            Moral

The actor must know the answer to every question, though the character in performance may be

(probably is), ignorant of many.

  

Physical Qualities

1.      Who am I?

2.      Who am I named after?  Do I like my name?

3.      What is my gender?  What do I think about sex?

4.      How old am I?  What do I think of my age?

5.      How does my posture express my age, health, inner feeling?

6.      How is my complexion?  What do I think of it?

7.      What is my height?  What do I think of I?

8.      What is my weight?  What do I think of it?

9.      What is the pitch, volume, tempo, resonance or quality of my voice?  What do I think of it?

10.  Is my articulation careless or precise?  Is my articulation standard or colloquial?  Do I have a dialect or accent?

11.  What is my hair color and style?  Do I like it?

12.  Do I have any deformities?  What do I think of them?

13.  Do I have any mannerisms?  What do I think of them?

14.  Do I have any handicaps?  What do I think of them?

15.  How energetic or vital am I?  Do I like it?

16.  Do I suffer from any diseases past or present?

17.  Are my gestures complete or incomplete, vigorous or weak, compulsive or controlled?

18.  Do I like my walk?

19.  How do I usually sit?

20.  How do I usually stand?

21.  Do I have any objects, hand props or accessories with me?  Why? How do I handle them?

22.  Are my basic rhythms smooth or jerky, even-tempered or volatile, impulsive or deliberate, ponderous or light, broken or continuous?

23.  What do I like to wear?  What do I have to wear?  How do I wear my clothes?  How do I handle them?

Social Qualities

1.      What do I do when I wake up each morning?

2.      What is my relationship to my environment? Do I like it?

3.      What is my educational background?  How much discipline was I subjected to?  How intelligent am I?

4.      What was my childhood like?  What are my strongest memories?

5.      How much money do I have?  How much do I want?

6.      What is my nationality?  What do I think of it?

7.      What is my occupation?  Do I like it?  What other jobs have I had?  When and why did I choose this one?

8.      What are my political attitudes?

9.      Am I religious?

10.  Whom would I choose to be if I could be anyone else?

11.  Did I have childhood heroes?  What did I like about them?

12.  Do I like members of the opposite sex?  What do I like about them?

13.  Who were my parents?  What do I like and/or dislike about them?

14.  Do I like my family?  What do I like?  What do I dislike?

15.  How has my mother influenced me?  How has my father influenced me?

16.  Do I have brothers and sisters?  What do I think about them?

17.  What was my favorite fairy tale?  Why?

18.  Who are my friends?  Who are my enemies?  How can I tell if someone is a friend or an enemy?

19.  What ideas do I like?  What ideas do I dislike?

20.  What hobbies or interests do I have?

21.  Do I have children?  Do I like them?  Why?  Do they like me?

22.  What advice do I have for my children? 

23.  Am I married?  Why did I marry the person I did?

24.  What do I think about my spouse?  What do I dislike?

25.  How do my physical traits affect each of the social traits?

26.  How do the social traits affect the script and my objective?

27.  How do the social traits affect my life needs and wants?

Psychological Qualities

1.      What choices do I face?

2.      What choices do I make?

3.      What makes me angry?  What relaxes me?

4.      What are my driving ambitions, my goals?

5.      Do I have ny instincts?

6.      Do I do things impulsively?

7.      What do I worry about?

8.      What do I want?  What do others think I want?

9.      What do I like about myself? Dislike about myself?

10.  What do I need?

11.  What do I fear?

12.  Why can’t I get what I want?

13.  Do other people like me?  Why?

14.  Are any of my psychological traits manifested physically?

15.  Are any of my psychological traits manifested vocally?

  

Moral Qualities

1.      Are the choices I will make based upon expediency of some ethical standard?

2.      Who do I admire?

3.      Will the pursuit of my needs lead to a moral choice?

4.      What is my attitude toward the choice I make?

5.      How do I express this attitude vocally and physically?