
Point of view is how a character thinks and feels about anything—a person, a place, a thing, a circumstance—anything. It’s a perspective that informs what a person initiates and how they respond.
Words alone don’t communicate a point of view. Saying the words “What a beautiful day” doesn’t mean that the person thinks it’s a beautiful day if the words are accompanied by an eye-roll and a sarcastic tone of voice. Point of view is communicated through the combination of words, tone of voice, and body language.
When your character has a point of view, it makes your job easier. It helps when entering a scene, building or breaking rapport, taking a hit, creating a reveal, or ending a scene. Your work becomes easier when you embody a perspective.
The benefits don’t end with you. Your point of view is also a gift to everyone you play with. It gives other players something to respond to. They know what you think and how you feel, which in turn brings up thoughts and feelings within them. The back-and-forth flow of perspectives becomes the ebb and flow of relationship between characters.
But what happens if your character doesn’t have a point of view? Sometimes it might seem that your character’s perspective is neutral. The problem with “neutral” is that it doesn’t have much dramatic juice. A character with no particular perspective about what’s going on brings little energy to the given circumstance and gives others little to respond to. While a neutral perspective may be fine in real life, it doesn’t serve in fiction very well. If you find your character holding a neutral point of view, there are a couple of ways to address it.
It matters to you – You can transform a neutral point of view by allowing something to matter to your character. Whatever the circumstance may be, make it personal. Assume the credit or blame for the current situation. If your brain tells you, “But it wouldn’t matter to my character,” then discover a new facet of your character. Any character can have multiple layers. This becomes an opportunity for you to discover and reveal another layer of yours.
Embody the core point of view – Another remedy for a neutral point of view is to embody your character’s core point of view. This isn’t how your character feels about the immediate circumstance, it’s the default perspective that your character has on life in general, regardless of the circumstance. A good example of primary perspectives can be seen in the characters of Snow White’s seven dwarves. Whatever your character is at the core—happy, grumpy, bashful, dopey—if your perspective is idling in neutral, get the scene in gear by embodying your character’s core point of view.
It’s relatively easy to play characters who share your values and perspectives, but step into the shoes of a character who is nothing like you, and the task may become more challenging. It may feel awkward to embody a perspective that you find morally repugnant, like that of a rapist, a homophobe, or a pacifist.
Most actors don’t have this problem when performing in scripted work. They relish playing villains, scoundrels, and rogues whose morals and ethics are nothing like their own. For actors, the script provides a kind of absolution. “I’m just doing what’s in the script.”
It’s different when you’re the one responsible for making up what you say and do. Some assume that, since you’re the one who’s making it up, somewhere deep inside you must secretly live the dark and disgusting point of view that you’ve created, otherwise, how would you have come up with it to begin with? But that assumption isn’t necessarily true. Perhaps you have a knack for understanding people who are nothing like you; perhaps you’re deeply empathetic; or maybe you’re just a really good actor. The point is this: You are not your character. You don’t need to agree with your character’s point of view, but you do need to play it convincingly.
When playing a repugnant character, it can be tempting to portray a stereotype as a way to show that it’s not really you. This neither serves the story nor the spect. Every character, regardless of point of view, needs to come across as a real human being, or spects won’t become invested. If spects encounter stereotypes, their behaviors become stereotypical too. Beyond just being offensive, playing stereotypes also creates little opportunity to discover varied layers that make for interesting characters.
Another device that players sometimes use to distance themselves from distasteful characters is to play them as stupid or illogical. Even if the logic isn’t one that you subscribe to, it’s important that your character follow an internal logic.
Rodger believes that homosexuality is a mortal sin. When he learns that his daughter, Lily, is gay, he tries to help her understand how her unnatural sexual choice hurts others, as well as herself, and will ultimately separate Lily from her family who love her very much.
Remember that characters you find distasteful are there to create obstacles for the protagonist. When these characters are stupid or illogical, there’s not much sense of achievement in overcoming the obstacles they present. Play to the top of your character’s intelligence, no matter how objectionable you find their point of view. Protagonists can only become as strong as the obstacles they encounter.
Compelling characters have strong points of view. However, in an effort to “support the spect,” inter-actors will sometimes allow the spect to change their point of view with minimal effort. The problem is, this comes across as pandering. When a spect attempts to change your perspective, stay committed to your point of view. Don’t be swayed instantly; make them work for it. You may need to modulate how strongly you hold to your perspective, based on the strength of the spect’s commitment. Setting your threshold of transformation just a little higher than their level of commitment is a good way to get spects more invested. When spects have to step up their game in order to get you to change, the change in your point of view feels like something they’ve earned.
When the time comes to change your point of view, accompany the internal change with an external change in your body. If you’re looking down, look up. If you’re sitting down, stand up. A change in your physical position visually reinforces the change in your point of view.Taking the hit is a changed point of view, which is why the facial expression and physical position alter when the hit is taken.
There may be times when your character needs to change point of view (for example, when creating rapport), but doing so feels like it violates who your character is. In these circumstances, remember that you can drop the mask and reveal a point of view that has been hidden beneath the surface.
Lastly, remember that you don’t always need to change in order to support the spect. You can hold on to a resistant point of view and still justify going along with the spect’s perspective because of your loyalty and commitment to their character.
As important as it is for your character to have a point of view, it’s equally important to recognize and understand the spect’s point of view. If you don’t grasp spects’ perspectives, it’s difficult to craft effective interactive stories for them. Some of the most important interactive techniques rely on your ability to recognize the spect’s point of view—activating spects, building rapport, identifying the spect’s value, developing a story goal, creating leverage. Here are a variety of ways to identify a spect’s point of view.
Observe their responses – Pay close attention to how spects respond to situations. Oftentimes their point of view is obvious, you just need to be paying attention.
Make a guess – If you’re paying attention and still aren’t sure what a spect’s point of view is, make an educated guess based on your thin slice of them; then test your hypothesis, and revise it, if necessary.
Ask them – There’s nothing wrong with being obvious. You can always ask spects what they think or how they feel about something or someone. Just be sure to pay as much attention to their body language and tone of voice as you do to their words.
Your character’s point of view gives spects something to respond to and has significant impact when building or breaking rapport. The spect’s character’s point of view is valuable when reading spects and playing the spect’s story.
Updated: August 22, 2024