Shooting for the Stars: Writing a Screenplay that Attracts Top Acting Talent

by

Michael Schulman 

Most screenwriters, as part of their creative process, envision specific actors speaking the dialogue they have brought to life.  There is absolutely nothing wrong in writing a screenplay with specific actors in mind, and almost any mental tool that helps to visualize what you are writing is to be encouraged.  However, focusing too narrowly on writing for specific actors can be a liability that ends up backing you into a corner, and it is important to be aware of the potential pitfalls.  

As a screenwriter one can over-think things (and most do), but an awareness of some of the basic realities of the movie business can greatly enhance the prospects for your project to get noticed, optioned or sold, and ultimately produced by those with the power to make these decisions.  When a producer or studio executive considers material, one of the first questions they are likely to ask is: who can I put in this movie in the starring roles?  Simply put, the more castable a screenplay is the more likely decision-makers are to get excited about it.  

The Myth of the Dying Star

William Goldman once defined a movie star as an actor or actress who can reliably open a movie in the number one box office position.  This seems like a rather mundane way to describe the powerful and ineffable aura of stardom, especially coming from a writer who penned some of the greatest movies of our time including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Marathon Man, All the President’s Men and The Princess Bride.  Maybe Goldman was in a particularly jaded frame of mind when he said it but, if we apply his definition strictly, one could argue there are very few (if any) real movie stars left in existence.  

Among the most prominent actors working today, and the term “actor here is gender neutral, there is not one above-the-title name who can guarantee a movie will open to big box office numbers.  There are a number of reasons for this phenomenon, having mainly to do with the ever-changing economics of the entertainment business.  With the exception of a small handful of truly bankable stars appearing in sequels or the same types of movies that established them in the first place, actors may not have the same clout they once did to get the “green light” from studios, but that doesn’t mean they are any less important to the process.  

Even if the involvement of a major movie star is no longer the primary engine that gets a screenplay off the ground, few studio heads are willing to put tens or hundreds of millions of dollars on the line producing a movie without recognizable actors in the lead roles.  Whether or not we rush out to see our favorite actor’s latest movie on opening weekend, audiences still love our movie stars, and who appears in a movie remains one of the most important factors in assessing a movie’s appeal.  One constant that isn’t likely to change any time soon is that movies—even animated movies—need actors to play the roles, and the more prominent the actors that are cast the better the chances bode for a movie’s commercial and critical success.  

Writing for Actors

Many screenwriters make the understandable, but perhaps ill-advised, mistake of writing a role with a specific star in mind precisely because that actor knocked it out of the park in the past with a similar kind of part.  You may have thought that Robert Downey Jr. was terrific in Ironman, bringing a level of humanity and sophistication to his performance seldom seen in the superhero genre, but chances are he is probably not interested in playing another superhero any time soon.  The same can be said of Anthony Hopkins and serial killer roles, or Dennis Quaid and over-the-hill baseball players.  

Actors, especially those who have many choices for their next project, have an artist’s mentality.  They are extremely wary of being typecast and are constantly looking for opportunities to explore new creative terrain.  They do not necessarily want to return to the same types of roles that may have put them on the map in the first place.  A role that is wellwritten enough to interest one A-list actor will probably be good enough to appeal to dozens of other meaningful stars, some of whom may not have been even on the radar screen when you first began writing.

There is a certain degree of interchangeability here and, as a screenwriter, you do not want to limit yourself to a single first-choice actor who may either pass on your project, or be otherwise unavailable.  

When Eddie Murphy’s agents were scrambling to find his next project to follow up on the success of the 48 Hours and Beverly Hills Cop franchises, they didn’t limit themselves to considering projects that were written for African-American leading men, and as I remember it the original Dr. Doolittle certainly wasn’t a black guy.  Actors (and their representatives) are constantly on the look-out for new projects, searching for roles that allow them to stretch their artistic talents.  A good screenwriter is mindful of crafting roles that expand, rather than limit, casting possibilities.

Building the Right Starcraft

If your screenplay has any hope of reaching the stars, you need the right vehicle to take them where they want to go next in their careers. The first rule is to make sure that your lead character is the active force in the story, that is to say someone whose actions propel the story forward.  This is not as simple as it sounds.  Too many even so-called “action” screenplays feature protagonists who are re-acting to outside forces throughout the entire movie.  There may be no lack of flying bullets, exciting high-speed pursuits, and gaudy pyrotechnics, yet the protagonist is always the one passively responding to these threats, instead of taking control of the narrative and forcing the story to bend to his or her will.  

Bruce Willis, in his signature role of John McClane in the Die Hard series, may not have chosen to get trapped inside a skyscraper taken over by terrorists, but at a certain point in the story he turns the tables on the bad guys and forces them to play by his rules.  It may seem self-evident, but the reason he is able to do this is because his character has a clearly defined goal: to rescue the hostages, especially his estranged wife, and redeem his sullied reputation.  If John McClane had no end game in mind, there would not have been any real story, and the entire movie would have consisted of him scurrying through air ducts to save his own skin.  This is a purposely absurd example, but it is surprising how many screenplays fail to dramatize that “turning point” moment where the protagonist finally decides to take command and make this their story.  

Breaking the Rules

Genres in movies exist for a reason, they provide the audience with a sense of familiarity and a set of expectations for the type of story and characters we will be seeing.  Working in a genre can be both confining and liberating for the screenwriter.  Creative people often balk at the idea of rules, and movie genres by definition provide certain rules.  But rules are made to be broken, and how you choose to break the rules and subvert the audience’s expectations can be one of the defining elements of your personal style. 

Characters within genres also have expectations of behavior, and this is an area in which you want to pay special attention.  Adhering to certain rules allows you to break others with impunity, and without causing too much of a sense of dislocation from the audience.  Dustin Hoffman’s character in Marathon Man wasn’t a super spy, but a socially-challenged academic—

almost the polar opposite of the expected protagonist for an espionage thriller.  The character may not have been against type for the actor, but it was against type for the genre.

In the early 1990s, Meg Ryan was probably one of the biggest box office stars in the world, but she had grown tired of being perceived as merely the bubbly girl-next-door in a series of highly-profitable romantic comedies.  She jumped at the chance to play a troubled alcoholic in When a Man Loves a Woman, a role that allowed her to explore the darker and grittier aspects of her on-screen persona.  The movie may not have gotten produced at all, had not Meg Ryan—or a movie star of similar stature—signed on, but she did and the movie went on to gross a very respectable $50 million.  

A screenplay providing a lead role that is against type will often be a lot more attractive to an actor than a part they have played a million times before.  There are many different paths to take in writing against type, and learning how to break the rules and challenge audiences’ expectations in creative ways will help you craft a vehicle that provides something unique to make actors want to climb on board.

What is the Bechdel Test, and does it matter?

Another character-oriented element that is often insufficiently addressed, even by veteran screenwriters, is balance among the roles.  There has been a lot of buzz about something called the Bechdel Test which was introduced by feminist critics to assess whether film, television, books and other media are “women friendly,” but its usefulness extends beyond a tool to determine a project’s political correctness.  

Basically in order to pass the Bechdel Test, a project has to satisfy three requirements:  

1.) It has to have at least two women in it; 

2)  who talk to each other; and,  3.) about something besides a man.  

What could be easier or more straightforward, right?  Well, think again. A glance at even a short representative list of movies that fail to make the grade is almost troubling.  Titles like The Social Network, Avatar, the original Star Wars trilogy and, yes, even William Goldman’s The Princess Bride can all claim a rightful place in the pantheon of great American cinema, yet all resoundingly fail the Bechdel Test!

Before we send any of these wonderful movies to the corner for a time-out for socially irresponsible behavior we may want to consider the flip-side, if the gender criteria for the Bechdel Test were reversed.  Would movies like Thelma and Louise, The Heat, Turning Point, or The Hours have passed the test if we were assessing how men were represented in these stories?  

A screenwriter could justified in asking whether they should even be concerned with the Bechdel Test at all.  These are all great movies, and there are literally dozens more that could be added to the list on either side of the equation.  After all, isn’t the job of a screenwriter to write good movies that actually get made, receive glowing reviews, and make tons of money for everyone concerned?  Do we need to be concerned with changing the world and raising social consciousness as well?  

My answer to both questions is: why not?  While it is abundantly clear that failing the Bechdel Test may not hamper a project’s overall quality and commercial appeal, there is no way that passing the test is a bad thing.  At the very least, making sure your screenplay passes the test for both genders can only help ensure that you are making the most of your supporting characters.  

Actors aren’t Everything, but they’re Pretty Close

Movies rely on character chemistry to be successful and, as a screenwriter, you can make the task of formulating this chemistry infinitely easier simply by remixing some of the elements to make sure that character duties are interestingly and diversely distributed among the various roles.  Even a movie star needs other characters to bounce off of, and top actors appreciate roles in which their star power is enhanced by the reflection given off by the supporting roles.

While there are no short-cuts or guarantees to achieving success as a screenwriter in Hollywood, there are numerous sure-fire pitfalls to avoid, and a number of strategies one can employ to help maximize your chances of getting a screenplay optioned, sold and perhaps even produced.  With the possible exception of having an A-level filmmaker attached to your project at an early stage, probably no single element is more indicative of a screenplay’s potential for success than its ability to attract top acting talent.  The Hollywood star system may not quite be what it was, but packaging star talent remains a primary force in determining which movies get made, how they are marketed and what drives audiences into theaters.  There is no denying that big name actors still sell movies, and well-written screenplays with compelling roles are what sell the stars.  

©Michael Schulman 2014

All rights reserved

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About Michael Schulman

Michael Schulman is a former motion picture literary agent at ICM, and he has worked as an executive for numerous production companies including as the head of development for Alec Baldwin, Dennis Quaid and Michael Mann. 

He lives in Beverly Hills with his wife and their two children.