How do you make your protagonist an A-Hole and live to tell about it?

Collapse

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • How do you make your protagonist an A-Hole and live to tell about it?

    I think one of the more interesting challenges of writing is when you have a main character who's a jerk. It's actually a good character from an "arcing" perspective because we get to see a real dick turn into a nice person by the end of the film. I think the audience enjoys seeing that transformation. However, another screenwriting "rule" is that you have to make your protagonist likable. Because if he/she's not likable, then the audience won't care about him/her. Hmmm, catch-22. How then do you create an a-hole character that you like?

    There are certain tricks that people have suggested to me, like giving them one saving grace. For instance, if your character is a classic a-hole movie executive, have them have a soft spot for one person in the world (like their grandma). But what if you want your a-hole to truly be an a-hole? Who doesn't like anyone? I think their transformation will be more rewarding in the end - because they'll truly have gone from one end of the spectrum to the other.

    Anyone else run into this problem? Thoughts?
    Script Reviews - 5 a week! http://scriptshadow.blogspot.com/

  • #2
    Re: How do you make your protagonist an A-Hole and live to tell about it?

    But if they're a real a-hole no one will care about their transformation at the end. Think about the red headed guy in Field of Dreams that kept telling Kevin Costner to sell the farm. He was a class A a-hole and then he "saw the light" so to speak, but we didn't care. It was more of a relief than anything else.

    Jake LaMotta was an a-hole in Raging Bull and never changed. Watching Raging Bull is like watching a human train wreck. A long, beautiful, human train wreck masterpiece.

    I've run into the problem before. No matter what dastardly things the protagonist does, you have to be able to justify them. Because the story is shown from protagonist's point of view.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: How do you make your protagonist an A-Hole and live to tell about it?

      I think the worst thing you can do is pull your punch when you write a character who's an ass-hole. The character must have the courage of his/her convictions or will ring as false to the audience, although it is acceptable to explain the inciting incident that made them that way.

      The key is that they still need to be entertaining, fascinating and you want to put sympathetic characters around them as a foil.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: How do you make your protagonist an A-Hole and live to tell about it?

        Boski - Christmas Carol is a great example. It made me think of another not so unrelated film: Scrooged (with Bill Murray of course). I remember one of the criticisms of that film was that Murray's character was just too unlikable. And so in the end, it didn't resonate the way the orginal Scrooge did. Might be interesting to compare and contrast those two film. See where Scrooged went wrong. I guess Christmas is coming up so why not!?
        Script Reviews - 5 a week! http://scriptshadow.blogspot.com/

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: How do you make your protagonist an A-Hole and live to tell about it?

          Watch and read All About Eve

          Here's a nasty little protagonist that doesn't bounce over to the other side by film's end. A truly classic example of this particular philosophy.
          sigpic

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: How do you make your protagonist an A-Hole and live to tell about it?

            Originally posted by wilsoneads View Post
            Boski - Christmas Carol is a great example. It made me think of another not so unrelated film: Scrooged (with Bill Murray of course). I remember one of the criticisms of that film was that Murray's character was just too unlikable. And so in the end, it didn't resonate the way the orginal Scrooge did. Might be interesting to compare and contrast those two film. See where Scrooged went wrong. I guess Christmas is coming up so why not!?
            I didn't think that Scrooged went wrong at all. He was funny, he was fascinating because of how he seemed totally incapable of compassion, and he was surrounded by beleaguered characters with whom we could easily sympathize. You have to build it up so that the audience can wonder "how did he get this way?" which is established in act two and "how can he change?" which we learn heading into act three.

            I would point to that as an excellent example, and Groundhog Day as a terrific one as well on the Bill Murray front. Either would have been severely weakened by the attempt to wink at the audience and say "don't worry, he's not really that bad" in the first act.

            If you ever watch season two of Project Greenlight, and especially if you read the original Battle of Shake Heights first, you see how the "likability" concern totally derailed that film. They turned the protag from a take-no-sh*t non-conformist type into a wishy-washy bratty loser. It wouldn't have been a great film as it was on the page, but it would have been miles better than the final result.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: How do you make your protagonist an A-Hole and live to tell about it?

              My favorite example of this would be Jack Nicholson's character Melvin Udall in As Good As It Gets. Geez, what a grizzly old kooch, but then they threw in his issue with OCD and made you feel sorry for the guy - but he's such a jerk! Then in the end of course he turns out to be a real person who actually feels something. So well written and acted!
              My first crack at a logline usually makes a great synopsis!

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: How do you make your protagonist an A-Hole and live to tell about it?

                James Bonds is an a-hole.
                But a humorous edge, and morals bigger
                than womanizing (eg saving the world)
                make him likeable.

                I've actually got a character who's a peodophile,
                necrophile and basically messed up as hell. But he's
                likeable because I keep going back and forth between
                the present day and his childhood, explaining why he's
                turned out like that. He also suffers the ultimate price at the end.

                And that's another thing... if they're ways are not likeable
                (like Bond)... then to make the main a-hole likeable- I would
                suggest they must either suffer for their behaviour, or change
                as a person, by the end of the film (even both). Like Alfie.

                Oh and happy birthday Keen guy!
                "What's outside is easy, what's inside is hard."

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: How do you make your protagonist an A-Hole and live to tell about it?

                  I think what makes the difference is crafting an a-hole with universal needs and universal fears. Needs, fears, and aspirations we all share.

                  Jake is a jerk but he's a jerk primarily because he's insecure. All of us have insecurities at one time or another. How Jake goes about this hurdle can be ugly or funny but always human.
                  "I ask every producer I meet if they need TV specs they say yeah. They all want a 40 inch display that's 1080p and 120Hz. So, I quit my job at the West Hollywood Best Buy."
                  - Screenwriting Friend

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: How do you make your protagonist an A-Hole and live to tell about it?

                    If he's going to be a jerk, make sure he's a funny and interesting jerk.
                    what the head makes cloudy the heart makes very clear

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: How do you make your protagonist an A-Hole and live to tell about it?

                      Originally posted by Fox Bronte View Post
                      Oh and happy birthday Keen guy!
                      Thanks for thinking of wishing me a happy birthday in the Assh*le thread!

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: How do you make your protagonist an A-Hole and live to tell about it?

                        The key is to have other more likable characters in the story for the A-hole to play off of. In all of the aforementioned examples, this would be the case. Scrooge is not a nice man, but the three ghosts are most enjoyable, and they get the better of him in amusing ways. When Scrooge has had as much as he can take, he arcs. A similar principle holds true for GROUNDHOG DAY and AS GOOD AS IT GETS. Another more serious one to watch would be ALFIE (the Michael Caine version, of course), and the different ways his women get the one-up on him.
                        "THIMK." - Amomynous

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: How do you make your protagonist an A-Hole and live to tell about it?

                          Don't think an a-hole protagonist has to be likeable -- just empathetic.

                          On a nuts and bolts level, a number of earlier posts nailed it -- make your a-hole protagonist entertaining, fascinating, etc... and the audience will stay with you. How you do that is up to you.

                          Also think it helps to look at the function a protagonist serves in storytelling. We don't have to like the protagonist, we just have to identify with him or her because we're experiencing the story through this character. Obviously it's easier if we like the person we're identifying with, but there's something really entertaining about watching a jerk do things that most of us wouldn't dare.

                          I'm tackling a similar hero right now -- my approach was to make him funny and to leave the audience no one else to identify with but him. I also had him get fired from his job (one of those universal fears most people can empathize with).

                          Hope this helps...

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: How do you make your protagonist an A-Hole and live to tell about it?

                            You've read Blake Snyder... but this topic really hit me in the face when I was watching An Unfiinished Life. I remember thinking... "Ah, I know what the writers doing here." The Protag, who is unlikeable, literally saves the cat. This is a soft film for most of you... but it's a classic example (in the writing) of what you're talking about. (IMO)

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: How do you make your protagonist an A-Hole and live to tell about it?

                              Originally posted by Just4Laughs View Post
                              Don't think an a-hole protagonist has to be likeable -- just empathetic.
                              That's a pretty good response - movies are full of unlikeable or barely likable protagonists.
                              "Friends make the worst enemies." Frank Underwood

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X