Delegate Guidebook
DIALOGUE WITH ROBERT MCKEE What makes some dialogue sparkle and jump off the page and into an actor’s mouth, where other dialogue is leaden, perhaps even true or authentic, but also dull? Dialogue that jumps off the page is dialogue that calls attention to itself as dialogue. Dialogue that “sparkles” is sort of like “The Terminator” and the line “I’ll be back” or in “Sudden Impact” when Dirty Harry says “Go ahead. Make my day.” Bits of dialogue that stick in the mind and become repeatable outside of the context of the story. I don’t think that’s a good idea. Dialogue should not “jump off the page.” On the other hand, it should get into the actor’s mouth in the most natural character-specific way. Where dialogue is leaden, when the reader or an audience has a reaction against dialogue and feels the sensation in the scene is leaden, it simply means they are not involved in the scene anymore and therefore time is passing excruciatingly slow. The dialogue is not interesting to them, they are not involved in the scene. The scene itself and anything being said is boring. That becomes the experience of “leaden.” 54 There could be a disconnect between truth and authenticity in a scene you find leaden because you’re not involved. You don’t believe whatever it is the characters are doing through what they are saying. Even though it may be colloquial or typical of whatever such a character might say, it’s not authentic or true to what that character should be saying in that scene at that moment. When you lose interest in a scene and the dialogue calls attention to itself as just a bunch of words you don’t believe, the problem is in the subtext. It’s not necessarily in what the characters are saying. It’s what the characters are doing. When characters speak, they are taking an action and/or reacting to the action of another character in the scene. Underneath what’s being said outwardly, there are actions characters are taking and reactions characters are having. The action-reaction that’s going on underneath the dialogue is where the interest is for the audience. The dialogue is simply the tactic the character is taking outwardly to carry out that inner action. The cure to leaden dialogue is not necessarily in the words themselves at
all, but rather in making certain that by action-reaction, action-reaction, what the characters are doing in a struggle to get what each of them wants out of the scene captures interest. The dialogue becomes tactics characters are using in their struggle to get what they want. When the audience is involved in the give-and-take of the tactics of the characters as they say and do outwardly what they say and do, when the audience is involved in the inner struggles of these characters one against the other, then the dialogue, as you put it, will sparkle. Writing for subtext sounds easy to the beginner, where the expert knows both how important it can be and how challenging it is. What help can you offer writers who want to write with more resonant subtext? I’m not certain writing subtext sounds easy to anybody, beginner or not. In fact, I know from experience when I talk about writing for subtext, young writers are paralyzed, they have no idea what I’m talking about and don’t have the first idea about going about doing it. In my book, DIALOGUE: THE ART OF VERBAL ACTION FOR THE PAGE, STAGE, AND SCREEN, there are six chapters or more where I take various scenes apart to show how the actions in the subtext build a scene progressively as the dialogue is the outer expression of that. The way to create subtext underneath what is being said is to pay attention to what the characters are actually doing and actually thinking and feeling in their desires while they go about doing it. What the character wants and how the character goes about trying to get it is the inner life of the scene. This includes the motivations that drive that intention, even down to the subconscious mind. The secret, so to speak, of subtext is to just pay attention to it. To realize what’s really going on inside of a character consciously and subconsciously and what they really want at this moment and to identify that with a scene intention. You have to ask “What does this character want at this point in their life?” “What do they want to get in this scene as a step toward their object of desire (i.e. what they want overall in the life of their story)?” By identifying the desire in the scene, the source of conflict and antagonism against that character’s desire, and stepby-step thinking of what that character would do inwardly that they express outwardly in the dialogue, connecting to the inner actions of the characters in their struggle to get what they want in the scene, creates subtext. And then, common sense says the characters have tactics, they have strategies. They don’t say out loud fully and completely what they are thinking and feeling. They don’t turn around and say “Look, what I really want from you is that you will show me a sign of love and commitment in our relationship.” Nobody says things like that. Or, if they do, it’s not actually what they want (laughs). It’s just a tactic to get something else. You have to figure out what the character really wants, why they want it, what’s stopping them from getting it and then what would they outwardly do to cause a reaction in the world that would get them what they inwardly want. 55
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DIALOGUE WITH ROBERT MCKEE<br />
What makes some dialogue sparkle<br />
and jump off the page and into an<br />
actor’s mouth, where other dialogue<br />
is leaden, perhaps even true or<br />
authentic, but also dull?<br />
Dialogue that jumps off the page is<br />
dialogue that calls attention to itself as<br />
dialogue. Dialogue that “sparkles” is sort<br />
of like “The Terminator” and the line “I’ll<br />
be back” or in “Sudden Impact” when<br />
Dirty Harry says “Go ahead. Make my<br />
day.” Bits of dialogue that stick in the<br />
mind and become repeatable outside<br />
of the context of the story. I don’t think<br />
that’s a good idea. Dialogue should not<br />
“jump off the page.” On the other hand,<br />
it should get into the actor’s mouth in the<br />
most natural character-specific way.<br />
Where dialogue is leaden, when the<br />
reader or an audience has a reaction<br />
against dialogue and feels the sensation<br />
in the scene is leaden, it simply means<br />
they are not involved in the scene<br />
anymore and therefore time is passing<br />
excruciatingly slow. The dialogue is<br />
not interesting to them, they are not<br />
involved in the scene. The scene itself<br />
and anything being said is boring. That<br />
becomes the experience of “leaden.”<br />
54<br />
There could be a disconnect between<br />
truth and authenticity in a scene you<br />
find leaden because you’re not involved.<br />
You don’t believe whatever it is the<br />
characters are doing through what<br />
they are saying. Even though it may be<br />
colloquial or typical of whatever such a<br />
character might say, it’s not authentic<br />
or true to what that character should be<br />
saying in that scene at that moment.<br />
When you lose interest in a scene and<br />
the dialogue calls attention to itself as<br />
just a bunch of words you don’t believe,<br />
the problem is in the subtext. It’s not<br />
necessarily in what the characters are<br />
saying. It’s what the characters are<br />
doing. When characters speak, they<br />
are taking an action and/or reacting to<br />
the action of another character in the<br />
scene. Underneath what’s being said<br />
outwardly, there are actions characters<br />
are taking and reactions characters are<br />
having. The action-reaction that’s going<br />
on underneath the dialogue is where the<br />
interest is for the audience. The dialogue<br />
is simply the tactic the character is taking<br />
outwardly to carry out that inner action.<br />
The cure to leaden dialogue is not<br />
necessarily in the words themselves at
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