Stanislavsky's 7 questions for actors (and scriptwriters)

Stanislavsky wrote seven questions any actor should ask himself when approaching a play. This works great for writers as well, also writers for the screen. At the end, it's all about the human drama. Stanislavsky developed those questions by asking actors he thought were good how they did it. He believed any actor can be a good actor, it's only a matter of technique. Here are the questions:



1. Who am I?

Here you must think of the 3 aspects of your character, physically, sociologically and psychologically. Also, for each scene you write, think of the current state of being of this character. If he just found out his girl is cheating on him, he would not be exactly the same person as in the scene before. The scriptwriter must be specific enough as to what character is it. It cannot be played by either De Niro or Gerard Depardiue, it needs to be a clear picture.

2. Where am I?

And what is the relation of the character to this place - a familiar place, first time there, doesn't fit, etc.

3. When?

Day, year, weather. Why now? What happened before? It relates to what we wrote on the first question: the time of the scene creates the specific state of our character. If I just came to a date after a sweaty bike ride, I won't act the same, I won't sound the same.

4. What do I want?

This changes from scene to scene and even inside the scene. Each unit in the scene has its goals and actions of the characters inside it. Say I want to kill a spider. But then I look up closely and I'm amazed by its beauty. Now I don't want to kill it, I just want to catch it. so I do what's needs to be done, gets a nice jar and all, only to find out the spider is not so beautiful from inside the jar. So I want to let it go. But not in my house. So I go downstairs and let it free in the garden. Then I see this really cute guy. And again, I have a new goal...you get the point.

5. Why do I want this?

You always need to know the Why, which is by far more important than the What of the action. It gives the action the life it needed (no, it's not in the gasoline!). Say your character needs a coffee in the morning. She needs it real bad, because she hasn't been sleeping and she has a very important meeting in an hour. Now she finds out the coffee's over. She reacts differently than just a person who likes to drink coffee in the morning.

6. How will I achieve my goal?

Simply put, the actions I need to perform to get what i want. Open the drawer and get that Jacob's, to make myself the coffee I want.

7. What must I overcome?

So the coffee's over. I must go out to buy. But it's too early and the 7/11 is a bit far out, in the rough area of the city. I must overcome my hesitations first, than the actual trip to the area. Maybe a gang or two.



I find those seven questions to be extremly helpful for scriptwriting. If you as a writer cannot answer them, the actors will do this without your help. Your script might end up being a totally different thing than what you had in mind. So it's self protection. Use it.