A Writer's Guide to Acting: How to Use Setting when Creating a Character, Part II

Behavior is a reaction to emotion and the importance of setting is about emotion. More specifically, it's about how the setting affects you emotionally. Let's go back to our example of one member of a couple finding out that the other has been unfaithful. We already learned how these characters would react should vary depending upon whether the scene takes place at a nightclub or inside a church. But does that go far enough? Is that all we need to understand about how setting affects character? Let's add another level to that scene. This time let's take the part of the person who is confessing. How would this scene play differently in each setting if that character's emotional response to the nightclub or church differed?

The emotional resonance of a location is quite often determined by a person's history with that location. In this instance, let's say that the person confessing to the fling first met their significant other inside that nightclub. Would that make it a more emotional place than if it was just some meaningless club? Let's go farther. What if that nightclub was where both of them said I love you for the first time? Now we've raised the emotional stakes quite higher. The nightclub has now transformed not only from some sterile environment that held no emotional resonance to one of the most important locations in the relationship of these two people. Would you agree that the emotional state of the characters during the confession scene would now be significantly influenced by the setting? What had been nothing more than a structure now becomes an essential part of the scene. Think about all the memories that would be unreeling inside the head of your character. How would those memories affect your voice and your body language? Would your voice quaver more than if you'd never been there before?

Now let's have the scene take place in a church. Sometimes the location of a scene raises questions about behavior. For instance, why would someone choose such a place to make this kind of confession? Perhaps the answer has been provided by the writer, but equally likely is that it hasn't. If it hasn't, then it's up to you to find the answer. And in many cases, such as this, it can be an answer that seems particularly important to understand. Would someone make this confession in a church because they are so caught up in morality and the idea of sin and confession? Perhaps. Or, perhaps they chose this particular place to confess because they hated going there? What if they were tired of being dragged to church every week by their boyfriend or wife? What if you just suddenly got so fed up with being forced to attend church on your one day off from work that your confession wasn't the result of guilt, but rather a sudden explosion of repressed anger? You want to get even with your lover for having put you through this for months or years.

A good actor can use setting to help him figure out how he feels about other people or ideas. It isn't enough to just understand your history with a place, you must also understand how that history has formed your opinions and emotions. Understanding setting involves understanding how your character feels about a certain place. Obviously, not every location will involve history and it may be more difficult to figure out how you feel about a certain place. Sometimes it may not even matter how your character feels about the setting, but doesn't mean you shouldn't know. And it certainly doesn't mean that you can be satisfied with indifference. People are rarely indifferent about anything, especially a place. Find out how your character feels about a place and, more importantly, why he feels that way.

Not everybody reacts in exactly the same way to the same place every time. Did you and an old boyfriend or girlfriend spend a lot of time at a particular place? Do you still feel the same way whenever you go there now that you did then? Did you used to love going to work? Couldn't wait to get there and spend time with your co-workers. You had a great boss and loved working with him. Now you can't stand going to the same place. One of your co-workers is now your boss and boy has she changed. It's a nightmare. You dread going and count the hours until you leave. Places often stay the same, but emotions rarely do. We may feel the same way about a particular place for a long time, but eventually emotions will change. They may change suddenly and dramatically because of a traumatic event, or the change may be slow and subtle as a result of maturity or aging. You may get the chance to play a character who ages from a youth to a senior citizen over the course of the story, who interacts over the course of that aging in the same place. How you feel about those places had better change as you age or your performance is not going to be believable in the slightest.

Just as our feelings and emotions about places change due to events and time, so does our behavior. When you're young and you're growing up, you may overlook or fail to appreciate some of the things around you. Later on, if you have been away from those places, when you return you may be overcome by a sense of nostalgia. You may get deeply emotional over a tree, or piece of furniture that you never gave a second thought to when you were young. Or maybe nostalgia isn't what's driving your emotions. Maybe everything has changed so much that you don't even recognize the place. Maybe instead of deep feelings of nostalgia, you are experiencing the unpleasant sensations of feeling completely out of place. When strong emotions bubble to the surface due to the effects of a place or location, they are typically expressed through physical changes. If your emotions are fired up because of where the scene is taking place, you may find these emotions expressed in changes in your voice or body language. Perhaps your voice gets deeper, or higher. Maybe your voice falters or hesitates.

Let's return a moment to that idea we examined a few minutes ago. Remember the scenario I presented about returning to a place where you and an old girlfriend or boyfriend used to spend a lot of time? You probably feel differently about that place when you go there now. But what about when you go there with a new boyfriend or girlfriend? Does he or she know just how much it used to mean to you? When you two go there now are you nervous? Do you look around in fear that someone will come to you and bring up how you and your ex used to spend so much time there? Do you try to spend as little time there as possible? Your body language with your new love is not going to be the same as it was with your old love, is it? It's the same place, but you now behave in a completely different way.

For an actor, setting and location is about far more than simple geography. In fact, the simple geographical fact about a place is probably the least important thing you need to know. Don't misunderstand, you should definitely know as much as you can about the geography, especially if the geography is important to the story. But the important thing about setting when it comes to building a character is how it relates to your emotions and your behavior. The key thing to remember is that the setting can often be used to determine your emotions in the scene. And the emotions help determine how you behave. If you find your character behaving consistently no matter where the scene is taking place, you are not actively engaging the importance of setting.