There is a reason great actors aren't caught 'acting', and that is because they thoroughly research their character.   How do you do that?  Well, I am about to show you.

While cleaning out my very disorganized external hard drive, I found a character analysis worksheet that I was using to help me research my character for my 'Acting in Film' class a few years ago.

I don't know where this character analysis worksheet came from and I am not claiming credit for it, but I really wanted to share it with you.

This worksheet asks you 25 questions that will help you get inside the mind of your character.  Even beyond that, you will explore underlying traits and motivations that help you better understand the character you need to portray.

Download the free pdf and get to know your character.

Why do you need to know how your character dresses or what facial expressions they make?  What does that have to do with the performance part?  It has a lot to do with how you portray the character.  We don't think about this in real life but everything including subtle things like what phrase we use frequently is a part of who we are.

The same goes for our characters.  I'm not an acting teacher (yet) and I'm not going to pretend like I know how to explain things but trust me on this one, you need this worksheet.  

Some questions may seem odd to you. You may not know how to answer some of the questions if you don't have much information on your character or if your character has a small role in the film, but just answer the best you can.  This is a fabulous way to make your character 3 dimensional.  

Oh and just a small note, don't get too married to the backstory you create for your character, your director may have another vision for your character. If this is the case, just roll with your director's vision and revisit this character analysis worksheet and go from there.

Let me know how it works for you. If you know where this character analysis originated from, please let me know so I can credit the author. You can leave me a comment below.

Best of luck and see you around.