How to Prepare for a Challenging Role

Actors love stepping into the shoes of a complex character—an immoral figure, a conflicted soul, a true blue villain. It’s likely due to the sense of freedom that comes from breaking one’s everyday mould: you get to play somebody completely different to your (hopefully) good and moral self. However, it’s not all black hats and moustaches. There are difficulties involved, not only in making the role believable, but portraying the character in a safe and sustainable way. Let’s talk about how to prepare for a challenging role.

When you prepare for a challenging role, ensure that you spend plenty of time analysing the text, developing the character and finding their physicality. It is vital that you discover the motives of your character, in order to develop a sense of compassion and understanding for their wants and actions. On set or stage, communicate with your peers, the director and the intimacy coordinator to ensure that your process is sustainable and safe.

While this article is titled “How to Prepare for a Challenging Role”, we’ll actually be talking through the entire process of tackling a difficult character. We’ll look at how to prepare, how to play the role on stage or set and how to let it all go when the day is done.

The Preparation

This first section of the article covers all the work you’ll do before you step out into lights. However, a lot of what is discussed here will be useful throughout your journey with your character. Don’t ever be afraid to jump back into some script analysis or character work just because you’ve started filming on location…

Script Analysis

First port of call: analyse the script. Pull the words apart and tease out all the meaning provided by the author. When you’re preparing for a challenging role, this will be extremely useful as you’ll start to uncover the motivations of the character. You’re looking for the things that make them believable and human, even if their actions are unexpected or horrific. If you can do that, you can identify (and justify) their actions, and their endgame objectives.

The biggest mistake actors make with a challenging role is to treat it like they’re some monster from outer space. Hell, even if it is a monster from outer space, you have to find the things that make your character feel truthful—motivated by humanistic wants that allow an audience to connect.

Research

Ever asked yourself why people are so obsessed with serial killer documentaries, true crime podcasts and endless re-runs of SVU? It’s because we, as humans, are desperate to understand. Immerse yourself in the world of your character with research. Watch films, documentaries, read books. If you’re playing an actual, real-life person, find all the information you can on their dirty life and times.

Much like script analysis, research will help you understand the actions and motivations of your character.

Costume and Physicality

Think about the look of your character: hair, make-up, costume, physicality. How do they present themselves to the world? How do they stand, move, emote, comb their hair? Don’t be afraid to punctuate your hours of research, preparation and line-learning with a little dressing up and staring in the mirror.

This part of the process for a challenging role helps to remind you that the character isn’t just a case study. They’re a human being for you to inhabit and discover. So have a play and do exactly that. For many actors, the first trying on of a costume is a near-transformative act. Use it to find the character and make them feel real to you—like Cameron Britton did in the excellent Mindhunter:

Don’t Forget Compassion

This final preparation tip should carry you through the entire process: never judge your character. No matter what they do, or have done, or are about to do. As an actor, you are your character’s lawyer; if you’re not on their side, your performance will come across as though you’re winking to the audience. “I’m not really like this, I’m just pretending. I hate them more than you do!” Such thinking leads to inauthentic choices that favour the performer over the role.

We’re not asking you to agree with a challenging role, or even like them. But you have to give them the basic respect of treating them like a person. If you do that, your audience will too.

The Performance

No matter how prepared you are before the fact, playing the role on stage or screen is a whole other challenge. Your best planning and preparation can go right out the window when the reality of, say, playing an abusive partner, becomes your job for ten hours a day. Here are our tips for staying safe and sustainable.

Working with a Stunt or Intimacy Co-ordinator

We’re putting this one up front and centre because the priority of anybody working in a creative industry is safety. If your role includes scenes of violence, sex or intimacy, you must work with a stunt or intimacy coordinator. This is not a luxury, but a fast-evolving industry standard. As an actor, you have every right to access the expertise of a person trained specifically to make these things safe and accessible.

An intimacy coordinator is going to help you navigate difficult scenes and ensure that the consent of all involved is a priority. And if there is no IC attached to your production, ask your director and producer to provide somebody. The lack of a trained professional is exactly how accidents happen and actors are endangered. And if you think you might need one … then you do. The presence of doubt is all you need to confirm it.

Working with your Director

When playing a challenging role, your director is going to be a huge help in grounding your choices and keeping things feeling real. Learn to work with them and communicate what you need. This is especially important on filmed projects, as a director’s attention can be torn a thousand different ways. Fight for your space in their thoughts, as there won’t be a film without you—fancy lighting and camera shots be damned!

If you’re struggling with a challenging role, try to find time to speak with a director before you even step on set. This is an advantage of acting in theatre, as you have plenty of lead-in time in a rehearsal room to explore character choices and difficulties. But always do so once you’ve exhausted your own analysis and preparation: don’t bring questions into the room that you could have answered yourself with a little solo preparation and effort.

Given Circumstances and the “Magic If”

Using given circumstances in your acting is a great way of keeping a challenging role grounded. Asking those who/when/where/what/why/how questions can keep you present in a scene, and ensure that your choices are always based in truth, rather than some knee-jerk reaction to what the script might dictate.

Exploring the GC’s will return to your script analysis and research work. It’s all about keeping your choices feeling real, rather than outlandish—doubly important if your character does wild and abhorrent things.

Self-Care and De-Role

Challenging roles, especially those that are markedly different from your own lived experience, require a lot of extra work and consideration. So make sure you treat yourself accordingly. Develop a routine for self-care and pampering. Snacks, scented candles, a hot bath, a workout routine: whatever it takes for you to feel like you’re taking care of yourself and being kind.

Here at StageMilk, we talk a lot about the importance of learning to de-role—getting out of character at the end of a long day. This is especially important if that character brings a lot of negativity or operates in potentially traumatic spaces. Check out the link above for 8 tips on how to de-role and let that character go. This process is not only important for the end of a job, but for each day you step off set or stage. The first port of call is usually a long, hot shower. Hard to go wrong with that.

Conclusion

So there you have it: our comprehensive breakdown how to play a challenging, difficult role. We started this article by talking about the reason actors take on such characters—often because they present a fun opportunity to do something different. And while we stand by all of the advice we’ve given you, it’s worth reinforcing that acting should always be enjoyable, or at least satisfying. Try not to lose that in all the good work you’ll be doing on your next antihero, villain or cook.

And one final tip before we wrap up: don’t ever play ‘crazy’, don’t ever play ‘evil’. Your character, regardless of who they are, has to believe that they are the most sane, reasonable person on the planet. And even if they’re completely evil … they have to be able to justify their actions to themselves. It’s like emotions in acting: don’t ever play what you want the audience to feel. Play what you need to make them feel it naturally.

Good luck!