Character Introductions: Part 4

Think there’s nothing to introducing characters in a script? Think again!

Over the next few weeks, I’m doing a deep dive into the subject of character introductions. Why the hell would I do that?

Read Part 1 for background.

Part 2 here.

Part 3 here.

Part 4: Character and Core Essence (cont’d)

In The King’s Speech [written by David Seidler], the Protagonist is the Duke of York, second son of King George V, who at the time ruled over a quarter of the world’s population. Bertie, as the Duke is known, is a good and kind man, described in the script as “handsome, sensitive.” Too sensitive as it turns out, an intensely private individual forced into the limelight, pulled toward monarchical responsibility, yet rebelling against that possibility with every inch of his being.

How does the screenwriter introduce him? On the occasion of Bertie’s inaugural radio broadcast staged at Wembley Stadium in front of tens of thousands of loyal British subjects, his coming out party as it were [P. 3]:

Here again a memorable distillation of the Protagonist’s core essence: the man who would be King… who doesn’t want to be King, symbolized powerfully by his stuttering and inability to recite words necessary for anyone who might wear…