What is your character’s status? This is one of the most important questions you can ask yourself during a character study. It can tell you so much about your character: how they speak, carry themselves, see the world, relate to other characters. But what exactly is status and how does one determine it? Let’s break it down a bit.
What is Status
Status is relational. It describes where you fit within the hierarchy of any given group, from society at large down to interpersonal relationships. It can be determined by many factors (age, money, experience, beauty, to name a few), but really it all comes down to power. The more power you have, the higher your status.
Pinpoint Your Character’s Status
When determining your character’s status, it might be easier to break it down into groups. Your character’s status within society may differ from their status within their family, profession, or friend group. Knowing your character’s status within each circle will determine your tactics, physicality and reactions from scene to scene.
Giving Status
A good actor knows not only their own character’s status, but that of everyone within the world or the story. A character’s status is portrayed not only by how they act, but by how everyone around them reacts. “Court Makes the King” is a theater game often used to teach this concept to young theater artists. During the game, one child leaves the room and the rest decide who that child will be (in this example, a “king”). When the child returns, the rest of the children must silently react as though a king had just walked in the room. The child who left must then guess who they are. The idea is that if you walk in a room and everyone bows, you assume you are some sort of royalty. It is the reaction of the court that makes the king. In this way, you can give status to another character, or take it away depending on your reaction.
Changing Status
Status is not guaranteed, or stagnant. Events in the script might change the status of your character several times. What you need to figure out is how they react to a change of status. Is the change gradual or sudden? Is your character emotionally equipped to handle the change? What do they do with newfound status? What do they do when they lose it? These are just some of the questions an actor can ask to flesh out their character’s status journey.
The intricacies of status could fill novels, but the more you learn, and the more specific you get, the more fully realized your character will be. If this concept is new to you, start observing the status of people in your everyday life to practice. You might be surprised how much it reveals about the people in your life.
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for breaking industry news and exclusive offers!
