Once I've got a conflict and a plot, I'm ready to design my cast.  I'm ready to meet my characters!  But how many characters do I need, in order to tell this story?

Well, I think one of the easiest ways to figure that out is to think about the roles the characters are playing.  What is each character directly contributing to the story?  How each character is helping the audience better understand the conflict, the plot, the arc, the theme, the other characters, the setting.

So I made a big list of some of the most common character roles!  The most common ways that your characters can contribute to your story.  There are probably more character roles that aren't on the list, but this is enough to get you started.

Something I really like about character roles, is that a character can play more than one role at a time!

So you can start with the basics.   You need a protagonist.  You might need an antagonist.  Probably a supporting character or two.  But as you get into the actual writing of the script, you'll be able to use these characters to multitask your story.

So as an example, let's take a look at a scene from Little Miss Sunshine, which was written by screenwriter Michael Arndt.  If you haven't seen the movie: it's about a little girl named Olive, who goes to compete in a beauty pageant.  So her family takes her on a low-budget road trip across the country, and they have zany misadventures.

Now in this scene, the family stops for breakfast at a diner.

Are you ready for play-by-play??  Because here is Olive's objective:

Olive wants her waffles "alamodey!"  Olive badly wants to eat ice cream for breakfast. But her antagonism is her dad, who decides to shame her about her choice.

So let's take a look at what her dad says to her!  And as you're watching, ask yourself: which Character Roles is the dad playing right now?

Well, first of all, we've already said that he's the antagonist.  His daughter wants to eat ice cream for breakfast, and he does not want her to eat ice cream for breakfast.

But from the dad's perspective, he is the protagonist!  He's trying to get his daughter to make healthy life choices.  He goes about it in a toxic way.  This probably isn't the time or place to have the conversation.  But nevertheless, from his perspective, he is the protagonist.

And because he is specifically teaching his daughter, from his perspective, he's also a mentor.

 

So at this point in the scene, Olive doesn't really understand the point that her dad is making.  So let's take a look at her reaction to what the dad is saying, and what everyone else at the table's reactions are too.  And as you're watching, ask yourself:  which roles is Olive playing right now?

Well, she's still the overall protagonist of the scene, because the scene is about whether or not she'll eat the ice cream.

She's also the protagonist of this beat, because she doesn't understand what the dad is talking about.  She doesn't understand why everybody's so upset!  So she's trying to find out.  She's actively pursuing that objective.

If we agree that the dad is a protagonist because he's trying to convince Olive not to eat the ice cream, but she doesn't understand him, then technically?  She is antagonizing him!  So she's a protagonist & an antagonist.

But most importantly, at this point in the scene, she becomes a trophy character.  All of the other characters in the scene are now competing, to get Olive to react the way that they want her to react.  So Olive is the overall objective for her dad, her mom, her grandpa, her brother, and her uncle.

 

Now let's focus on the mom.  The mom was taken aback by this conversation!  She didn't expect this to be where breakfast led.  But now she's on the spot.  Olive wants to know what her take is, on what Dad is saying.   So let's take a look at Mom's response, and ask yourself:  which roles is Mom playing during this clip?

First & foremost, Mom is a supporting character.  Throughout the whole scene, she's a supporting character.  She's trying to help Olive achieve her objective in the best way that she knows how.

And in this beat, she's the protagonist.  Because she's trying to help her daughter understand the complexities of what the dad is talking about.  Supporting character, protagonist.

Now, a critical question: does the mom's response help Olive?  I don't think it seems to.  I think it seems to confuse Olive more.  And Olive was just trying to figure out what's going on here.  Actually, Olive was just trying to order breakfast!  And the mom says, it's okay to be skinny and it's okay to be fat if that's what you want to be.  "I'm just getting breakfast, lady!  Calm down!"

So I would argue that-- while the mom isn't as big of an antagonist as the dad-- she is still being antagonistic here.  Her advice is well-intentioned, but it's not the right words at the right time.  It just digs them deeper into the hole.

She's teaching the daughter, so she's a mentor.  Even if she's not doing a great job of it.

And because her response is competing with the dad's response, she is a reflective character.  Because the dad has this lousy response & the mom has a slightly better response (that still isn't great).  The storyteller lets us compare & contrast their parenting approaches, by pitting them against the same conflict.

 

At this point in the scene, Dad doesn't like that people are punching back.  He doesn't like that suddenly there are reflective characters who are competing for his trophy character, his daughter.  So Dad goes Full Antagonist.  Let's hear what he says!

So Dad plays the trump card. He said, you're going to be in a beauty pageant and when you watch beauty pageants, are the contestants fat or are they skinny? Which is a pretty cruel thing to say to a kid knowing the history of eating disorders within like the modeling industry. Is this dad dooming his daughter to have a negative body image for the rest of her life right now in this clip?

So bearing that in mind, let's take a look at how the supporting characters react to what the dad is saying.  And as you're watching, pay attention to which role you think they're playing!

In my opinion, the grandpa, the uncle, the brother, and the mom are all surrogate characters. To be specific, they're audience surrogates.

They're not trying to achieve anything in this beat. They're just reacting. But they're reacting to the dad's toxic speech in a way that I would want someone to react, if I was in the room.

Because Grandpa, the brother, and the uncle all hate that this is happening.  If that shot wasn't in the movie, then we might think that the storytellers agree with the dad! That they never even considered that anyone would find eating disorders within the modeling community is something not really anyone needs to worry about. That the emotional and physical well-being of this child is worth being concerned about.

When the mom makes nice, she plays with the daughter's hair. Has a moment of, "I love you, you're very pretty, even though your dad is saying terrible things to you."

These characters don't have the words to defend Olive right now.  But they're there to empathize with her, and to empathize with the audience. They represent us onscreen.  So they're audience surrogates.

 

And then... it's the moment of truth!  The waitress brings the ice cream to the table.  We've got protagonist versus antagonist at long last.  The culmination!  Will Olive eat her ice cream breakfast, or will she succumb to negative body image?

Let's watch what happens in this one shot, and ask yourself:  which roles is Olive playing?

This is perhaps the strongest point where she is the protagonist of the scene. This is, like, the defining moment of the scene for her. She makes this choice.  "Does anyone want my ice cream?" So she is the protagonist.

She's making a choice that her dad muscled her into, so she's kind of a reflective character. Which is disappointing (to me in the audience, anyway).

But she's also the antagonist in this beat! She is her own antagonist. You can watch her struggle with this internally. A choice as simple as "don't pick up the spoon" can make you your own antagonist. A cool way to illustrate it, I think!

 

So Olive chooses... and she chooses against her objective.  She voluntarily flunks the conflict.

Fortunately, the rest of the characters (who I've been calling "the supporting cast") finally become supporting characters, by helping her to achieve her objective.  So let's take a look at how the supporting cast gets Olive to finally eat the damn ice cream.  As we're watching, pay attention to which roles they're playing, but also how they're performing those roles in unique ways that show that they're different characters, different people, different personalities.

Overall, they're supporting characters.  The scene is about whether or not Olive is going to eat the ice cream for breakfast, and they're helping her do that.

But in this beat of the scene, they are the protagonists because Olive has already decided against eating this stuff, so now they're trying to revive her interest in eating the ice cream. Supporting characters, protagonists.

They are subtly teaching her that it doesn't matter how you look, your family will always love you. So they're mentors.

They are reflecting the dad. They're competing with him, for this trophy character.

They're also antagonizing the dad. He doesn't want her to eat the ice cream. They do want her to eat the ice cream. Grandpa even makes eye contact with dad just before he finally gets Olive to try the ice cream!

I love that eye contact.  It's hardcore.

And because they're a group of characters who are working together as a team to accomplish this objective, they are a collective character. If you were planning out a scene like this, you could write, the supporting characters tease Olive until she eats the ice cream. And that would make just as much sense on the page as writing, Grandpa teases Olive, Uncle Frank teases Olive, Dwayne the Brother teases Olive.

Now, as for how they're different?

Grandpa is really hamming it up. "Boy, I feel sorry for anyone who doesn't want to enjoy their ice cream this early in the morning!"  I love that line. "Those waffles are gonna get awful lonely in there!"

Uncle Frank is a fancy guy. His breakfast is a fruit plate & chamomile tea. He absolutely does not eat ice cream for breakfast.  But he's willing to chip in, for this!

Dwayne is eating healthy. He ordered a garden salad for breakfast, because he's training to join the Air Force. He legitimately cares about eating the healthiest possible foods, but he's willing to take a big beautiful bite in front of his sister's face in order to protect her. I think that's very good brothering!

Mom is yukking it up with Grandpa, that's sweet.

And Grandpa makes eye contact with Dad just before he finally convinces Olive to eat the ice cream.

So let's watch her eat the ice cream already!

And we end the scene, with the antagonist getting comeuppance from a supporting character:

Character roles. It's a fun time, I think!