Screenwriting : Advice by Debbie Castanha

I'm sure others will weigh in here but research for the actor is not the responsibility of the writer. If the actor feels the need to research for a role, good luck to them but that is not your job to determine how they do it. As the writer, feel free to research what you feel you need, to make the scene more authentic but we can't give you terms to search for if we don't know what you need to research. Are you planning on producing / directing your own script or is this purely for writing purposes?

I should clarify this for a scene in the script which I am writing in which my character IS an actor who has to do something to prepare for a role, and for purposes of credibility, I simply want to allude to this process. For instance Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams lived together while filming Blue Valentine. Surely this was in their contract, or something was discussed before they agreed to the role. In The Fighter, Christian Bale lost a ton of weight. I guess sometimes actors do things because they want, but surely sometimes it is required of them to do [to get the part]? So is it in these cases, is this more a contractual thing involving lawyers and the actors? or what might it look like behind the scenes? thanks.

Thanks Debbie, that's clearer. I now know what you're asking and I think you might be better off posing this question for the actors in their lounge rather than the writers as this would be a reasonably common process for actors but quite unusual for writers. How about interviewing an acting coach?

It would usually be a conversation between the actor and the director in which they both discuss what they'd like to do for the movie and whether the actor is willing and able to try to change his body. The Production would then hire one or more trainers, nutritionists, doctors, therapists, and/or other types of professionals to try to make the process as safe and painless as possible for the actor.

Is this actor a character in a screenplay? (usually not a good idea - for the very reason you are asking this question... a screenplay about the film business needs to be 100% accurate because it will be read by people in the business. You know how some movie about cops that you thought was great is hated by cops because the writer got everything wrong? Same thing with a script about the business, except the people who will be reading it and making the decisions are "all cops". Plus - they tend not to make money.) Best way to do research is first hand - ask an actor who has done this. Best way to find out about any job is to ask the people who do it.

Thanks much to all for the great feedback. It's an interesting point you make here William. You've heard that saying "Write about what you don't know?" JK. But in fact, I did choose to write about something I don't know about, and it may or may not work out. I happen to think it's probably credible enough and a great story. Still tweaking it here and there, but again, I think I will post it elsewhere to see what the actors think.

If you're reaching a roadblock like this it might be worth trying to get around it creatively. Perhaps make the character themselves ignorant to the process, maybe avoid all those business conversations and only show the conflicts they create afterwards.