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As Good as It Gets (1997)

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DZ-3: Making Unlikeable Protagonists Compelling

How do you keep an audience watching a character everyone in the film hates?

AI✦Breaks down how to swing an audience between finding a character repulsive and finding him funny--then use that oscillation to make them care about someone genuinely difficult to like.✦

⏱ 1h 20m

31 MAR 2014

Character · Structure · Audience

Listen if you want to make audiences care about deeply flawed protagonists!

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In this episode, Stu and Chas try to work out what stops a-holes protoganists from pushing the audience out of the movie… →

Films: Hot Fuzz (2007) , As Good as It Gets (1997) , Groundhog Day (1993) , Gran Torino (2008) , Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)

Character: Character Flaw , Character Wound

Structure: Dramatic Questions

Audience: Audience Sympathy

"The dog peeing on the wall... they needed to show why Melvin dislikes the dog. So, we understand the motivation behind extreme action, even if we don’t agree with the action itself."

— stu | DZ-3: Making Unlikeable Protagonists Compelling