Feature: “Creating Better Female Characters”

This was by far the most common grievance. Almost all of the Fab 50 commented in some form or other on how female characters are described. As actor-producer Isabella Tugman deplores: ❝It’s embarrassing how many female roles are based entirely on physical description without even a thought to who she is as a person.❞

Isabella nails it again: ❝Giving little character description aside from physical attributes is lazy writing and leaves a shallow, undeveloped character.❞

❝Women experience the full spectrum of emotions and elements of human suffering, just as men do. Women are human and make mistakes, they aren’t always pure and virtuous, nor are they 100% evil villain either.❞ says Isabella Tugman.

These are words writers need to have in the forefront of their minds when they write women in order to get women right. It’s about creating characters with more range, more subtlety. Isabella sounds the call:❝I want writers to tune into these nuances within female characters.❞

I’d like to give the final word to actress, singer and producer Isabella Tugman who covers many of the points raised in this article:

❝Men get more roles, more dialogue, more character variances, and more diverse representation. In the real world, women have just as varied a spectrum of characteristics and experiences as men, yet female portrayal in film has been far more limited. I find it insightful to think of a distinctive male role, like that of the brilliant autistic man portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in “Rain Man”, and attempt to recall a similar female role in a film, if there’s ever been one.