A distinct identity inhabited by the performer — with its own way of seeing the world, its own desires, its own physical life. Character is what separates the performer from the role: the performer observes and responds; the character lives.
Four components:
- Point of view — how the character sees everything (their filter on reality)
- Want — what the character desires from the other person in this scene (the engine)
- Physicality — posture, gesture, movement, voice, how they occupy space (the body)
- Status default — their habitual position in the social hierarchy (Johnstone's core insight)
These aren't a checklist to fill out before the scene. They emerge through action. Napier: "Do something, anything, for yourself first." A physical choice (a limp, a tilt of the head, a way of sitting) generates a character faster than any amount of planning. Do-Feel-Say applies: the body leads, character follows.
Character vs. performer. Will Hines frames this as the "actor vs. comedian" duality: the actor inhabits a distinct identity with its own objectives and emotional life; the comedian sees patterns, finds the absurd, plays game. Both coexist in every improviser. The character provides the alibi — a psychological mechanism that permits the performer to take risks they wouldn't take as themselves. The character is doing it, not you.
Traditions diverge on origin:
- UCB builds character from POV + game: the character's unusual perspective generates the pattern
- Johnstone builds character from status + masks: yield to the character rather than construct it; the character arrives from outside, not from planning
- Meisner builds character from truthful response: "the ability to live truthfully under given imaginary circumstances." Character isn't pre-built; it emerges from genuine reaction to the other person
- Napier builds character from one strong initial choice: give yourself one thing (an emotion, a physicality, an attitude) and commit fully; the rest fills in
Meisner's formulation is the bridge to improv: in both traditions, character is discovered through interaction, not designed in advance.