All language subtitles for MasterClass Hans Zimmer Teaches Film Scoring - 14Character

You can get to know the characters in a

film in two ways. And one I think is the

wrong way.

when I read the script,

I make up, you know, well, obviously I I

read the writer's words and the

character does come across, but I'm

actually

I'm suddenly becoming the actor. I'm

suddenly becoming the character. Um,

and so

usually my interpretation is wrong. um

you know having Sherlock Holmes or Jack

Sparrow or any of you know the Lion King

any any of the characters I have worked

with constantly have a German accent

might be inappropriate to begin with. So

the way the the uh the the way I get get

to sneak up on it is partly talking to

the director who sometimes has a has a

better sense of who the character is

even than the actor himself. I mean um

because by the time the the character

the actor inhabits the character and if

you talk with great actors they are so

inside that character that they can't

that they can't describe

describe it in an objective way anymore.

Um so again I mean I I usually come back

to this

very clumsy

method which is asking the director you

know tell me the story does this

character have a past you know did some

tragedy befall him in his youth or

something like this I mean what drives

the character you know what what is what

what is hidden

what's hidden from us that we don't know

about the character that makes behave in

a certain way that sets the whole thing

into motion. Um, and interesting

characters do have a backstory and

sometimes you have to go and make one

up, you know, for yourself, you know.

Um,

I I I I remember sitting with

Ron Howard and Peter Morgan on when we

were doing Rush, you know, and the James

Hunt character. I mean, James Hunt ex

obviously he existed in real life. Um,

and there's a shot the camera travels

past a cage with two, in England they're

called budgeries. They're, you know,

these little canaries.

Um, and James Hunt actually after he

quit racing, he

started a

budgery farm, you know, he was breeding

these these birds. And there's a there's

a weird thing about these birds that you

always have to have two in a cage. If

one is by themselves, they die from

loneliness. You always have to have a

pair. And I just thought that was that

James Hunt, who

was so gregarious and so social, but in

a in a in a weird way was so isolated

from the world, you know, that that the

thing that he was drawn to and the thing

that he truly loved were these these

birds that couldn't be in isolation that

were such a symbol of um companionship.

Yeah, I here I kept writing about, you

know, Ron was going, you know, we're

going to hear another tune about the

budgies, you know, but that's what I was

that's what I kept writing about. That

was sort of my way into it.

All that happens is in a movie usually

you're just in a snapshot of you know in

you know the it's usually a fully formed

human being unless it's some original

story or it's you know like

a a biographical story and starts off

with a baby and all that sort of stuff.

Um, you're in this in this moment in

time where something happens that sets

all sorts of things into motion, you

know, and you have conflict and you have

um so why is the character dealing with

the conflict or whatever obstacle are be

are being put into his way in that way?

And the other part of it is why is the

character going on this journey in the

first place? you know, is it because he

needs to rob the bank because, you know,

the the you know, he needs, you know, he

needs to get an operation for his puppy

dog at home or um is it because he needs

to get the girl or what is it or

you know, what is the thing? So the the

the mechanics of why the you know why

this character goes on whatever the

journey is. And I'm not talking about a

road movie necessarily.

But then what is it that's inherent in

that specific character that makes him

react in the way he's reacting? And so

that must be something in the past. What

brought him to this point? What's the

part we don't see and we don't we aren't

given the information clearly either.

You know, very often you don't you don't

you you don't get the Indianapolis scene

in Jaws in every movie where the guy's

talking about the you know the the the

experience from his past that made him

into this weird quirky character. You

don't necessarily get that one, but it'd

be nice if the music was informed by

something like that so that there was

some

um that that it felt purposeful, that it

felt

you knew what you were talking about.

Lion Kings is like a tricky subject

because, you know, it's um

didn't want to do the movie. Didn't, you

know, uh I didn't want, you know, didn't

didn't want to do an animated movie. Uh

didn't know how to write for fuzzy

animals. Um didn't want to do Broadway,

you know. So I was I was just forever

going no no no I don't want to do this

and then out of one reason or the other

I I did get into it and it became

incredibly personal because um my father

died when I was 6 years old and suddenly

I'm presented with this story of

a child losing his father and you know

it's like I I I never had to deal with

it. I never had to talk about I never

had to deal with it. I mean, especially

in this sort of German culture where we

have a, you know, we don't have

emotions. We're German, right? Um, so so

I poured a lot of stuff into that movie

that that was actually really about me.

And at the end of the day, I suppose

everything I write is a version of me. I

I I have no idea. I I you know really

honestly I have no idea how the

character feels truly feels. You know I

can guess at it or I can put myself into

a situation and I can imagine it. And I

suppose that's where this thing comes

in. You know you're supposed to write

from imagination. You know I I

you you try to figure out some sort of

an emotional truth which is not based on

fact. And I can figure out something. I

can figure out something in the that

might not be what the what the writer

was figuring out, but I can figure out

my corner of their experience that I can

that resonates within me and that I can

make something out