In my latest script. one character is going to be a dumb "blonde" type character- i.e a physically attractive female apprentice given to a reporter to work along with and learn as he goes along. Shes going to be moreso the comic relief of this piece but with a dark twist- only until very late in the play do we realise that shes actually a plant put to work with him to keep tabs on him. Shes actually VERY intelligent and quite dangerous and has actually been playing the character all along. What i want is ways to make her seem dumb but not too much as to seem unrealistically stupid. I also plan to drop subtle hints to her intelligence that hopefully the viewers will only realise after the revelation I plan to use this character as a model http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNar69Wn_Pk&feature=related
To me, nothing screams "ditz" more than a girl who can't figure out the simplest things, and then giggles at her mistakes. Maybe if you could work that into the story, then make it seem a bit contrived, to show that she is acting.
I do this a little bit myself - play up the dumb blonde antics so people let me get away with stuff ;-) I actually think it would work better to make her dumb blondeness OVER exaggerated and over the top - trying to make it too subtle will negate the impact later. Plus, if it's all an act then there's no reason why it couldn't be laid on a bit thick - at one point she could even remind herself not to overdo it and blow her cover. Things like mixing up words, using homonymns or homophones, not knowing about important political people or events, and generally being ignorant of anything more cerebral than the latest soap opera storyline or the newest beauty treatment/fashion trend. She should also display very naive and simplistic beliefs about complicated issues, like world poverty, education etc. See this link for inspiration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww
Part of a reporter's job is to flesh out the story, get the detail, pay attention. Unless whatever he is following captures his attention to the extent that he is oblivious to anything she has to say, her being a "dumb blonde" may not work because if he is a good reporter he will know something is off. What you may want to try is to make her smart but make him think she is dumb, essentially making her smarter than he is. Then later on when he realizes it...
I honeslty want to make her reveal to be a huge surprise so as the audience wont see it coming. So here breaking the "act" before that is out of the question. And she'll also be such a good acterss it cant be contrivved looking Heres a little light on the script its a semi realistic play, set in Biblical times in Israel. The reporter works for a newspaper (the semi realism part is that they'll be quite a bit of anachronisms - things out of their time)is Jerusalem and is tasked to find out why Herod the Great ordered the deaths of the boys (looking for Jesus) The reporter the "blonde's" been assigned to I'm planning on making a bit overconfident so although he could possibly notice and discrepancies in her intelligence, he's too arrogant to notice as he's written her off already as stupid and someone he plans to use for all the dirty work. So far i think her traits would be as follows- Can understand how to use basic items (" can someone tell me how this works ( feather pen) I cant find the instructions") whenever she is given an instruction that is more than 2 sentences her 1st reply is. Ok i'm confused. To then explain what simple thing she doesnt get
Are you not worried about the cliche aspect? Aside from 'dumb blonde' being an old steriotype - your 'reveal' is also something explored to death in numerous works. Whilst I am aware that there are stupid women out there that happen to be blonde - perhaps mixing up these very attributes may help. On another note, when writing any character, study real life people. (In a hopefully not too stalkerish way). There's always a real character, and then the publiuc face.
shes not actually blonde the actors will all be black, i usd blonde just to give an idea of the character type im going for. Im hoping that the audience wll love her and se her as a sweet cute character relief only to see her real personality as a shocker- vicious etc
I saw Total Drama Island and i had to gag a little, lol. But yes, this charcter sounds very solid. If i were you, i would look for more then just those few options. Who knows? Maybe you can find a better model. Don't worry, this charcter sounds fresh. Keep up the good work!
GAG????? Perish the thought. I LOVE this show and i've gotten some good character model ideas from it
Probably the only ridiculously dumb blonde character I've actually liked is Britney from Glee, because she's a fully fleshed out character who just happens to have some kind of undiagnosed cognitive disability. And because she's nice - most dumb blondes are mean as well as dumb. (The video clip example comes across as conceited and uncaring, for example.)
basically you are looking to describe someone attractive, blond and clever who is going to pretend to be dumb. I would drop the 'blond word' out if your character is going to be believable because of the strong stereotype that a blond bomshell has with it. Some habits/cliches dies hard and we live in a society that associate certain things with other things.
As much as I hate the dumb blonde stereotype (especially as I am blonde myself) I did meet a girl who fit it perfectly a while ago. What I would do is make her very slow to catch on to things when everyone else is following, make her not able to understand sarcasm, make her giggle when she's confused, make her shallow and very invested in her own appearance (like often showing up to places way too overdressed). This character could be a very good manipulator and mimic who has just picked up traits from other people she's met and used them to create this "dumb" persona to hide her true intentions.
When I first read it I thought what darkhaloangel said, about the cliche but I think it probably just was badly worded and just meant for us to get the idea. While I do like this idea a lot I'd also tread somewhat carefully and think about what you want people to think if they eye the seams. The dumb blond perspective can be creative and I think you got something, and you've gotten a lot of good advice. Anything not over the top is probably a good way to go too. You could peel something of the stereotype to make it your own but still keep the general idea.
