The Exterior-Interior Continuum
z The exterior-interior continuum relates to creating a character from the
outside in versus creating a character from the inside out.
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of their characters, even if they sometimes choose not to. But
even for those characters whose thoughts we do have access to,
there are many different ways to express them.
o If you think of the continuum between observation and
imagination as one axis, consider that there is another axis
at right angles to this one, and the poles of that axis are the
exterior approach and the interior approach.z To help understand this idea, consider the difference between the British
and American styles of acting as they were practiced during the 1950s
and 1960s.
o During this time, the method style of acting became popular
among young American actors; this approach required the actor
to identify with the character he or she was playing, to analyze
that character’s psychology in depth, and to use elements from
the actor’s own memories to evoke the emotions the character
felt. In contrast, British actors at the time were trained to build
characters out of small physical details and bits of behavior: an
accent, a gesture, a prosthetic nose.
o In this analogy, the American actor is using the interior method,
building a character from the inside out, while the British
actor is using the exterior method, building the character from
the outside in. Fiction writers often use similar exterior or
interior approaches.Comparing Emma and Jane Eyre
z In the opening pages of her great comic novel (PPD, Jane Austen lays
the title character bare simply by telling us point blank almost everything
we need to know about her: “Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and
rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite