How Writers Develop Characters With The Defining Moment — Christopher Riley [FULL INTERVIEW]
Film Courage: Can you tell us why the movie Ordinary People was a defining moment in your life?
Christopher: I think when I saw Ordinary People I was about 17-years-old and it was the first really serious movie I had seen after Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and it also really spoke to who I was as a kid. I was kind of a socially awkward lonely kid and so I felt whatever discomfort went with that. Ordinary People showed this main character who looked on the outside like he had everything together and like he didn’t experience the kind of pain that I experienced but then the film because it’s a beautifully told story reveals his secret life. In his secret life he’s actually just come out of treatment after a suicide attempt and he’s going to high school, he’s singing in the choir, he looks to everyone like he’s one of the ones who’s really got it all together and for the first time as I sat in the audience I realized Oh, it’s possible that what’s on the surface isn’t what’s really going on underneath? That’s I guess something adults…
