Chemistry 101
So Oldest Daughter is making me watch an entire season of True Blood on our video on demand. I had walked in about two nights ago when she was watching it in my room. People, there's a LOT of sex on that show. But then she started telling me the whole back story. When she got to the part that the female lead's boss is a DOG (shapeshifter), I threw up my hands. "Forget it!" I mean, this is not for me.
UNTIL . . . the vampire and the female lead shared screen time. Folks . . . Chemistry 101. I was hooked. So, just as she did with House, she is catching me up, fast forwarding through boring parts so it's just the good stuff, letting me know who is who.
And I started thinking about it. If you have ever seen a movie with bad chemistry between the leads (hmm . . . I am thinking a very bad movie with Hugh Jackman and Ashley Judd) then watched something with totally hot chemistry like Mr. and Mrs. Smith, or last night's completely had me falling off the bed scene between a vampire and a human . . . then it's sort of puzzling.
From a writing perspective, these shows have scripts CALLING for chemistry. But you can create all the banter you want, and if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. I mean, I SO want HIM to star in THIS. (Genius? Are you sending this to his agent?) But would that guarantee chemistry with the female lead? I have no idea.
I have been getting reader emails about the sex scene between Kate and Julian. They think it's hot. I think I wrote them with chemistry. But what IS it that does so?
In my opinion, it starts with brains. Then banter. Which is why short-cutting that and making it all about rippled abs or whatever . . . does nothing for me. (And given Julian has no body, that's just as well in the case of Freudian Slip.) Maybe it's a moment of vulnerability--just a minute, a moment, a conversation--when someone let's someone else in.
So I toss it to the peanut gallery. What creates chemistry? Best onscreen chemistry? Book chemistry? How do you create it?
37 comments:
I can't always tell. I think the initial conflict needs to be believable so there's friction, which causes heat. But it's hard to quantify.
The classic--to me--peculiarity of chemistry is in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. There was meant to be some sizzle between Harrison Ford and Alison Doody, but most people don't think there is. However, there's a lot of chemistry between Harrison Ford and Sean Connery.
Is that because of what the actors brought to it? Or is it because Alison Doody and Harrison Ford had minimal chemistry? Is it because Doody was a lousy actress? Or was it because the script makes the relationship between Ford and Connery more believable and potent than the one between Ford and Doody?
Mark:
In that case, both of the other women had spunk. Doody was this "icy" character and I never believed he would be THAT much of an idiot for a piece of a**. I mean, yes, do men often think with their . . . indeed they do. But I never felt Indie did. So I fault the script . . . instead of sparks, it was a foolish crush.
But I agree with you!
E
Best chemistry I've recently seen in a flick is between Mark Ruffalo (sigh...) and Sara Polley in My Life Without Me. I think what poured it on for me was how the director utilized a silent flirtation between them. There she is, sleeping on a bench at the laundry, and he, a perfect (perfect) stranger, keeps watch over her. Sigh...it was beautiful.
Kath:
It doesn't hurt that he is both a great actor and beyond sexy. :-)
E
With the writing I think a sense of the forbidden helps. An adulterous affair, one between members of feuding families, a cop falling for a suspect, etc. I don't think onscreen chemistry can be manufactured, though. It's either there or it isn't.
I think tension creates chemistry a lot of times - when the reader can't read fast enough to see what's next. It also helps to build - which creates that tension - allows the reader to get inside the characters. No wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am in writing (or in real life, thank you very much).
By the way, your last post inspired a poem. I'm not poet-laureate, but it was fun!
Jude:
I hadn't thought of that. I know when I wrote The Roofer, the idea that Tom couldn't know . . . added to it, I am sure.
E
Amy:
Cool!!! I have been thinking about poetry a lot too.
E
I just read yesterday that the two stars of True Blood have admitted they're dating. After reading the article, I really want to watch this show. :)
Mmmm: http://www.imnotobsessed.com/2009/06/09/true-blood-co-stars-stephen-moyer-and-anna-paquin-pair-up-on-screen-and-off
Melanie:
All I can say is there were two sex scenes last night that were so intense. [fans self.]
E
I have been getting reader emails about the sex scene between Kate and Julian.
Funny! I mentioned this scene in my Amazon review. You hit a home run.
Mark: It's because Alison Doody was the wrong choice for the part.
I concur on the sex scenes with Jules and Kate. Whoa.
I need me more HQN.
;-)
Hey Erica, I've gotta say I have no clue how it works but when it happens...magic! The movie Twilight, has some intense scenes between Bella and Edward. His eyes say things that dialogue couldn't touch.
Amy:
LOL! Well . . . glad it worked for most readers.
E
LaDonna:
Interesting . . . because yes, sometimes there is so much more than the writing could possibly create.
E
I am all about the banter. And yea true Blood has too much sex. If *I* say it has too much sex, then it's bad. And it's mostly because most of the sex is just pointless nudity to give it the "naughty factor" HBO is trying to be "edgy" and just coming off as crass in this. IMO.
But I do agree with you about Bill and Sookie's chemistry,though only on the show. In the book I HATE Bill with a firey frenzy that is hard to match.
But I LOVE Eric.
Eric isn't overly hot in True Blood because they are downplaying his hotness so he doesn't upstage Bill. Check him out on IMDB and the other things he's been in. He is OMG wow. Once he becomes a love interest for Sookie, I'm thinking his hotness will emerge, but, yeah.
Anyway sorry for that ramble there. I prefer the books and I need to read the latest one (too many things on my TBR list not enough time or infinite money reserves.) I'm told there is forward momentum in the Eric/Sookie storyline in the latest book and I'm such an Eric fangirl. I want to have his vampire babies.
Right after I have Spock's Vulcan babies.
Oh...best line EVAR from True Blood:
"That girl is dumber than a box of hair."
hAHAHAHAHA
Win.
Zoe:
On the SHOW, I want her to stay with Bill forever. He can't be bad. CAN'T!!!! Can't. Can't.
LOL!
E
I like the way they portray Bill on the show better than the books. He is diff on the show. With the way they are over-sexing this show I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't create a Bill/Sookie/Eric threesome, something I've always supported, even in the books.
If it came down to Bill or Eric, I'm on Team Eric, but if they want to share, especially with those actors involved, I'm all about it. :D
If you read the books you'll fall in love with Eric. Not in the first book, but later. He paves her driveway, you have to have context to see why that's so romantic, but Eric is just... *swoon*
Zoe:
See . . . and in the show . . . Bill is very "tortured."
And yeah . . . I mean TONS of sex. I usually allow my 11-year-old to watch pretty much anything if I am with her to talk about it afterwards (hence, she saw Synecdoche, New York, which is SO not for kids, but she "got" it and we talked about it . . . and she saw BIRTH with Nicole Kidman). ANYHOO, there is no way in hell she can watch the show. And that's saying A LOT.
E
Zoe: Your babies with Spock would only be 1/4 Vulcan. Assuming you're 100% human, that is.
Let's just hope the pointy ears are a recessive trait.
Jude, OMG I loves mah pointy ears. *cries*
And yeah I know I know, it would be 1/4th Vulcan babies. But I don't think it's recessive, if it was, wouldn't Spock be born without the pointy ears himself?
Sylar as Spock = win. Just had to say that.
Erica,
Birth was a good movie.
Zoe:
I loved the soundtrack to Birth. If you listen to it, I swear it mimics a heartbeat.
E
Chemistry? 2 opposing forces that challenge one another.
I heart True Blood. Bill Compton is a sexy version of Joel Osteen. Sexscenes & I have had this conversation before. She HATES him with a passion, which somehow only reduces me to a giggle status I cannot easily recover from!
Yay to what Jude said about the forbidden. I took a thousand thumbs' down for one I'd written into a manuscript (adulterous affair). Strangely thereafter, I realized they were opposing genre thumbs. :)
Sookie Stackhouse is AWESOME. Every one told me to read the books for years, and I didn't listen until last fall. And then I gobbled up every one in like two weeks. The TV series is amazingly perfect, too.
When I first started reading, I heard about Eric and was totally resistant to the idea of her ever being with anyone but Bill, but Charlaine Harris pulls it off. I loved Quinn, and I especially love Eric. Eric is Mr. Perfect. So sweet.
I think sexual tension is caused more by what you don't do than what you do. It's all about anticipation and building it. A sex scene "spends" the anticipation, kinda like how some men say a woman with clothes on (or partial clothes, LOL) is more erotic than one completely naked. As you say, it's the brain. :-)
Time for the opinion of a hormone charged teenager. Anybody seen one around?
I agree that the certain sense of forboding does come in to play, same thing with holding back just when the reader thinks it's sexy time, but I also think that for the melt your heart, we would die for each other chemistry to happen they have to have that deep set emotional connection. One problem I have with YA that has sex in it, is that even if the scene is written well, it doesn't feel any deeper than just sex - which for some teenage characters it is, but what about the ones that aren't rich, hot, smart, sexgods that see it as letting another person dive further into their soul than any other before?
Sex for the sake of sex just makes me twitchy while reading - like watching bulls breeding cows(Never watch it, please, you'l thank me if you don't)
Our chemistry lab at school blew up a week before summer vacation started. The teacher likes hitting the happy juice a little bit to much.
-J.T.
Realm:
I am COMPLETELY hot and bothered by him.
E
Spy:
Most definitely the brain. Which is why in Freudian Slip, I considered it possible. All they have are their brains. Banter. Connection.
E
JT:
You are totally wise beyond your years. Give me a soul connection any time over pure sex
E
I did love the Kate and Julian scene because it was unique. I am a HUGE fan of Charlaine Harris and just finished the most recent Sookie Stackhouse book. I really love the scenes between Sookie and Eric best. But the chemistry between Elena and Clay in the Women of the Otherworld series I think is one of the best I have read so far.
For some strange reason, most of my sex scenes take place anywhere but the bedroom. I have one in a shower (got a lot of fan mail on that one *grin*), the backyard, a kitchen counter, and most recently, a cave. Even if it takes 200+ pages, I like building up the tension until the hero and the heroine know that one touch or the right words will set them off. For me, that's where the chemistry really sparkles. Where or when it happens is anyone's guess...and half the fun. :-)
Cheryl:
This show is all new to me. I don't read a ton of fiction (prefer nonfiction) . . . and they chemistry is so well-done, I wonder how they will pull off a switch in romantic leads.
E
Marcia:
A little inventiveness does help sex scenes . . . :-)
E
This reminds me of what I was thinking about this morning. Why do I care about some characters and not about others? I have a favorite author and devour her books, except this one which is still sitting on my nightstand partially read after many months. I just don't care about the MC or what happens to her. And is that me or the way it's written?
This is my exploration topic for this weekend as I think I have an issue in my WIP that the MC is one people don't really care about yet. And that has to be fixed before my next round of submissions.
I have it it my netflix queue so I'll be seeing it soon.
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