"Break character" redirects here. For characters which break lines in text processing, see
Line wrap and word wrap. For characters used to escape text formatting, see
Escape character.
In
theatre (especially in the illusionistic Western tradition), breaking character occurs when an actor ceases to maintain the illusion that they are the character they are supposedly portraying. This is considered unprofessional while performing in front of an audience or camera (except when the act is a deliberate breaking of the
fourth wall). One of the most common ways of breaking character is corpsing, in which an actor loses their composure and laughs or giggles in a comedy scene or scene requiring ludicrous actions. If the breaking of character is particularly serious, it would normally result in an abandonment of a
take in recorded or filmed drama.
Famous breaks in film
The advent of
DVD players, with the use of their precise pause and slow-motion functions, has made it far easier to spot breaks in character in motion pictures, and many internet sites collect such examples.[1]
Examples of actors breaking character on television include:
Lucille Ball, in a rare example of breaking character for her, was forced to break character during filming of "Lucy and Viv Put in a Shower", a season 1 episode of The Lucy Show. In the climactic scene, the titular shower filled with water due to a drain malfunction, and Ball nearly drowned attempting to unplug it. Co-star
Vivian Vance hastily reworked the script to allow Ball to recover her composure.[4] Ball's near-drowning was included in the finished episode, which was one of several from the series to lapse into the
public domain.
Many instances of breaking character have occurred on Saturday Night Live, where showrunner
Lorne Michaels is known to strongly discourage character breaks:[5]
Perhaps the most severe example of an entire cast breaking is the first appearance of the
Debbie Downer character, where in a 2004 skit featuring
Rachel Dratch, guest host
Lindsay Lohan and others, Dratch eventually struggles to exclaim to exaggerated effect "By the way... I can't have children!"[5][10]
In the Doctor Who episode "
The Feast of Steven", actor
William Hartnell breaks character to wish the audience a merry
Christmas, with actors
Peter Purves and
Jean Marsh also breaking character, erupting in laughter. The Christmas address was scripted, but the laughter was not.[Note 1] In episode 5 of the Doctor Who story Frontier in Space, there is a scene in which the Master (Roger Delgado) leads captive Jo Grant (Katy Manning) through a rocky terrain. Despite his typically soulless nature, the Master audibly tells Jo to "be careful down here" – an out-of-character statement from Delgado to aid Manning, who is very nearsighted.
On The Daily Show,
Jon Stewart or one of the correspondents occasionally broke character during a segment. One example was a piece on an allegation of a homosexual relationship involving
the then Prince Charles and the British tabloids' shameless use of innuendo and euphemisms to spread the rumor while avoiding
libelous statements. The segment had
Stephen Colbert "reporting" from Britain and explaining, in terms laden with homoerotic imagery, that it would be journalistically irresponsible to go into detail about the story. He then peeled a banana and took a huge bite of it in imitation of
fellatio, causing himself to smile and Stewart to begin giggling off screen. By the end of the segment, Colbert was laughing so hard he could barely speak.[11]
While playing
NewsNation host Bobbi Moore in a April 13, 2024 SNL skit,
Heidi Gardner, who has built a reputation for maintaining composure during comedy scenes, drew considerable attention for corpsing in what Vulture magazine characterized "in spectacularly charming fashion".[12][13][14][15][16][17][18]
Virtual and gaming environments
Breaking character or corpsing is also being used more frequently to describe a participant-player who, having assumed the role of a virtual character or avatar and is acting within a virtual or gaming environment, then breaks out of that character.[19] For example, this could be a player-character behaving inappropriately within the social-cultural environment depicted by the virtual or gaming environment or the participant-player
ceasing to interact-play (momentarily or entirely) leaving the character suspended and/or lifeless.
Breaking character is not solely limited to performances in traditional theater, television, and film; the phenomenon is not unheard of in
professional wrestling, which is normally highly scripted.
^Tim Marsh. 2006. Vicarious experience: staying there connected with and through our own and other characters. Chapter, In: Gaming As Culture: Essays on Reality, Identity And Experience in Fantasy Games. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, pp. 196-214.