This article is reprinted with the permission of Newmarket Press, publishers of the excellent Shooting Script Series. This article is from The Truman Show - a title in the Shooting Script Series.
Many writers know the importance of a back story to help develop their characters.
As part of my preparation I wrote a background describing how this extraordinary show came into existence. It seems impossible not that I considered doing another picture in the meantime, as the months filed up with constant rewrites and fine-tuning of the script. The background to the show I wrote for myself, but in preproduction cast and crew got to hear of it and asked for copies. With the actors it became a source of amusement during shooting, particularly with Noah Emmerich, who played Marlon and Laura Linney as Truman s wife, Meryl . These ad-libs helped remind us of the schizophrenic nature of their characters, and kept us in touch with the lie that was at the heart of their relationship with Truman.