Sreenwriters speak: how characters are created in national fiction. Results of a qualitative research

Through a qualitative research based on interviews to Spanish television screenwriters (n=19), this paper studies the creative process of characters depicting immigrants in the main Spanish television shows and films. Thanks to their answers we may understand how these characters are under-represented and stereotyped, as some studies have already pointed out (Igartua; Barrios y Ortega, 2012; Marcos; Igartua; Frutos; Barrios; Ortega y Piñeiro, 2014). A close look at their answers shows how immigrant characters are created in national fiction, the final purpose of this paper. The main conclusions we may highlight are that screenwriters use stereotypes to create characters, mainly when these are characters represent immigrants, that these characters do not have an impact on the audience and that the way they are represented depends on the genre the television show or film belongs to. Nevertheless there are other aspects where the answers are not unanimous, like those that refer to the use of immigrant actors to play this type of characters, those that deal with the idea that these characters are always depicted as ignorant in comedy shows, and those that refer to the degree in which real experience may influence on the creative process of the screenwriter.