The ability to sympathize with those around us seems crucial to our survival, and it's connected to the mirroring functions of the brain.
I feel an intense intimacy with those who have this loathing interest in me. Further than this, I know what they mean, I sympathize with them, I understand them. There should be a name (as poetic as love) for this relationship between loather and loathed; it is of the closest and more full of passion than incest.
Perhaps you could sympathize with those who seek to replace a dead child with a copy, or to copy a parent or a relative or even a celebrity.
Being a writer can be a very lonely profession, but having a network of people who can sympathize with everything you're going through - from contract issues to the terror of changing your novel from past- to present-tense - is an invaluable asset.
When I play 'Grand Theft Auto,' I'm such a nerdy little law abider because I've always had this active imagination in which I sympathize and empathize with things.
The way I approach any role, whether it's comedy or drama, I like to look for the truth first. I think comedy for the sake of comedy wears dull pretty quickly. You have to ground the character in reality first and allow the audience to sympathize, emphasize and be more invested.
If you're not catfishing someone for romantic reasons, then it's going to be hard to sympathize and be compassionate with someone who is doing it for revenge, who's doing it for fun and games, who's doing it because they want to be on TV.
I'm manipulating the audience. I'm making sure people sympathize.
A character has to believe in himself, so I have to find a way to believe in them. Or at least sympathize to a degree.
I don't think the biggest crime is to not sympathize with people. I think the biggest crime is to not be interested.
