I'm having trouble here. This story I'm working on features a protagonist that I want people to like, but he's not a good person really. However, I want him to change throughout the story into a good person (or atleast a better person). So, have any tips on something like this? It seemed to work well in Goodfellas (although the character never really got "better") with Ray Liotta's character. He wasn't a good guy, but I still liked him. Perhaps, I should contrast him with someone who's even worse of a person so I can make my protagonist not look nearly as bad (like Pesci's character contrasted to Liotta's character. After we see Pesci is a psycho, Liotta doesn't seem so bad now). Would that work?

I think you are getting too caught up in the word "like".  Nobody really "liked" Ray Liotta's character, any more than they really "like" Tony Soprano.  Would you invite these guys to a party?

Try to switch your focus from "likable" to "interesting".  What you want, for a protagonist like this, is somebody you can't take your eyes off of -- no matter what they do -- good or bad.

Give us somebody like that, and the "like" -- or something that "feels" as if it were "like" -- will just come naturally over the course of the story.

Tom Cruise in Collateral was brilliant, in that he was ruthless, mean, violent, a prick, but yet funny, charasmatic and honest at the same time... I think making a bad guy likeable isn't hard to do, you just need to make sure you know who and what it is you are writing about.

I wrote 5 bad guys as the main characters for my screenplay "COFFIN CANYON" and everyone of them shifted and changed into something more by the end of it... maybe not better people, just different people, but they were all very different and very likeable in all respects.

Good luck to you on this...

Balt~

The best way to make a character likeable is to give him a goal that people can relate to and respect. He might be a ruthless killer who uses exploitation, prostitution, and racketeering to make ends meet, but if he does it for the children, people will just love him. Sur,e it's a little extreme, but you get the point.

Give him a solid relationship and then something in that relationship to fight for or that will force his hand in things that he shouldn't do, but we know he has to. Actions speak louder than words. You can have a funny villain, but he's still a villain.

Vin Diesel's character in Pitch Black was not at all likeable, and he didn't even try. But by the end of the movie, we certainly respected him and he was a great character. This was because despite what he wanted to do to save himself, he turned and help everyone else. He grew beyond the criminal and became the saviour they needed.

My advice: watch Once Upon a Time in Mexcio and study the Sands character (played by Johnny Depp). Awesome bad guy, who does dreadful things, but "redeems'' himself, if you will, in the end of the movie. Well, somewhat, but the audince feels like he's turning into a good guy and then they kinda like him -- but in no way is he a good guy.