In a post on Writer Unboxed, David Corbett says Louise Fletcher’s portrayal of Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was a master class in creating a well-rounded villain who is the hero of their own story.
As Fletcher prepared for the role, she arrived at her interpretation of Ratched via a simple observation: Nurse Ratched is convinced she’s right. Fletcher also used her childhood in Alabama as inspiration, Corbett notes. “White people actually felt that the life they were creating was good for black people,” Fletcher has said. She used that paternalistic attitude to create her character and her treatment of her patients. “They’re in this ward, she’s looking out for them, and they have to act like they’re happy to get this medication or listen to this music,” Fletcher said. “And make her feel good about the way she is.” Fletcher’s ideas won over director Milos Forman, and the rest is film history.
“By taking this more down-to-earth, human approach, Fletcher and Forman managed to make Nurse Ratched even scarier, revealing in vivid terms how good intentions do indeed pave the road to Hell,” Corbett says. Fletcher even created a detailed backstory for Ratched, though she never shared most of it.
Corbett says writers can learn a lot of lessons from Fletcher’s choices. “To make it real, make it personal,” he says. “Louise Fletcher explored her own feelings and her own experience to flesh out her understanding of how and why Nurse Ratched behaved as she did. Explore your own beliefs, experiences, and emotions in identifying what you see as harmful, cruel, destructive, brutal, manipulative, and so on.”
Second, evil isn’t always wild and loud, but it almost always focuses on power, such as the quiet power Ratched had over her patients, who had no choice but to obey or be broken. Third, Fletcher’s Ratched validated her pursuit of power and cast herself as the heroine of her own story. “Remember: justify, don’t judge the character,” Corbett says. “Perhaps even ask how the character believes they are a victim rather than an instrument of evil.”
Corbett also suggests examining how your character reflects a larger evil or larger worldview. “Nurse Ratched does not see herself as evil, she thinks she is helping people,” Corbett says. “But that reflects a world view that ‘normal’ people like her are obliged to control those who won’t fall in line.”
Corbett also says Fletcher’s Ratched is a great example of true evil that doesn’t announce itself loudly. Ratched’s quiet, thoughtful exterior is contradicted by the ruthless acts she takes when she needs to dominate her patients and assert her authority. Finally, Corbett says that the film wisely resisted the urge to explain. While Fletcher created a rich backstory for her, none of it is revealed in flashbacks or monologue, but through behavior. “I’d argue it’s precisely that lack of explanation that makes her all the more terrifying,” Corbert concludes.
