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Re: Michael Harding | The Stepfather | Pt. 2

[fatherlessness]

Personality: Michael is, at this point, more than a little messed in the head. As much as I might rag on the movie, it’s his character that makes him interesting, and is the real reason I want to play him. He is a strong alpha male, deeply mistrustful of people he doesn’t know but also ridiculously loyal to those he loves, quick to dive into danger to protect them even if he’s terrified and the odds are stacked against him. He’s no blisteringly tanned action hero, either - he is just a fairly normal teen dealing with some fairly normal teen issues (and some abnormal ones) who, when thrown into a dramatic, heightened situation, would rather step between the danger and the people he loves than run or cower, and would do so without a second thought - not even a thought as to whether or not it was badass. (In the movie canon, when David springs back to his feet after being stabbed in the neck and surprises the whole family in the hallway, Michael automatically and unconsciously steps forward to block his family from David’s view, legs apart and arms wide to protect them all.) It does not matter that he is scared, and scared he is - he simply does what needs doing.

Michael is also a giant knot of daddy issues. His mother Susan says in the earlier half of the movie that she let her first marriage to Michael’s father Jay go on too long; up until that divorce, it’s implied that the parents were head to head all the time, each as spiteful and stubborn as the other. In many ways, he’s had to become an adult far too early in life because of his parents’ relationship, and it’s hardened him, and probably is the deepest reason behind the rebel-without-a-cause persona that sent him to military school. (It’s never said what it was he did that got him sent there, merely that he had a terrible temper, hung out with the wrong crowd and somehow got himself banned from the swim club at his old high school, but since those issues seemed to have calmed down even by the beginning of the movie, I won’t go deeply into them except to say that Michael’s fuse is very short when he’s stressed, and he can get annoyed extremely easily. When he does get annoyed, he’s not exactly polite about it, either, but if he likes someone, that impoliteness translates to an oddly snarky sense of humour.)

It’s implied, too, that at one point Michael was very close with his dad, and therefore his father’s leaving the family was a huge betrayal of Michael’s trust in him. From then on, Michael never wanted to speak to the man ever again - it’s what made him mistrustful of anything resembling a father figure, as he was with David at the beginning of the movie. Now that Michael has survived David’s attack, this mistrust will have grown exponentially, and Michael’s anger at people (or kinds of people) he feels have betrayed or slighted him is not the sort that fades over time; he holds onto a grudge a long, long time, perhaps years, perhaps never letting it go unless the person he holds the grudge against makes an effort to remedy the situation.

That said, he’s not entirely averse to giving people chances. He was open to letting his father back into his life by the end of the movie, but it was too late - his father’s death just at the time Michael was ready to try the whole having-a-father thing again will have made him even that much more guarded. He’s not as likely to give people chances now he’s been through his ordeal, but he hasn't completely ruled it out of his lifestyle, either.

Despite having once been what might be termed a hooligan, Michael is anything but a flake. He has been dating his girlfriend Kelly for several years now, and while they fight as much as any other couple, he’s never cheated and never would dare to. That said, should someone finally convince him while he’s here that he won’t see Kelly ever again, and then should another someone steal his heart, he can be very jealous, indeed.