Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh OBEis an English writer and director of film and theatre. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Artbefore honing his directing skills at East 15 Acting School and further at the Camberwell School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design. He began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid-1960s. In the 1970s and 1980s his career moved between theatre work and making films for BBC Television, many of which were characterised by...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth20 February 1943
anybody concerned films kinds obscure share talk
I am not concerned with making esoteric, obscure kinds of films. These are films that can share and talk to anybody about real things.
actors able film
The reason my films work is because every actor on set is very secure. They're able to fly.
independent independent-filmmaking forgotten
Independent filmmaking has always been there and it's not to be forgotten.
hollywood film reason
A lot of the reasons that I'm resistant to making films in the U.S. have nothing to do with not doing a film in Hollywood, but rather to do with what I'm committed to working on in the U.K. I feel very committed to the British film industry and infrastructure.
bored pieces film
If a film or any piece of work doesn't entertain, it fails - and that is using the word entertain literally, meaning it holds you there and you become absorbed by it so that you don't walk away and get bored and so on.
hollywood directors film
The main problem is that the Hollywood system has already made the film before the director shoots a single frame.
insecurity film problem
The problem with the British film industry is the nervousness and insecurity about - and genuflection toward - Los Angeles.
hollywood world film
Films are made all over the world all the time and only a thin slice of that product is Hollywood.
people giving film
People have been very resistant to giving me more than the standard amount of money. So I keep making films on a similar scale. Which is fine, but also frustrating.
play film
I've walked out of films. But for every film I've ever walked out of, I've probably walked out of 500 plays.
long cameras film
You will find hardly any improvising on camera anywhere in my films. It's very structured, but it's all worked out from elaborate improvisations over a long period, as you know.
thinking film sophisticated
But actually I make films that I think are extremely sophisticated and cinematic.
film snooping should
But films should be voyeuristic. What else is a film if you're not snooping into somebody else's lives?
stuff film developing
I'm developing the stuff all the time. There's a film in my head. I'm imagining a film.