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
audiences derived education enjoy great pleasure
I've derived a lot of pleasure and education from the theatre. It's great when audiences really enjoy it. It's part of my life.
stuff film developing
I'm developing the stuff all the time. There's a film in my head. I'm imagining a film.
lucky our-relationship wonderful-experience
My work is about life as you and I experience it. You're either lucky or you're not lucky; either your relationship works or it doesn't.
generosity choices luck
Life is about luck and it's about circumstances and socioeconomic conditions and all the rest of it, but you know, you can also make choices. It's about spirit and generosity and all the other things, too.
selfish resilience acting
My work requires acting at its most committed - it demands actors of enormous resilience, but also intelligence and wit. It doesn't work for narcissistic or selfish actors.
hollywood world film
Films are made all over the world all the time and only a thin slice of that product is Hollywood.
cinema feels ifs
I feel very much ideologically, politically if you like, and emotionally part of the European cinema.
funny morning night
Resolve was never stronger than in the morning, after the night, when it was never weaker
consciousness awareness constant
There's a constant drip and trickle of life that goes into one's awareness really and consciousness of things.
perspective pressure good-things
The good thing from my perspective is that nobody puts any pressure on me to say what it's going to be. The backers accept that they don't know what they are going to get.
obsession creeps millions
It creeps up on you and becomes an obsession. It comes out of watching a million movies.
israel events given
Given the events of even the 19th century, Zionism was inevitable. Given the events of the 20th century, Israel was inevitable.
independent independent-filmmaking forgotten
Independent filmmaking has always been there and it's not to be forgotten.
country independent odds
There is a great tradition of independent filmmaking in the U.S. that I absolutely respect. There's some wonderful stuff that comes out in this country against all the odds.