Page 2 - Making Work News Today

And we gradually — i finally whittle it down and choose the source, or usually sources, from people they know. so it means the actor has got somewhere to start, something to — like an art... like the artists, like the students looking at the subject, at the model in the life drawing class the actor has got, you know, he or she is going to start to stand up and play this person they actually know, and then that person they know, and then we meld them together and the character is created. but...

To theatre or film, was the foundation course at camberwell. but it was there that i had a really seminal experience as an artist. we were all sitting around... ..and had a nude model, and everybody was quietly drawing away, and i looked around the room, and i thought, what is happening in this room is something that we never experienced for one split second at the royal academy of dramatic art. really creative work is happening, everybody in the room is looking at something thats real and findi...

Democracy, i think my films must be understood to be implicitly political, rather than overtly political. you once said, im going to quote you here, "i know "i return endlessly to the same preoccupations, but im not "always aware of it initially." what are those preoccupations, do you think? well, i mean, if you look at my films and plays, you know, about how we live, relationships, work, responsibility, surviving, secrets and lies, you know, the stuff of living really. class ? and class, yes. i...

Production of little malcolm and his struggle against the eunuchs, a play by david halliwell. youve described this experience as a life—changing experience. why? because... david halliwell, who was a close friend and a very talented guy, hes no longer with us, but he wrote the play so he could play the main character, malcolm scrawdyke. and to cut a long story short, he was impossible to direct. hed say, "oh, a directors just a chairman." id say, "why dont you move over there on that...?" hed ...

A formative effect on your work is ronald searle, illustrator, artist, best known for creating century unions, so many books and magazines over the years, in the postwar years, how do you discover him? when i was six, somebody gave me a copy of hurrah for st trinian�*s, a collection of cartoons by ronald searle, for my birthday. that was it. the great thing about searle is that he was — apart from being a great draughtsman — he was a fantastic observer, and his style of drawing influenced ...

Thing, except what your character knows. so they dont know about the other characters? not until, not until and unless they meet them in the context of the work. are they banned from talking to the other actors about... absolutely. but it works totally. everybody enters into the spirit of it, and theres never been a case where anybody has, as it were, broken the rules or cheated. people, they... ..actors are highly stimulated by it, because it means each actor feels in possession of something th...

Well, i mean, if you look at my films and plays, you know, about how we live, relationships, work, responsibility, surviving, secrets and lies, you know, the stuff of living, really. class ? and class, yes. its funny, its interesting, i didnt put that instinctively at the top of the list, but fair dos, you know. could you characterise a typical mike leigh film? what sort of films does mike leigh make? no, i couldnt do that and im not going to try. youve chosen as your next cultural moment an exp...

David halliwell, who was a close friend and a very talented guy, hes no longer with us, but he wrote the play so he could play the main character, malcolm scrawdyke. and to cut a long story short, he was impossible to direct. hed say, "oh, a directors just a chairman." id say, "why dont you move over there on that...?" hed say, "why? "i could move there, i could move anywhere." and so... at this point, id already... and weve talked about this, id already formulated notions about... because i wan...

That — one major thing that i always thought about films was, wouldnt it be great if you could have a film where the characters in the film were like real people, not like actors? and the other thing, which is of far, far less significance, or of no importance at all, is that watching westerns, you know, because of the nature of the number of frames on a length of film, the wheels on the, on a vehicle or a stagecoach would go around backwards. yes. and i used to think, sit there thinking, "whe...

Like the artists, like the students looking at the subject, at the model in the life drawing class the actor has got, you know, he or she is going to start to stand up and play this person they actually know, and then that person they know, and then we meld them together and the character is created. but of course, the two famous myths about what i do with actors is, one is that the actors come with ideas, and the committee informed as to what the subject, thats not the case at all. in fact, its...