I do not make films which are prescriptive, and I do not make films that are conclusive. You do not walk out of my films with a clear feeling about what is right and wrong. They're ambivalent. You walk away… — Mike Leigh Copy Share Image
I can't negotiate and collaborate with a character to create a distilled dramatic investigation of the raw material. I need to work with an actor. That stuff about actors who stay in character all the time is nonsense. — Mike Leigh Copy Share Image
The main problem is that the Hollywood system has already made the film before the director shoots a single frame. — Mike Leigh Copy Share Image
The delineation between the actor and his part is a practical matter. When the camera runs, you want the actor to be the character. — Mike Leigh Copy Share Image
Films are made all over the world all the time and only a thin slice of that product is Hollywood. — Mike Leigh Copy Share Image
I think it's important that nobody forgets that although Hollywood commercially dominates the world cinema, in fact what comes out of the filmmaking here… — Mike Leigh Copy Share Image
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… — Mike Leigh Copy Share Image
I hope I make films where you walk away . . . with work to do, arguments to have, things to worry about, things… — Mike Leigh Copy Share Image
It's an unhealthy habit to say that life is what you make of it, and if you want to be happy, then you can… — Mike Leigh Copy Share Image
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… — Mike Leigh Copy Share Image
I take no notice of the trends. It has never concerned me at all. My job is to deal with what I want to… — Mike Leigh Copy Share Image
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… — Mike Leigh Copy Share Image
But films should be voyeuristic. What else is a film if you're not snooping into somebody else's lives? — Mike Leigh Copy Share Image
I try and create for the audience something that relates to real-life experience. When you're meeting somebody for the first time, all you have… — Mike Leigh Copy Share Image
