Back To One

For one year now on this podcast, I have talked to dozens and dozens of actors about their approach to the craft of acting. There are few living non-actor directors whose thoughts on this subject I feel would be worthy for this archive. Mike Leigh is on the top of that list. Listening to actors talk about their working experiences has made me think of an analogy. They are like fish people, showing up on a set expecting some water to work in but mostly finding dry land everywhere, and, for the most part, having to supply the water themselves. Taking this perhaps odd analogy a little further— when these fish people act for Mike Leigh, it is like working completely submerged in a safe, life-size aquarium with constant fresh water pumping in. He starts without a script. The actors build their characters from scratch in collaboration with Leigh, using someone (or a composite of many people) in the actor’s life as a foundation. They then move and “be” that character privately in the presence of Leigh alone before g