Mike Leigh’s process and techniques

Leigh began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid 1960s. In the 1970s and 1980s his career moved between directing theatre and making films for the BBC, many of which were characterised by a gritty “kitchen sink realism” style. So what makes Leigh’s work so special? What is it that he plucks from these very talented actors to make these ground breaking pieces?

Every actor has come across the work of Mike Leigh in one way or another. His unique style of devising, creating and directing has produced numerous film, theatre and TV classics since the early 1970’s. He has been nicknamed ‘the bard of bleakness’ but he has certainly established himself as one of the most controversial and uncompromising British dramatists and film maker. He has tackled some of the most thorniest issues of class, race, politics and sexuality.

One of his most famous pieces being Abigail’s Party, which starred Alison Steadman back in 1977,certainly got him noticed with audiences. Steadman is only one of many well known actors who have worked with Leigh, who have him to thank for their big break into the business. Veteran actress Liz Smith made her debut at the age of 48 when she performed in Leigh’s Bleak Moments in 1971, which was part of the BBC’s Play for Today series.

Most playwrights and filmmakers may sit at a desk, with paper, PC or a battered old typewriter and plough away at a script until it’s eventually unveiled to the world. But Leigh is different. Instead of the paper and pen, he uses a rehearsal space full of actors as his medium and therefore as his inspiration.

The finished outcome is never really planned beforehand, it evolves and builds as Leigh and his actors work together. Unlike other films, his stories not always have a ‘beginning, middle and end’ which can sometimes leave the audience a little perplexed as the films can be feft ‘open ended’. But that’s good for Leigh.

Leigh always begins his project process without a script. He usually starts from a basic premise or storyline which is developed through lengthy improvisation by the actors. He begins working with each actor on a ‘one to one’ basis. The actor is then asked to create a list of people who he or she knows or has known. They can be close acquaintances or people that you have met briefly. This list is then whittled down and shortlisted and eventually a new character is formed using various characteristics, vocalisations and mannerisms from this chosen bank of people or even from one individual.

It can be a long process, as the character changes and manifests itself into a unique, one off character which has been based on realism and truth. The actor, with the help of Leigh, builds an elaborate alter ego, mapping out the character’s life in fine detail, down to even how their parents met, and exploring every nook and cranny of his psyche. All this is scrutinised by Leigh and the process is a very private affair between the actor and the director himself.

Once these individual characters are formed seperately, Leigh gradually brings the actors together for a series of useful improvisations that help to build up their collective world. None of the actors know anything about the film or theatre piece other than their own place in it. Characters maybe introduced to one another for the first time during an improvisation which would have happened just as in real life. After a while, the actors, as their characters, go out on the streets to interact with each other characters and even with the unsuspecting public, while Leigh looks on from a distance. Leigh took Alison Steadman, as her character Beverley, out shopping to the supermarket which would have then given them both food for thought. This process can take up to months to complete, and the improvisations don’t stop there. More rehearsing and improvisation is also done right up to shooting of the film.

Leigh writes an outline of scenes which then can become a general outline for the the final film or play. The actors improvise specifically around these scenes, while an assistant takes notes. The best lines and moments are then distilled and scripted, and shooting can at last begin. This whole process can take up to six months. There are many more hours of footage created than what is actually used in the final product. For the actors all that footage is still there and extremely important to them. What the audience sees is just the tip of the creative iceberg that Leigh and his actors created.

Dick Pope, a director of photography, who worked with Leigh is no stranger to his methods. “I often don’t get to see any scene until I arrive on set and like Mike, the actors, and everybody else involved, I have no idea where this journey of discovery will take us. It’s a bit of a magical mystery tour but with Mike very firmly in the driving seat.”

It may be completely new to the crew on the day of filming, but it ‘s all planned in Leigh’s mind beforehand. “What I shoot is quite structured. Though the dialogue may at times be improvised, the intentions are all planned and very precise.”

Timothy Spall says, “You create the character on the basis of someone you know, and you build an entire reservoir of information about that character. What you don’t know you invent. And through a painstaking moment-by-moment creation of this person’s life – where they went to school, what their preoccupations are – you produce a character.”

Many Mike Leigh fans began their respect for his work back in 1993 when Naked was released. It couldn’t be more different than the effervescent Happy Go Lucky. Naked made a star of David Thewliss who plays the main loud mouthed lead Johnny, in this black, dark and depressing drama. Thewlis’ performance as a chain-smoking, drunken agitator is thrilling and without him there would be no film. Thewlis described the rehearsal process as being ‘super intense’ and very hard to forget:

Leigh even sent Thewlis to a morgue to get psychically connected to the character. “Mike sent me to see a dead body. I was surprised, as we hadn’t said that Johnny had seen one. He thought it might help compound my fear of death. I was like: My fear of death’s pretty compact, thanks mate. He sent me down to a morgue. It’s a very bizarre story. The mortician was a major lunatic. It was horrific, not because I saw dead bodies but because I met the guy who cuts them up. He was a real freak.”

Actress Sally Hawkins, who is no stranger to Leigh’s work has been working with the director since playing her minor role as Samantha in All or Nothing in 2002. She then worked with him again in 2004 on Vera Drake, which helped her understand even more about Leigh and how he created a film from scratch via a series of improvisations and rehearsals. Sally really came into her own when she landed the main role in Happy Go Lucky.

Happy Go Lucky was well received as it was a more upbeat, cheerful, colourful and a bit of a romantic comedy, unlike a lot of Leigh’s recent dark and moody classics.