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 a long period, as you know.
Mike LeighFilms are made all over the world all the time and only a thin slice of that product is Hollywood.
Mike LeighI think Michael Caine is a perfectly good actor but it's obvious he's not going to be in one of my films.
Mike LeighI 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 to go on are your preconceptions and your stereotypes and whatever else, but gradually as you get to know them, they change. They become more three-dimensional, and you start to see them in layers.
Mike Leigh