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Mike Leigh de “Hard Truths” poses in the Getty Images Portrait Studio presented by IMDB and IMDBPro during the Toronto International Film Festival at the Intercontinental Toronto Center on September 06, 2024 in Toronto, Ontario.

Gareth Cattermole / Getty Images for IMDB

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Gareth Cattermole / Getty Images for IMDB

Mike Leigh de “Hard Truths” poses in the Getty Images Portrait Studio presented by IMDB and IMDBPro during the Toronto International Film Festival at the Intercontinental Toronto Center on September 06, 2024 in Toronto, Ontario.

Gareth Cattermole / Getty Images for IMDB

Some filmmakers have the whole film in the head before the first actor was broken. At the other end of this spectrum. Some directors do some adhesive tape and let the film occur. Then discover things in the edition.

Mike Leigh is really none of these types of filmmakers. His films are collaborative. He built the film in rehearsal with his actors during the weeks and months. Leigh improvises the specificities of the characters, the search for the language. By asking what the characters eat for breakfast, what their childhood looked like, what is the true nature of their relationships. He does it until the characters are real. In the end, the script is tight, but it is woven from all this preparation.

Leigh says he started working on his latest film, Hard truthsWith an actor in mind: Marianne Jean-Baptiste. They had collaborated for the last time in 1996 Secrets in liesA drama on an adopted woman meeting her biological mother. He won five Oscar Prix Nominations, including one for Jean-Baptiste.

Hard truths focuses on the relationship between two sisters: Pansy, played by Jean-Baptiste and Chantelle, played by Michele Austin.

Pansy can be a lot. She is depressed, anxious and tends to attack family and friends. Her approach to the world leaves her isolated by many, with the exception of her sister singing.

Mike Leigh joins us to talk Hard truths And his approach to cinema. He also shares the types of films he appreciated when he was younger and tells how he reacted to reading one of the first rave reviews that he received as a filmmaker.

Hard truths is now available to look at the request.