Mike Leigh at NYFF52. Photo by Silvia Saponara.
This week’s episode of The Close-Up features filmmaker Mike Leigh in discussion with Film Comment’s Amy Taubin about his latest work, Mr. Turner, which begins its theatrical run on Friday.
Mr. Turner is a portrait of 19th-century painter J.M.W. Turner, played by Timothy Spall. The film marks Leigh’s second 19th-century endeavor in which he depicts the artistic process, following his 1999 film, Topsy-Turvy. “It was a very strong sense of the late-19th century. After we’d made Topsy-Turvy, it did start to occur to me that a film about Turner would be a good thing.” The New York Film Critics Circle recently named Spall Best Actor of 2014 for his performance in Mr. Turner.
During the conversation, which took place during the New York Film Festival as part of the HBO Directors Dialogue series, Leigh describes his process of crafting characters collaboratively with his actors. “I sit one-on-one with each actor for long stretches of time with nobody else in the room,” said Leigh. “My job, as a dramatist, is to come up with a bunch of characters, each played by one of the actors. So what we do is talk about what kinds of possibilities, and whittle them down and weed them out and get down to the source, or several sources.”
Also in this episode of The Close-Up, Leigh talks about shooting his first digital film, his post-production process, and more. Mr. Turner opens this week in theaters.
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