Ongoing exploration of the contemporary world with a tragicomic study of human strengths and weaknesses. | dG1fZ1N4aWo5QTBFb1U
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Short filmTranscript
00:00I don't understand you, but I love you.
00:14Apart from anything else, I thought it was about time I came back to modern times.
00:19And since the last film, contemporary film, another year was in 2010, the world has changed.
00:27But so far as what I'm interested in, the world hasn't really changed at all, ever.
00:32Because what I'm concerned with is how we are, the human condition, really.
00:36In many respects, yes, it's easier to raise a very small budget for a contemporary film.
00:43But that's not the reason why I've done it.
00:44I mean, I just felt it was time to do it.
00:48But if you start from the premise, as many movies do, particularly this side of the Atlantic
00:56of notions of what a film should be and what the structures of films should be and what
01:00a script should contain and the tricks and all those things.
01:07That's one thing.
01:08But here, as far as I'm concerned, everything in the film is motivated by a sense of real life.
01:14Well, it's something that we collaborate on.
01:18I think that Mike was quite clear about them coming from Jamaica.
01:22A number of the members of cast were from Jamaican backgrounds.
01:26So yeah, it was an important ingredient for this particular family.
01:32And we just developed as we went along.
01:36What many people have sort of identified as a deliberate structural intention to have
01:43all the comedy up the front and then for it to turn into something else.
01:48That's not a schematic structural notion.
01:52It's an organic function of what actually happens in the film.
01:55It's as simple as that.
01:57I was fortunate enough to work with Mike quite early after leaving drama school.
02:02So, you know, it kind of set me up for the way that I work full stop, not necessarily
02:08in as much detail like I don't get three months or six months rehearsal time when doing your
02:14conventional work.
02:15But I certainly took away a lot of what I learned from Mike into the rest of my work.
02:21So actually going back and working with him was just great.
02:25It was a dream, really, to get back into really, really creating a character in such a detailed
02:34and finite way and being looked after by the director and protected, you know, and working
02:42with Michelle Austin again, who I hadn't worked with since Secrets and Lies.
02:47So that was great.
02:49I also had, you know, a good amount of time to, you know, prepare for the role.
02:56And what really helped was just trusting in Mike, in Mike's idea and his philosophy, almost
03:03you can say.
03:04And as Marianne said, it's helped me now in future projects, just, you know, who am I
03:12playing?
03:13What's their background?
03:14Like all of that stuff is, yeah, it's been a huge help.
03:17It's great.
03:18We do spend a lot of time preparing.
03:22We shoot in, we prepare in depth.
03:24We rehearse everything in depth.
03:26We have one hell of a laugh always.
03:28And it's not just the actors, I mean, it's the guys behind the camera, you know, as well.
03:33And so, yeah, it's great to hang out with the old comrades.
03:38And for me, coming back to the earlier films, I mean, many directors say, well, I can't
03:47watch that film that I made.
03:48I can't watch this.
03:49I've been lucky.
03:50I've made, nobody's ever interfered with my films.
03:52I made the films I wanted to make, the way I wanted to make them.
03:56I mean, you know, directors who say, I can't watch that film I made.
04:01It's because it wasn't the film cast they wanted and people screwed up the end and all
04:07kinds of stuff, to reshoot stuff they didn't want to reshoot and all of that.
04:10And they can't bear to watch it.
04:11I have no problems like that because they're all the films I wanted to make and I actually
04:15like my films.
04:16I don't have one or two that I like less than the rest.
04:18And I've got a couple of favorites, but I love them all.
04:21And this film, Hard Truths, is no exception.
04:25I often, I've often been stopped and people still talk about Secrets and Lies and say
04:32how amazing that was and how it moved them and how it touched them and stuff like that.
04:37So it's really great to be able to have another one that people are saying, that's my aunt.
04:43That's my sister.
04:44I know that woman, you know.