I had left school at 16, gone to stage school – and, until I was 22, I hadn’t really played anyone but myself. Then in 1979, I made a film with Mike Leigh called ‘Grownups,’ which went out on the BBC, and overnight this new career opened up. Lesley Manville Read Quote
If I go away, I take a little picture of my son. It’s in a frame with a speaker, and he recorded a birthday message for me when he was nine or 10. I can’t listen to it without filling up. Lesley Manville Read Quote
Stage is the ultimate test; I like watching established screen actors on stage to see if they can really do it. But it’s great to have a healthy mixture of the two. Film is so technical: there’s something very particular about the relationship between you and the camera. It took a long time for me to get good on film. Lesley Manville Read Quote
The thing is, when you have a child with someone, like it or not, you’re going to have to have a continuing relationship with them. Lesley Manville Read Quote
I’m quite chameleon in my work – not normally looking much like I do in real life. Lesley Manville Read Quote
There isn’t a spare minute in the day. I have spent my life doing everything. I work. I go home. I do the shopping. I cook. Then there’s the laundry and the dog. Most of my life, I have been a working mother. And even when I wasn’t, I still did it all. Lesley Manville Read Quote
I had two starts, really. The first was going to the Italia Conti stage school, aged 15. I’d gone to sing, but one day I found myself doing an improvisation and thought, ‘Oh God, I quite like this acting thing.’ The second start was meeting Mike Leigh when I was 22. He showed me I could play people that weren’t like me. Lesley Manville Read Quote
A lot of the actors I knew threw in the towel when they became mothers. I couldn’t do that financially, and I didn’t want to – but I was knackered all the time. Lesley Manville Read Quote
When I make films, I work with Mike Leigh, who’s the most prolific director in England. Lesley Manville Read Quote
