Mike Leigh

Award-winning British movie director and screenwriter Mike Leigh has an unusual style.

He starts his projects without a script. He just takes a premise, gathers the actors, and starts improvising dialogue.

This method has given Leigh’s films a realness and powerful emotional punch that few other directors can match. Some of his better known work includes “Secrets and Lies,” about an adopted black woman who connects with her dysfunctional, white birth mother, and “Naked,” about a man who flees to London to escape the repercussions of raping a woman.

His newest film “Another Year” is about the year in the life of British social worker Gerri (Ruth Sheen) and her husband Tom (Jim Broadbent). They are a contented couple surrounded by miserable family and friends. The film takes an unflinching look at the dynamics of Gerri and Tom’s relationships with them.

Why did Leigh decide to make one of his main characters a social worker? SocialWorkersSpeak.org contacted his staff at Thin Man Films Ltd. in London to find out.

Unfortunately Leigh was not available to talk to us because he is busy working on a revival of his play ECSTASY, which opens in March. However, his assistant Helen Grearson was happy to fill us in.

“If I may, I’d like to offer some answer by explaining as best I can why it isn’t really an appropriate question for the unique way in which Mike works,” Grearson said in an email.

Grearson said Leigh’s improvisational style helped actress Ruth Sheen develop Gerri into a social worker.

Ruth Sheen and Jim Broadbent in "Another Year." Photo courtesy of IMDB.com.

The role was eventually written to be a therapist. But during five months of extended rehearsals before shooting began Leigh worked with the actors to build their characters. It was Sheen — and not Leigh — who who inhabited the role of Gerri and let that character become a profession that fit her personality.

“So in answer to your question, unlike the process in most other films, Ruth Sheen wasn’t cast or ‘offered the part’ of Gerri, who was already ‘written’ as a therapist,” Grearson said.

“Gerri, as she evolved in the work done by Ruth and Mike together, would have had multitude of reasons – from the essence of her personality to her past life experiences — as to why she would have been inspired her to choose her profession,” Grearson continued. “Much like how we piece together our professions in ‘real life’, I suppose!”

It seems Sheen’s performance was spot on. Canadian social worker Barbara Nielson gave the movie a great review from a social work perspective. To read that SocialWorkersSpeak.org review, click here.