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00:04Thank you so much for coming today.
00:05Lovely to see you again.
00:06So tell me, Mike, your last film was two years ago.
00:10You could have had a nice sort of bit of a rest,
00:11but you came straight back to work.
00:14What was it that about...
00:15Why did you want to make another film so quickly after Hal Troost?
00:17What was it you were thinking of?
00:19Well, it's a funny question.
00:21I didn't particularly think of it like that.
00:24I mean, if you've got a job, you do it.
00:29But I suppose, apart from anything else,
00:32it's so hard to get the money to make these films,
00:36particularly my films where we can't say anything about it
00:39and there's no script, et cetera,
00:41and we don't talk about who's in it
00:42and we always say don't interfere with it while we're making it.
00:48So, you know, the fact that we managed to scrape some money together
00:52meant we should just get on with it, and that's what we did.
00:54OK, I think we should have a look...
00:56Before we go any further, I think we should have a look at the film.
00:58So let's have a clip from Tender Loving Care, please.
01:01Hello, Pop. You all right?
01:02Hello, Charlie.
01:05Yes, who?
01:06Hello, Spencer.
01:08Hello.
01:09How are you?
01:10All right.
01:10All right, cup of tea, cup of tea, cup of tea.
01:12Yes, cups of tea.
01:15Oh, Rosie.
01:16How long is it since we've seen you?
01:18Well, yeah, I was just saying on the way here,
01:20I don't think I've been here in over a year.
01:22No.
01:23It's too long.
01:24Too long.
01:25It was winter.
01:26Yeah, it was definitely winter.
01:28All right, well, maybe just under a year.
01:29But yes, either way, too long.
01:31You'll have to invite me around more often, won't you?
01:33You don't need an invitation.
01:35You're always welcome.
01:36Oh, thank you.
01:37I'll have a key cut, shall I?
01:39Yeah.
01:40So, how's life?
01:42How's work?
01:44Life's good.
01:45Work's all right.
01:46Same old, same old.
01:47Busy, busy.
01:48What's new there?
01:49Both you girls work really hard, don't you?
01:52Well, that's an understatement.
01:54No, it's all good.
01:56Although, the other day I did get called an ugly cow, which was nice.
01:59No.
02:00Oh, sorry.
02:01But you're so gorgeous.
02:03I know.
02:05Oh, you do have to work with some sad people, though, don't you?
02:08You just have to let it wash over.
02:13So, how's your love life?
02:15Oh.
02:15Oh, right, here we go.
02:16Straight in.
02:20Um, it's all right, actually.
02:23I have recently taken up with a fireman.
02:27Oh, nice.
02:29They're very fit.
02:30Yeah.
02:30They are very fit.
02:32Jeff, you're right.
02:34No, I just thought I'd try out a man in uniform.
02:37Why not?
02:38Although, I haven't actually seen him in his uniform yet.
02:41Have you seen him without his uniform?
02:44Oh, Popsie.
02:45Too much.
02:45She's a respectable young woman.
02:48Oh, we've only been on two dates.
02:50That'll happen on the third one.
02:52Yeah.
02:53You don't want to rush into it.
02:56So, let's go to Kate and Marion.
02:57Can you tell us a little about the character you play in this movie?
02:59So, yeah, I play Birdie, Londoner, working class Londoner, who has always worked until
03:09she retired for the local council.
03:12She worked in personnel.
03:13She likes people.
03:15She's got a good social conscience.
03:17She cares about the world.
03:19And she's a good, solid friend and has done her best to be a good mum to Amy.
03:27She waited quite a long time.
03:28She couldn't conceive for quite a long time.
03:31And so, Amy came along eventually and was absolutely the apple of the eye.
03:37And, yeah, she has a nice relationship, of course, with Jeff, her husband.
03:43And she's a party animal.
03:45She likes people.
03:47She likes fun.
03:48She likes a drink.
03:49She likes music.
03:50She likes dancing.
03:51That kind of a woman, I'd say.
03:55So, I play Amy Spooner, who's the daughter of Birdie and Jeff.
04:00And she is a 39-year-old social worker who works in the looked-after children department
04:08and has best friend Rosie, who you see in the clip.
04:12And, yes, well, I don't know if I'll say any more.
04:15Maybe I'll leave it like that.
04:16Well, to go back to Mike, the film is tender, loving care, and the film is about caring.
04:21I wonder when did that – what did you set out to explore, and when did the film become what
04:25it became?
04:25Well, as is often the case, all I can really report is I had a kind of feeling.
04:32Because we make these films – I make my films – we collaborate and we discover what the film is
04:39by embarking on the journey of making it the same way that people paint pictures and write books, etc., write
04:45novels and plays.
04:47So, I had a feeling about positivity and care – about, you know, that area.
04:57And as it evolved, I mean, certainly we hit on the very good idea we thought of social workers,
05:05which Amy and Rosie are, and you see them operating as that,
05:09and you see them dealing with their private lives and their professional functions,
05:18alongside what happens to Amy's parents, Bernie and Jeff, which we won't preempt by talking about it.
05:29How does – as actors, how does this process work in terms of finding the movie?
05:34I mean, what kind of conversations did you have while you were making the film?
05:37It's all character conversations very much in the present of where the character's at.
05:44It's very – quite simple, really.
05:46We're just talking about what our characters would know with Mike,
05:50or what – how they would react in interrogating improvisations.
05:54Is that accurate to who they are?
05:56And you sort of carve out the character through those explorations,
06:02but it's – we're not really – we don't talk about our characters' motivations.
06:08We just, as actors, talk about what the other character would know about the character, if that makes sense.
06:13It's quite practical.
06:15You just have to create with Mike their background, where they went to school, all of that,
06:22so that when you do come to do an improvisation, you've got the facts.
06:26You know what their birth sign is, if they're into birth signs, for example.
06:31Which, you know, often I think improvising isn't always useful, except with Mike, when it always is,
06:38because you know all the background stuff.
06:39You know what they're thinking and feeling, and how they express that, or don't express it, or hide it.
06:46But it's just about building blocks.
06:49As you go through the rehearsal process, you gradually build up a person that,
06:54by the time you get on set, you know them very well.
06:57And Mike always insists on discussing them in the third person,
07:00so you don't ever get muddled and say, I wouldn't do that.
07:04She does it, you know.
07:06Is this a fair assessment?
07:09Absolutely.
07:09I mean, there's a great deal more to be said about it, but this is not a seminar.
07:16At least I don't think it is.
07:18It doesn't look like one from where I'm sitting.
07:21Obviously, you have a great body of work, and there are certain echoes of your previous films.
07:25I mean, that's kind of unavoidable, but are you aware of referencing yourself,
07:29or thinking of things, pursuing films you've previously thought of?
07:31No, I never think about that at all.
07:34I don't need to, I suppose.
07:37I mean, you know, you can't help...
07:39I mean, I try and do something different with every film,
07:43and in a certain sense, that's absolutely right.
07:45But at the same time, you know, and any artist will say the same thing,
07:50you know, what you turn out is more of, on another level,
07:55it's more of the same, inevitably.
07:56But I don't reference or think about...
08:00I mean, I suppose the only thing I would say with specific reference to this film,
08:05in relation to your question, is that I...
08:09For those of you, and I'm sure lots of you saw it, who saw hard truths,
08:15obviously, there is, quite apart from the fact that it is about family,
08:18it is about caring and all of that, it's hard truth,
08:21there is undoubtedly what you could easily identify as a kind of negative streak running through it.
08:27I mean, obviously, in the central character, Pansy, played by Marianne Jean-Baptiste.
08:34And so I sort of thought, well, let's go via...
08:38Let's do, as it were, the opposite of that, the flip side of that,
08:42or however you choose to look at it.
08:43But otherwise, no, you know, each piece, apart from anything else,
08:49you become, as any artist does,
08:52you become completely absorbed and preoccupied with what you're actually doing.
08:56But, you know, you don't really think about the rest of us,
09:03the older siblings.
09:06Obviously, you don't want to discuss it here,
09:07but just there is a slight twist in the story between Birdie and her husband.
09:11Was that something that you were aiming towards,
09:13or did that reveal itself during the process?
09:16Do you know what? It's a question with no answer.
09:19No, really.
09:23So, is that your answer?
09:25That is the answer, yeah.
09:26And I think a very articulate and comprehensive answer,
09:30which gives you all plenty of food for thought
09:34while you move on to the next film.
09:36The film's gone down very well at Telluride
09:39and Toronto Film Festivals.
09:42Venice clearly skipped it.
09:43I don't know what they were thinking.
09:45But...
09:45It won four prizes at San Sebastian.
09:48Oh, yes, of course.
09:49And it's...
09:50So, this is very different festivals, different parts of the world.
09:53What do you think...
09:54What has been the reaction,
09:55and why do you think people have been responding to this movie?
09:57Well, I mean, in a way,
10:00this relates to something else we weren't talking about.
10:06Long ago, when you couldn't make independent indigenous British feature films,
10:16serious films,
10:17we only made our films for television,
10:19I went to see a very nice American producer living in London.
10:25And he said to me,
10:26I said, I really want to make another feature.
10:28I'd only made one.
10:28And he said, you know,
10:30you will never make a feature film.
10:32I said, well, why did you say that?
10:34He said, well, he said,
10:36for a film to succeed,
10:37it has to go down in the United States.
10:40And your films will never work in the States
10:43because people won't have no idea what they're about.
10:46And I felt there was something slightly wrong with that.
10:48And it turns out there was,
10:50because all of my films have been very successful.
10:54And indeed, I have to say,
10:58since you've asked me, internationally.
11:04The context is always here.
11:08The earth is always here, obviously.
11:11But I think what I'm,
11:13I hope that what I deal with or try to
11:16are universal subjects.
11:19And, I mean, for example,
11:22Secrets and Lies,
11:23which I'm sure most people know about or saw,
11:28is about adoption.
11:31I got letters for years from all around the world,
11:34people saying, you know,
11:35I was adopted and as a result of seeing your film,
11:37I've tried to trace my birth mother
11:39or I hope my child is going to get in touch with me
11:42or et cetera.
11:45And I think the subject matter is universal.
11:48I think it is with this film.
11:49So it is very gratifying
11:52that it works internationally.
11:56But I suppose if I'm honest,
11:58it should be so
11:59because the issues aren't,
12:02in any sense,
12:04barochially local.
12:06Okay, Marion, do you feel the same?
12:08Absolutely.
12:09I mean, I would say the heart of this film, really,
12:12it's about love, you know,
12:14and that's all sorts of different sorts of love.
12:16It's love towards your society.
12:17It's love towards your family,
12:20your partner,
12:21your children,
12:22your friends.
12:25And that's a simple thing
12:26that people identify with,
12:28you know,
12:28love and mortality.
12:30Two biggies.
12:31Yes.
12:31And there's something about the climate now
12:34that it seems to be quite a radical thing
12:39to care or to have a film
12:42that's got people trying to care
12:43and loving with all its,
12:46you know,
12:46flaws that are involved in that.
12:47But that at the moment
12:50that seems to have really struck a chord
12:53at a time when it seems quite cruel out there,
12:54I guess.
12:55I mean, there is a level,
12:57without wanting to talk the film out of existence
13:02for you guys who haven't seen it,
13:03but, I mean,
13:05apart from anything else,
13:06it is about care in society,
13:09that whole aspect of the film.
13:15And we know that that is important
13:19and currently very relevant
13:21for all of us, really.
13:23Do you have any plans to return to directing?
13:25I mean, obviously,
13:25time is of the essence right now.
13:30Or are you happy to stop there?
13:31Well, as you observed when I arrived,
13:35I'm a little bit disabled these days.
13:37So it's going to make it much more difficult.
13:39And it's possible.
13:41I may not,
13:42but we'll see.
13:43I don't know.
13:44Do you have any ideas that you left,
13:47that you,
13:49do you always have ideas
13:50that you'd like to turn to?
13:51Absolutely.
13:52Well, I mean,
13:52people say,
13:53where do you get your ideas from?
13:54Well, you only have to walk down the street
13:56and see ten people
13:57and there are ten films there.
13:58That's where the ideas come from,
14:00that I'm concerned.
14:02I mean,
14:03as I've,
14:05as we know,
14:05as I referred to earlier,
14:09with my films,
14:10apart from the historical films,
14:12apart from Topsy Turvy,
14:13Mr. Turner and Peter Liu,
14:15where we said to the backers,
14:16it's about Gilbert and Sullivan,
14:18it's about Turner,
14:19it's about the Peter Liu massacre
14:20in Manchester in 1819.
14:24Normally,
14:25with the contemporary films,
14:26we say absolutely nothing
14:27and explore.
14:30And therefore,
14:31it's,
14:32as I referred to at the beginning,
14:33it's tougher to get the dosh.
14:36What I've always wanted to do,
14:39and I would say,
14:41it now looks as though
14:42it won't happen,
14:42which is a great shame,
14:44is I've wanted always to do a film,
14:47a contemporary film,
14:48with a much bigger budget,
14:50so you could have a much wider canvas
14:53than I normally have,
14:55with lots of characters
14:56and interrelated issues and things.
14:58And it doesn't really look as though
15:00that's going to happen.
15:01And that is the main idea,
15:03such as it is,
15:04that I will be disappointed
15:07not to do.
15:09Well, that's a great shame.
15:11I'm afraid we have to end there.
15:12Thank you very much.
15:13Thank you very much.
15:13Thank you very much.
15:13Thank you very much.