Throw Away the Script: What Mike Leigh’s filmmaking can teach creatives

Johnny (David Thewlis) and Louise (Lesley Sharp) calm amongst the chaos of life in Mike Leigh’s Naked.

Recently I watched Mike Leigh’s Life is Sweet. It was a recommendation that director Dylan Harrison of Hooligan Collective made when we were on a shoot for Charles Darwin University.

We were filming real uni graduates — not actors — receiving real voice messages from loved ones who were proud of their achievements. We made three people cry — beautiful tears of joy — and released a series…