Lesley Manville from 'Mum,' 'Another Year,' and more

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

NPR

Society & Culture

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 2 August 2019

⏱️ 38 minutes

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Summary

British actor Lesley Manville is truly a master of her craft. You might know her work with the brilliant director Mike Leigh. She starred in some of his best movies like Secrets & Lies, All or Nothing and Another Year. She's had a long and successful career overseas – and she's finally breaking through in the states. In 2017, she portrayed Cyril in Phantom Thread. The stunning performance earned her an Oscar nomination. Lesley joins us to talk about starring in the BBC sitcom Mum, and how she almost had a career as an opera singer. Plus, she'll also talk about what it's like working with director Mike Leigh, and how she gets in character employing his unique improvisational style.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.
0:12.0	I'm Jesse Thorn.
0:13.3	Leslie Manville is an actor.
0:15.4	She got her start on TV back in the 70s.
0:17.9	At the time she was a teenager living in England.
0:20.9	Then came her career in theater.
0:22.5	She's been in many plays with the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company.
0:27.4	She's also been in many films.
0:29.4	Mike Lee became a fan of her stage work.
0:31.5	She's been in a ton of his movies since.
0:34.5	And she was nominated for an Oscar for her role in Phantom Thread.
0:38.6	It's been some 40 years since she got started in the entertainment business.
0:43.9	So you might think it's time to slow it down a little.
0:46.7	Maybe relax on a beach somewhere, right?
0:48.9	You know, in a Guardian interview recently, I kind of, you know, rather extravagant way.
0:54.4	He said, I want to go out and dance till 3 in the morning and get drunk and drink too
0:58.4	much and have sex.
0:59.4	You know, which is kind of people have taken a bit literally.
1:03.2	But I'm sort of making a point that, you know, just because you're over 50.
1:08.2	It doesn't mean that those feelings stop and that you don't, you know, you don't want
1:12.4	a good time, you don't want to misbehave.
1:15.8	You know, some people think, oh, well, you're 50 year old woman, should you really be dancing
	...

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