Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
We all wanted to copy Vivien Leigh.
I really want to work with Mike Leigh.
The old joke was Mitch Leigh, land baron, barren land.
Mike Leigh is my all-time favourite writer/director/creator.
My style icons are Leigh Lezark, Gwen Stefani and Shirley Manson.
If only Vivien Leigh had stayed in England, that part would have been mine.
My sister Tricia Leigh and I vow to be whatever our niece Billie needs us to be.
Playing the Mammy of Miss Leigh was just about the biggest thrill I've ever had.
When I make films, I work with Mike Leigh, who's the most prolific director in England.
Shower scenes are great. Janet Leigh never took a shower again in her life after 'Psycho'.
Leigh Bowery is a legend. Everybody loves Leigh Bowery. Everybody should love Leigh Bowery.
You look at Gone With the Wind, how right Vivian Leigh was for that. Don't know if that would happen today.
I often draw from people in my own experience to base a character on, going back to my days with Mike Leigh.
I wanted to be like Vivien Leigh in 'Gone With the Wind.' I wanted to have black hair, green eyes and break hearts.
I wanted to work with Mike Leigh. I had my list of British people I wanted to work with, and I wanted to work with David Lynch and Woody Allen.
Not all drag queens but certainly the ones who empowered me, are people who pushed buttons, and poked fun at society from Leigh Bowery, to Lady Bunny and Divine.
When you think of Mitch Leigh as a businessman, remember he's also a composer. And when you think of Mitch Leigh as a composer, remember he's also a businessman.
I saw Farrah Fawcett originally when she and her boyfriend, Lee Majors, came over to my house for a birthday party that I was having for my ex-wife, Leigh Taylor-Young.
My mother loved films! She adored Ingrid Bergman, Joan Fontaine, Vivien Leigh. We couldn't afford to go together to the cinema, but she was always watching their movies on TV.
Mike Leigh and Ken Loach are the people I look up to. They are quality film-makers making interesting, controversial, ground-breaking movies with very little eye on the marketplace.
In 1987, when I was 19, I was studying musical theater at Boston's Emerson College. My sister, Tricia Leigh, told me about a summer acting retreat in Italy. Mom paid, so off we went.
To have a childhood surrounded by people like Sir Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh sounds glitzy, but for years I wanted to repress it. I couldn't take that kind of power and success.
I'm very influenced by Mike Leigh and the way that he always has these climactic confrontations, like in 'Secrets and Lies' and 'High Hopes,' in which the ensemble cast meets in one location.
I adore Bette Davis and Vivien Leigh, but more because they were good actresses. That's what makes me interested in them, that they didn't present themselves as idols; they were just doing their jobs.
I really like birds. Everyone always wants me to say that I can't stand to go near them, just like they want Janet Leigh to confess that she can't bear to take a shower. Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you.
Marilyn Monroe and Vivienne Leigh are real icons of mine. In terms of visual culture, they are both so iconic. There weren't any paparazzi shots of them falling out of taxis, so they will always look so incredible.
I drew influence from Mike Leigh, Ruben Ostlund, a lot of Scandinavian filmmakers, Lukas Moodysson. I also drew influence from horror films and thrillers, which is something I would never think to do earlier in my career.
Old Hollywood icons such as Marilyn Monroe, Vivien Leigh, and Bette Davis are so inspiring; their style is romantic and feminine and their glamour mesmerizing. I love the idea of channeling that spirit on your wedding day.
Different directors have different things, so when I left Mike Leigh, as it were, and I went into other projects after 'All or Nothing,' it took some getting used to - what do you mean there's a script?!?' That kind of thing.
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.
Mike Leigh encourages you to choose a person that you know to base your character on. You write a whole list of people that you know and you go through that list in great depth with him. And then he chooses one of those people from your list.
Vivien Leigh was a phenomenal actress, a very complicated woman, living on the edge of mental problems, haunted by demons and angels. And though I've never thought of myself like Marilyn Monroe, I was inspired by the tremendous risk she took - of being vulnerable.
She was just Ma, and I didn't grow up in some kind of acting dynasty: Orson Welles didn't come round and give me a piggyback; Vivien Leigh never read me a bedtime story. It was just my mum and our housekeeper, whom I adored, and after that, it was boarding school.
She was obsessed with French and Swedish cinema. I also remember our mother showing us 'Gone With the Wind' very early on. She absolutely loved Vivien Leigh, so it must have been a formative experience for me, thinking, 'Oh, maybe one day I'll be like Vivien Leigh.'
Mike Leigh taught me about making choices - as an actor, you choose between being honest and clever, and with Mike, it's always about being honest. I learned how to behave on a film set from Jim Broadbent. He was a great example of someone with a fantastic career who kept his feet on the ground.
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.