DP/30 Double Feature – Happy-Go-Lucky
Director Mike Leigh and star Sally Hawkins
September 2008, Toronto
Golden Globe Winner Sally Hawkins
January 2009, Los Angeles
Interviews afer the jump
May 18, 2024
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
I know who I am rooting for for BEST ACTRESS.
Can someone tell me how much I need to see HAPPY GO LUCKY?
Because Sally Hawkins is CHARMING.
YAY!!!!! Is she single? I really like her!!!!
She’s pretty dang charming in the movie, too. But the great thing about it is that it also reveals that being around a person who’s relentlessly upbeat could sometimes be as difficult as being around a person who’s relentlessly downbeat.
Don’t buy the facile charm, it’s Brithish humor with regular comedy beats and irony, and Poppy’s a sexy beast.
So wait – does that mean you’re panning the movie, T. Holly? (which I liked very much)
Oh no, I loved it, you’ll be watching it 10 years for now still in awe. Some of the shit was so fast and funny, it flew by mean (partly Poppy’s accent).
Okay…so what do you mean by ‘facile’ and ‘regular’?
hawkins is lovely, and i’m a big fan of english humour so i’m looking forward to ‘happy’, but just a quick observation: super-happy people who smile all the time freak me out. and don’t their front teeth go all dry and sticky? if i smile all the time my top lip gets stuck on my teeth when i try to close my mouth and i feel like a gopher. i wonder if that happens to sally.
I just meant don’t be fooled into thinking the movie is facile because Sally is lovely and fragile, because Poppy and her co-stars are laser beams. They start getting into process after Dave asks Mike for his trade secret the second time. I hope you see it under good circumstances Leah; I couldn’t have seen it under better ones with an audience who was getting the jokes, so I knew I was missing some here and there (the ones that flew by ME). It’s British because it’s fast, but regular because it’s modern. I think there’s a difference between smiling and laughing, when you laugh, you actually create more mouth lube.
very true about the mouth lube, i got no problem with laughing all the time!
i have two girlfriends who immigrated from northern england and they talk so fast and mostly in vowel sounds, it’s hilarious. i’ll go see it with them (if and when the movie ever gets down here, fingers crossed)
Yes, Hawkins was amazing in the movie, wasn’t she? I always err on the side of thinking a comedic performance as being better than dramatic ones (as in, I find a performance like this much more interesting and exciting than Meryl Streep in Doubt) and she did a great job of showing that Poppy is not a complete freak like I would think if I met her in real life (and I’ve met similar people).
If I remember correctly, I understood almost all of the movie but there were a couple or lines I couldn’t decipher.
I have to agree, actually, that I prefer Hawkins in H-G-L to Streep in Doubt. I enjoyed Streep’s performance very much, but there’s simply a layer to it of watching an old pro do stuff she’s done before, just with yet another different accent (old-school New York).
T. Holly, I understand you and agree with you, I just hope you understand that a sentence fragment like “Don’t buy the facile charm” can sound like a warning against what could be a facile film?
CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARMING.
CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARMING.
C H A R M I N G.
And *ROBBED.*