An award winning director and writer for stage, television, and film, British filmmaker Mike Leigh has long been a creative force of independent cinema and to watch. His unique process of improvisational filmmaking—beginning with only an idea and evolving to script and then screen through months of workshops and rehearsals with his actors—has become his calling card. He has been nominated for five academy awards. In 1993, Naked won him the award for Best Director at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. He took home Venice's Golden Lion for Vera Drake in 2004. And in 2008, Happy-Go-Lucky, his newest film about a Pollyanna-like London schoolteacher, has already claimed recognition at almost every festival it has visited, begun to stir up Oscar buzz, and won over almost every critic—all well before it has even reached wide-release in the United States.

Courtesy of a San Francisco publicist, I was able to sit down and talk with Mike Leigh while he was in town to introduce Happy-Go-Lucky at the Mill Valley Film Festival. During our chat, we spoke about the film, about its characters, and about what it actually means to be happy or optimistic in the world today. And as we bid farewell, I found that much like his films, he too leaves you not so much with new definitions by which to see the world, but rather with new sets of thoughts, questions, and ideas by which to ponder the world yourself for days and weeks to come.

HollywoodJesus: I'll just start by telling you I really enjoyed the movie. It made me happy. And I've been getting that reaction from many people who have seen it. They enjoy it. They like and believe Poppy after meeting her in the movie.

Mike Leigh: She's a spiritual person.

HJ: How so?

ML: You know, I mean, she's not weighed down or sullied by material preoccupations. I mean her sister, who she goes to visit, just completely marinates with received ideas of how you should be, including possessions, material things. But at the same time, the important thing about Poppy is she's no airhead. She's very grounded. She's very focused, sensible, responsible, but she's got a great sense of humor, a great sense of life. Her antennae are out. When she meets that homeless guy...it's a very spiritual scene. What's important is she's connects, she's open, she's just not judgmental.

HJ: I very much felt that you did a good job of portraying that Poppy is not ignorant, she's not ignoring the bad. We see it many times, that she sees it.

ML: She looks it in the eye.

HJ: She does.

ML: But it's really tough when she looks the tragedy of Scott in the eye, isn't it?

HJ: Yes, Scott is a character who breaks your heart.

ML: He's really fucked up, isn't he?

HJ: He is. I'm curious, in working with Sally and developing her character, did you discuss where this happiness comes from. How is she able to be this happy? What is her back story? Her sisters are very different.

ML: I mean her kid sister's going to be alright. She's also cool; she's just kind of got some attitude. I put in—when they went down to visit her sister in the house, and they're in the back, there's a moment when the brother-in-law says he actually has had a conversation with the father. Poppy says, "That's more than we ever do." So I just put that in to just get a sense that, you know, she comes from an ordinary healthily dysfunctional family like everybody else. Like you and me. So, to answer your question, I don't suppose we every really talked about where she gets it from, because you can't talk about where people get it from. She's obviously dealt with real life. She's been around. She's done stuff. She traveled around the world. At one point she says, "Why do blokes always do that?" She's obviously had issues with guys. But some people are just positive.

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