Andrew Haigh Quotes

Andrew Haigh is a British film and television director known for his intimate and character-driven storytelling. He has directed acclaimed films such as "Weekend," "45 Years," and "Lean on Pete." Haigh's films often explore themes of human relationships, identity, and emotional intimacy. He is praised for his naturalistic directing style and his ability to create authentic and moving narratives.

If you don't have money or you come from a background that doesn't have money, it's harder to achieve your ambition in life. It's not that you can't, but it becomes harder. Inequality is one of the worst things that can exist in our society, so I am interested in those kind of things.

I would certainly not support Trump in any way sha... -Andrew Haigh

I would certainly not support Trump in any way shape or form, but I want to have sympathy.

I wanted to make films since I was young. My background had nothing to do with anything creative, so it seemed an impossible task.

Certain people like the way I make films, and others do not. I've come to terms with the fact that there's no other way I can make films. If I tried to do it in a different way, it would never work.

If you're struggling, it's easy to feel powerless until you take control of it and assert what you want. I can understand that feeling. I can understand how it feels to be alone, to not want to get help from people and to not trust people who are actually wanting the best for you. I feel like that's true for a lot of people, actually.

Our lives are largely made up of a series of mundane moments, but those little moments are often the finesse that shapes our entire existence; it's not necessarily the big, dramatic events, although they do, too, of course.

I'm interested in how we understand ourselves in o... -Andrew Haigh

I'm interested in how we understand ourselves in our relatioships and how we define ourselves.

I always quite like the idea of casting against type when I'm looking for and trying to understand who a character is.

We get older, and we get more wrinkles, but fundamentally, we stay the same... You have the same fears and doubts and concerns and dreams and passions and all those kinds of things, so I feel like you don't change as much as you think you do.

Whoever my films are about, they'll hopefully stil... -Andrew Haigh

Whoever my films are about, they'll hopefully still have my sensibility, whatever that is.

Men are both bad and awful. And women are both bad and awful. And they can both be good and wonderful on both sides.

Coming from a different perspective on a society is really interesting. I love the Paul Thomas Anderson's 'Phantom Thread,' and that's a version of Britishness and Englishness made by an American.

We pass people in the street and ignore them when they're clearly suffering. It makes you wish we could all feel when someone needs something.

People have very difficult lives. We can judge them for making the wrong decisions, but if you look harder and understand that these lives can be difficult, hopefully you're at least a bit more sympathetic to the decisions these people have to make.

It's very important that all the supporting characters feel like they've existed in the world, that they've had a history, and they'll go on to have a history within the scope of the story rather than just popping up and then disappearing.

For me, all you want from your actor is for them to engage on a deeply emotional level with the material. If you feel like that happens, directing the actors is pretty much done at that point.

A lot of gay-themed films are terrible. And mainstream audiences and the press aren't interested, understandably.

Personally, I don't like to talk too much to the actors about the camera choices because I feel like the way I want them to perform is as if it feels very rooted in the real world and that I'm essentially stepping back and just watching and hoping they feel safe with me watching.

'Looking' was always a niche show for a niche within a niche. It's a gay-themed show, so you're not going to get millions of straight people watching it - that's the inevitability of it.

Being gay, you're kind of forced to ask, I suppose, very existential questions from a very, very early age. Your identity becomes so important to you because you're trying to understand it, and, I think, from the age of, like, 9, you're being forced to ask questions... that other kids maybe don't have to ask.

People like a bit of honesty in films.... -Andrew Haigh

People like a bit of honesty in films.

My films are very everyday, and people don't always want to go to the cinema to see ordinary lives. They want to see something a bit more extraordinary. I get that desire, but it's not the kind of film I want to make.

I've always felt like an outsider, whether in school or when I'm working or within the industry or just in society at large.

I like going to a new environment with open eyes.... -Andrew Haigh

I like going to a new environment with open eyes.

One of the reasons I wanted to make 'Lean on Pete' was that it wasn't about identity. For me, it's about something more essential underneath: the need to have somewhere to live, to be safe, and have someone to look after you.

I think it is a burden... that we constantly realise that there isn't that much rhyme or reason to why something happens. If we think about that too much, it can make all of our decisions very stressful.

You can't expect to connect with everybody, and that's all right. The more I make films, I'm learning that you don't have to make films for everybody. A film can be made for a smaller group of people than that, and it still warrants an existence.

I don't believe in 'happy ever after' at all as a ... -Andrew Haigh

I don't believe in 'happy ever after' at all as a concept.

I went through a period of watching probably too many Bergman films in a row. I felt like I'd discovered the answer to what cinema should be.

I think the films that work the best are the ones that seem to be about one thing but then, under the surface, bubbling away, are lots more important questions that you're not really aware of, and when you leave the cinema, your mind is ablaze with different thoughts!

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