Shane Meadows is a talker. He doesn’t talk at you, he talks with you, a down-to-earth, ebullient guy who enjoys trading stories, information and viewpoints. And while he loves a bit of banter, he doesn’t hide behind it – a more open and honest man you could not hope to meet.
And meet him Total Film does, twice: first, in June, in a West End screening room, and again on Zoom in July, with a cheeky phone call sandwiched in between. There’s a scintillating 27-year career to talk through, and eight pages of the Total Film Interview to fill. ‘If you don’t have enough, I’ll send you a picture of my beer belly,’ he grins.
Really, it’s not hard to see why actors love Meadows, eagerly signing up to spend many months in his company and to experience his process. Meadows, you see, is not one to meet his actors on set on day one of the shoot, and to film from a finished script. He instead spends months casting, improvising and rehearsing, with whatever series or movie he’s working on finding shape as it’s pushed and prodded from every angle.
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