Versus: The Life and Films of Ken Loach Page #7

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there is another side to his loving relationship with the actors,

his capacity to allow.

And that other side is his...

..ruthlessness.

The children being beaten in Kes...

The fact that he would allow those kids to be beaten is horrific.

I couldn't do that.

No. He had a point to make,

that the headmaster had only one response to this situation,

and that was the response at that time in our history -

beat the kids.

Same old faces.

Same old faces.

We were told we weren't going to get hit, so we hold out our hands,

thinking that this is when Ken Loach is going to say, "Cut."

But he didn't.

Ah!

A regular little cigarette factory, aren't you?

Sir.

Put that rubbish away.

Now, I hope it's going to be a lesson to you.

I don't suppose for one minute it will be.

I don't doubt, before the end of the week,

you'll be back in here again for exactly the same crime - smoking.

I've noticed only sons with devoted mothers to have characteristics

that other people may not have.

Their self-belief is absolute.

They seem to retain...

..the infantile omnipotence that is appropriate in a five-year-old.

And if you become a film director,

that omnipotence, as it were, can be preserved,

because a world is created for you,

in which you are omnipotent.

And you can be quite benign,

but it is your world to manipulate how you wish.

She says it's not just her.

There's four other women, four other families.

It's me and my boys and four other families.

And this... She was in a hostel, was she?

My phone rang at about five o'clock, and it was my agent,

and they said I'd got the part, and it was a real sort of...

It was a bit ridiculous, really.

It was a real moment.

My mum was downstairs cooking dinner.

I shouted her name really loudly

and she dropped everything in the kitchen.

Ken give me a ring as well just to say,

"Glad you're onboard," and I thanked him and that was it.

I think the girl that Paul's written is quite complex.

You want the girl to be sharp, to have ambition,

to see possibilities in the future.

But, when tough times happen,

I think I can imagine Hayley taking a realistic view of where she is

and doing just what is necessary to survive.

I suppose that's the battle at the beginning, isn't it, between the...?

Getting out of that situation to here... So anything's got to be good.

- But at the same time, there's some real sh*t...

- Yes, yes, yes.

It's like being a spy. It's like being a spy, it's like...

You go, "Is there any sort of, like, script?"

And you go, "Yeah, well, you get two pages in a toilet

"in the centre of Newcastle behind the hot water pipes."

And you go, "OK."

It's really sort of quite...

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