Dead Man’s Shoes and This is England director Shane Meadows used his BAFTA David Lean Lecture to discuss impostor syndrome and Paddy Considine‘s improvizational skills.
Talking about his 2013 music doc Stone Roses: Made of Stone, the cult indie film director said: “It’s that impostor syndrome I’ve always had — and I’ve still got it to some degree — that you’re almost like, ‘I’m not deserving of that. How could I take on a concert film?’”
In the event, Made of Stone, which followed the British band The Stone Roses reuniting after 16 years, was released to acclaim — one of several critical triumphs in Meadows’ career.
Meadows said the experience taught him that treating a major production in “those little incremental stages” was key. “It’s like this little acorn that started to blossom, and once you actually realize when you’ve got an amazing team of people, you’re not having to think about it.”
Meadows, whose work is associated with working-class characters and storytelling, also recalled feeling like “a bit of an idiot” when he felt his career slowing. This was after the heat generated from films and TV shows such as This is England and its sequel series, Dead Man’s Shoes and Once Upon a Time in the Midlands.
He said his first failure, which he did not name, was “so brutal” after finally believing “I was somebody” upon receiving representation interest from the U.S. “I was really sucked into this thing, this really false economy,” he said.
“When you actually come out the other end, the vacuum is so painful. I suppose ultimately what’s going on is you’re hurt because you feel like you’ve failed. I think it’s the kid in me that gets hurt.
“But I think fundamentally I’ve realized that I have to be scared enough of failing to be able to sort of succeed, so I’ve accepted it as part of it.”
He revealed he has had “three or four projects that have been turned down in the last four or five months,” adding: the final one had “knackered” him after the stresses of the pandemic on 2020-2022. “I’ve made three hours of TV and I look back at that period of time where I had a tenner to make a film and I seem to be so much more productive, you know?”
“I’ve learned a bit myself by looking back and [knowing] no matter where you are in your career, you can still go out of fashion [and] you can get pulled back, but I think the fundamental thing from my point of view is it’s a fear of failure. When I feel like I’ve kind of failed, it’s not 50-year-old me. There’s an old part of me I think that struggles.”
Elsewhere in his semi-improvised lecture (“I’ve never planned a speech in my life,” he said at the top of the talk”), Meadows said “amazing art comes out of sterile times” but mused on whether his intense style of directing would continue to be commissioned.
“I’m a very responsible person and I really try to make sure that everyone’s as comfortable as they can be, even in really awful situations, so it’s a bit hurtful sometimes when people are talking to you as if you haven’t got a clue what you’re doing, saying you put people in harm’s way when it’s the last thing you do,” he added.
“But we are entering an age now where the kind of work I’ve been making, I’m not quite sure how I get to continue making,” said Meadows. “People need to look at a script, know every word, know that it’s safe, know that it’s been signed off.
“It is a really tricky time at the moment because no one quite knows where the bottom is. You know everyone wants to make sure that everyone is safeguarding and stuff on set, but for people that improvise these things in a kitchen sink rough and ready environment, I don’t know whether that can, how long that can survive.”
Paddy Considine inspiration
He pointed to long-time collaborator Paddy Considine, who he first met on a drama course while still harboring ambitions to act. “I didn’t even get to dream for a day,” He just kind of comes in, improvises like Al Pacino rolled into Burton on Trent, but honestly, it was just really annoying. I was like, ‘What am I gonna do?’ I went and did a band.”
Meadows and Considine quickly developed a “shorthand” after creating the band, She Talks to Angels, and working on indie films such as A Room For Romeo Brass, which also featured Vicky McClure’s on-screen debut. They later collaborated on Dead Man’s Shoes and Le Donk and Scor-zay-zee.
Meadows praised Considine’s renowned improvisational skills, saying: “If you can sort of wind him up and let him go, and he knows who he’s playing, it’s literally the greatest script machine you’ve ever come across in your life. He can inhabit a character, if he gets who it is. He can literally turn into them in that instant.”
