For Britains Marianne Jean-Baptiste, her 30-years-later reunion with the legendary filmmaker Mike Leigh as the star of Hard Truths, in theaters now, has been a remarkable triumph.

The title of Mike Leighs latest movie, Hard Truths, suggests a remarkable, career-spanning consistency, tracing back to the stage and screen directors 1971 big-screen debut, Bleak Moments. For more than half a century, Leigh has been bringing audiences into the lives and homes of British citizens of various backgrounds and classes, developing original projects through […]

"By the time an actor gets to the point of improvisation in a Mike Leigh process, they've got a whole person that they're working with," Marianne Jean-Baptiste tells Newsweek.

Mike Leigh and his longtime collaborator Marianne Jean-Baptiste search for answers in their latest tour de force

Its amazing watching Mike Leighs film Hard Truths, starring the extraordinary Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Michele Austin, in an American theater. Another layer is added as audience members, mostly women at the regular afternoon screening I attended, engaged in the story of two sisters who are the complete antithesis of each other. Jean-Baptiste’s Pansy is pernickety, house-pro...