Shane Meadows: “I was never a Hollywood romance guy”
The British filmmaker Shane Meadows, known for the iconic 2006 movie This is England, has conducted a new interview where he reveals: “I was never a Hollywood romance guy”.
In a conversation with The Guardian, the director discussed everything from his early career as a young filmmaker to his upcoming projects. “I’m massively soppy,” Meadows states, “Growing up, the films that resonated were Quadrophenia, Gregory’s Girl and P’Tang, Yang, Kipperbang. I was never a Hollywood romance guy. On a housing estate, looking up at the sky – that’s my kind of love”.
The films of Shane Meadows sing from the same hymn sheet as Ken Loach and Mike Leigh, telling social realism stories that follow the hardship of working-class characters.
The BAFTA award-winning director is known for such classic movies as A Room for Romeo Brass and Dead Man’s Shoes, as well as TV series The Virtues and This Is England ’90.
Later in the interview, Meadows comments on the state of modern Britain whilst discussing his favourite period drama: “The Gallows Pole, is set in the 1760s but feels all too relevant. Communities were forgotten, people were struggling on the breadline, driven to do desperate things. My wife’s a nutritionist and works with a local food bank. That hardship has returned over the past year. You can’t see the bottom of the pit. It’s as scary a time as I can remember”.
Take a look at the trailer for Shane Meadows’ most recent series, The Virtues, starring Steven Graham, below.
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