There’s a mythology that surrounds Mike Leigh’s films. And like with any shared lore, not all of it is true. One misconception, for instance, is that his storytelling is largely improvised, as if his ...

We all know that one person in our lives who can’t help themselves from being loud and rude for seemingly no reason. Marianne Jean-Baptiste plays this exact type in Mike Leigh’s latest film Hard ...

In Mike Leigh's newest film, Marianne Jean-Baptiste stars as an overly critical woman struggling with her mental health. Leigh and Jean-Baptiste talk with NPR's Scott Simon about "Hard Truths." Mike ...

Everyone has a Pansy Deacon in their life, or has at least encountered someone a lot like her at their job, a get-together, or simply railing against something or someone in a public place. She’s the ...

Pansy (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), protagonist of Mike Leigh’s “Hard Truths,” opening Friday in Houston, is not the first postmenopausal cinematic antiheroine to ask to speak to a manager. But she is — ...

This image released by Bleecker Street shows Marianne Jean-Baptiste, left, and Michele Austin in a scene from "Hard Truths." (Simon Mein/Bleecker Street via AP) Pansy is angry and she doesn’t know why ...

Of all the movie protagonists you might have seen this year, none is quite like Marianne Jean-Baptiste’s Pansy in Mike Leigh’s “Hard Truths.” Pansy, a middle-aged woman in contemporary London, is foul ...

Actors on a Mike Leigh film set don’t talk about motivation, and that’s fine by “Hard Truths” star Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who relishes the rehearsal process on his movies. In the latest film from the ...

Pansy is angry and she doesn’t know why. We all have days like that, when we snap at strangers for a minor infraction: The person who wants the spot in the parking lot that you’re not ready to leave, ...

Pansy is angry and she doesn’t know why. We all have days like that, when we snap at strangers for a minor infraction: The person who wants the spot in the parking lot that you’re not ready to leave, ...