The bucks stop here

British filmmaker Mike Leigh is probably best known in the U.S. for his 1996 drama “Secrets and Lies,” but he has been making movies without making compromises for more than 30 years.

In the 17 films he’s made, he has always had final say. In Leigh’s world, there are no outsiders weighing in on content, casting, cutting or music. His style of filmmaking is also unique -- he rehearses his actors for an average of six months before filming begins, during which time they improvise what can seem like endlessly, until they completely inhabit their characters.

Bolstered by this intense creative process, Leigh’s movies are peopled by vivid, realistic characters struggling with their lives and relationships. And his stories, which subtly weave in political issues and strong subject matter -- such as race and class -- without judging his characters’ actions, have gained acclaim for coming across as intensely personal tales rather than polemics.

Leigh concedes that his latest film, “Vera Drake,” about a kindly working-class woman who performs illegal abortions in 1950s London, breaks with this tradition somewhat. “This film plainly takes an issue and deals with it in a more obvious way than with most of my films,” Leigh said. Actress Imelda Staunton, in the title role, is already being discussed as an Oscar contender.

The subject of abortion has been raised in other Leigh movies such as “Topsy Turvy” and his last film, “All or Nothing.” But this time the topic takes center stage, and Leigh’s opinion of Vera Drake and those who would persecute her is clear. For all that, the movie works hard not to slip into propaganda.

The story is true to his characters’ world, and just as richly drawn as, and often more tender than, his previous films. Leigh, in town to do publicity for the film, was clearly pleased that it is opening on the eve of the U.S. presidential election. Although the issue of abortion hasn’t played a key role in the campaign, President George W. Bush opposes abortion while his rival, Sen. John F. Kerry, supports abortion rights.

“I have to tell you that when we decided to make this film 2 1/2 years ago, we calculated that it would see the light of day around about now, when we knew the presidential elections in the States would be held,” Leigh said. “So, that was not an accidental or coincidental decision.”

He acknowledges that he had no actual say about when the film would come out, but “we didn’t need to persuade New Line to think of releasing it now. They spotted it for themselves.”

Marian Koltai-Levine, executive vice president of marketing for Fineline Features, agreed that the release was good timing all around.

“We knew it was a fall release because of the type of film it is, the award potential that it has, and traditionally that always would come out in the fall,” Koltai-Levine said. “The election becomes a sidebar benefit that we certainly are taking advantage of, only because the subject matter makes it topical, but it was not the cornerstone of the plan.”

Though Leigh started work on the film a couple of years ago, the idea behind it was brewing for much longer.

“I’m old enough to remember the period before the law was changed in Britain and Wales in 1967 [to legalize abortion],” said Leigh, 61. “So I remember the issues surrounding unwanted pregnancies.”

Leigh said he chooses films that deal with relationships between men and women -- wanting children, not wanting children -- and the like, “because it’s part of my ongoing main subject, the whole question of how we live our lives.”

And abortion is part of that tapestry, even if it makes people uncomfortable, Leigh said.

“I think it’s very much an issue that we must confront, all of us, now. Not merely in the context of regimes like you have in the States, that threaten to reverse the law, or in the context of countries -- of which there are many -- where it remains illegal,” Leigh said. “The real point as far as I’m concerned is that it doesn’t matter what anybody says or does or legislates.... Sex that leads to unwanted pregnancies, and abortion, will always be with us.”

Leigh hopes the story of Vera Drake, a person plainly motivated by a wish to do good, will help foster debate about the issue. “She does something that, in the sort of society I believe in, shouldn’t have to happen.”

So far, “Vera Drake” hasn’t raised the ire of abortion foes. Louis Giovino, a spokesman for the Catholic League, has said the league wasn’t concerning itself with the film. Vatican Radio, as previously reported, aired a correspondent’s view that the film “avoids propaganda and tentative and facile conclusions.”

Leigh doesn’t seem to care one way or another about outside opinions; he will continue to do his work his way.

“Part of the privilege of making low-budget movies, which I do, sadly ... I make films which are not interfered with,” Leigh said.

That attitude stokes loyalty in Leigh’s actors, Staunton among them. “The thing is, Mike has always done whatever he likes,” she said. “He’s never compromised. He’s walked his own path, with or without money.”

One of the visual payoffs of a Mike Leigh film is that ordinary people are played by ordinary-looking people, rather than movie stars styled to look less glamorous.

“Actually, a lot of the people involved in my films are character actors who get under the skin of the thing,” he said, adding, “and curiously, if you really do that, it affects the way you look.”

His working style calls for everyone to rehearse together for months -- as equals. In other words, there is no room for diva behavior. Even though “one or two of them, like Imelda, is shouldering massive responsibility in the film, and will go on and be a star with it, they still are part of an ensemble.”

Staunton said the improvisation helps Leigh’s actors fully take on the role of their characters.

“It’s about creating a character from the moment they’re born, which is what you do, so if you are that person from the day they’re born, you can talk about anything; you can say anything,” she said. “[The approach] seemed completely natural, completely easy to do, completely organic. You were aware it was like falling out of a plane with no parachute, but with Mike there beside you.”

Such an unconventional approach makes for truly independent cinema, the kind that many American directors would envy. But Leigh doesn’t feel sorry for them.

“You trade one kind of freedom for another,” he said, noting that he too could be working in Hollywood making other people’s movies, “having a terrible time and not making my own films.” But, he says: What’s the point?