While housing discrimination and segregation in 2005 still affect millions of people, that's not the way it has to be. Some things can change and should. ↗
Mike Leigh encourages you to choose a person that you know to base your character on. You write a whole list of people that you know and you go through that list in great depth with him. And then he chooses one of those people from your list. ↗
Usually, certainly British singers, adopt an American accent when they sing and I think that usually people are thinking of somebody else, but I just think of very specific people. ↗