Why the director of Calendar Girls doesn’t ‘get’ men

Sitting in the majestic foyer of Bradford’s Midland Hotel, Nigel Cole is holding forth on films, directing and the artisans that Alfred Hitchcock once compared to “cattle”.

Cole isn’t a director in the Hitchcock mould. Put it this way: he’s never sat in the dark with a telescope to his eye watching his female star disrobe in an apartment several blocks away. Instead he’s a man who strives to understand the insecurities, fragilities and sensitivities of his actors. It’s made him a very popular man.

Cole has a reputation for being female-friendly. His movies seem to support such a notion with titles such as Saving Grace, Made in Dagenham and the mega smash Calendar Girls on his CV. Asked to consider his reputation as the director of choice for discerning actresses he first smiles and then laughs aloud. “Sheer coincidence,” he says. “I happened to make two films in a row about middle-aged women – Saving Grace and Calendar Girls. I didn’t choose Saving Grace, it chose me. Because I did that the producers of Calendar Girls said ‘You’re good at that stuff, come and do this too’.”

“I’ve realised over the years that that is me and I am a female-centric man. I do like women, I prefer the company of women, I ‘get’ women better than I ‘get’ men.

“I’m not a man’s man in that way. I can’t do the man stuff. I don’t know anything about football or cars or any of that. It’s not because I am feminine because I don’t think I particularly am – ask my girlfriend. She doesn’t think I understand women at all. I just like them. You’ve got to do something different to stand out and you have to have something fresh to offer.

“It seemed very clear fairly early on in my career that no-one was making films about women anyway, so it seemed pretty exciting to be doing it.

“Wow, five or six of the best actresses in the country all in one movie – not playing the mum, the wife but the lead characters. That seems quite original, really.

“I do like working with women. What’s not to like about Brenda Blethyn, Helen Mirren and Julie Walters? These are brilliant actors. They can make things funny or break your heart.”

Cole knows better than most directors what it’s like to be in front of the camera. Years ago, after leaving university, he was briefly an actor and claimed one credit: in a documentary about the ’70s punk band UK Subs. The experience is engraved on his memory and has left a lasting scar.

“I did a really difficult scene and I did it all day,” he recalls with a wince. “[The director] didn’t say a word to me all day. It was so painful, almost impossible to bear. I think about that every day on set: I need to talk to these people and tell them they’re great.

“A film set is a very crowded place and there’s ludicrously little respect for actors on it. No-one gets how hard it is to be an actor on a film set. They are hung out to dry. It’s a really difficult job. It’s scary. The director is the only person there who cares about the actors. It’s a bit like being a teacher and not liking the pupils. You’re there to work with them and make them shine.”

Cole is fulsome in his praise for his actors. Sally Hawkins, the break-out star of Mike Leigh’s Happy-go-Lucky and the lead in Made in Dagenham is described as possessing “a particular power”. Adds Cole: “Everybody knew they were in the presence of greatness and were happy to defer to her.”

Yet Cole is also mischievous. Not for him the Hitchcock approach or the megaphone-and-jodhpurs of the great dictators of yore.

Instead he takes the approach of opting for whatever it takes to get a performance “in the can”.

“The weird thing about being a director is that it actually doesn’t matter how you get what you get. All that matters is that what you’re getting on the rushes is the right thing. The temptation – because you’re on display – is to play the role on set and make yourself look good by being interesting, a great leader, an entertainer or a dad.

“You have to keep reminding yourself that it doesn’t matter how you come across. You can look like an idiot. It doesn’t matter. The mistake one makes is that it’s about great acting. It’s not. It’s about making [the actors] right.”

His latest film All in Good Time is taken from the theatre production Rafta, Rafta which itself is based on Bill Naughton’s 1960s film script for The Family Way. The story in a nutshell revolves around Hindu newlyweds Atul and Vina attempting to consummate their marriage while sleeping in the room next to his parents in their tiny house.

The play, Rafta Rafta, premiered at London’s National Theatre in 2007 before going on a nationwide tour. The script for the play was written by Ayub Khan-Din, the writer who hit the big time with the play and hit film East is East and its follow up, based on his own life.

“What was good for me on this was that it was about a father and son and so I could flex some different muscles,” says Cole. “Looking back I probably decided to do it because I was trying to resolve some issues with my own father as well.

“What I liked about the script was that [with] every page you turned it got more complicated. Every single character in it – two leads and both sets of parents – turned out to have a troubled back story.

“I loved the way all these characters had such complexity about them. It refuses to be simple, the script. It keeps on trying to twist and surprise you.

“Ayub Khan-Din’s a really interesting writer. You don’t feel you’re just reading another movie script by committee.”

And with that Cole heads off to Bradford’s Cineworld multiplex to introduce his film.

For the fifth time around

All in Good Time is the fifth incarnation of Bill Naughton’s play, first broadcast by the BBC in the early 1960s as Honeymoon Deferred.

Rising stars Amara Karan (Vina) and Reece Ritchie (Atul) were previously seen in The Darjeeling Limited and The Lovely Bones.

To cast his young leads, Nigel Cole looked at “every young Asian actor in the country” before settling on Karan, 27, and Ritchie, 25.

Bollywood veteran Harish Patel who also appears in the film was the subject of a documentary by Roger Michell, Ready When You are, Mr Patel, detailing his chaotic life as one of Mumbai’s busiest actors.

All in Good Time (12A) is released today.