After her adoptive mother dies, Hortense, a successful black optometrist, seeks out her birth mother. She's shocked when her research leads her to Cynthia, a working class white woman.
05-24-1996
2h 22m
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HELLA
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Main Cast
Movie Details
Production Info
Director:
Mike Leigh
Writer:
Mike Leigh
Production:
CiBy 2000, Thin Man Films, Channel Four Films
Revenue:
$13,417,292
Budget:
$4,500,000
Key Crew
Producer:
Simon Channing Williams
Director of Photography:
Dick Pope
Art Direction:
Eve Stewart
Production Supervisor:
Georgina Lowe
Second Assistant Director:
Josh Robertson
Locations and Languages
Country:
GB
Filming:
FR; GB
Languages:
en
Main Cast
Brenda Blethyn
Brenda Anne Blethyn is an English actress who has worked in theatre, television, and film. Blethyn has received two Academy Award nominations, two SAG Award nominations, two Emmy Award nominations and three Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one. In addition, she has won a BAFTA, an Empire Award and a Golden Lion, and has earned a Theater World Award and both a Critics' Circle Theatre Award and a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for her theatrical work.
Born into a working class home in Ramsgate, Kent, Blethyn pursued an administrative career until her early 30s before enrolling in the Guildford School of Acting after the dissolution of her marriage in 1973. She subsequently joined the Royal National Theatre and received credits for her performances in Troilus and Cressida (1976) and Mysteries (1979). In 1981, Blethyn earned her first critical acclaim for Steaming.
In 1980, Blethyn made her television debut in Mike Leigh's film Grown-Ups; then, after a modest number of guest spots in several productions, in the mid-1980s she garnered leading roles in the short-living sitcoms Chance in a Million and The Labours of Erica. Having followed her big screen debut with smaller supporting roles in films such as The Witches (1990) and A River Runs Through It (1992), she made her real cinema breakthrough with her role in the 1996 dramedy Secrets & Lies, for which she received rave reviews.
Blethyn has since appeared in an eclectic range of films, including independent comedies such as Saving Grace (2000), Plots with a View (2002) and Clubland (2007), music-themed films like Little Voice (1998) and Beyond the Sea (2004) and big-budget dramas such as Pride & Prejudice (2005) and Atonement (2007). In addition, Blethyn has appeared in television productions including The Buddha of Suburbia (1993), Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001), Belonging (2004) and War and Peace (2007). Her most recent leading role in TV drama is the title role in Vera (2011), playing Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Brenda Blethyn, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Marianne Raigipcien Jean-Baptiste (born 26 April 1967) is a British actress and singer of Antiguan and St. Lucian heritage. She is known for her role as Vivian Johnson on the US TV series Without a Trace (2002-2009), and has starred in other US TV shows such as Blindspot (2015–2016) and Homecoming (2018).
She is also known for her role in the 1996 comedy-drama film Secrets & Lies, for which she received acclaim and earned nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and the Golden Globe and BAFTA Award in the same category.
Timothy Leonard Spall (born February 27, 1957) is an English actor and presenter. He became a household name in the UK after appearing as Barry Spencer Taylor in the 1983 ITV comedy-drama series Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.
Spall performed in Secrets & Lies (1996), and was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Subsequently, he starred in many films, including Hamlet (1996), Still Crazy (1998), Nicholas Nickleby (2002), The Last Samurai (2003), Enchanted (2007), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), The Damned United (2009), The King's Speech (2010), Ginger and Rosa (2012), Denial (2016), and The Party (2017). He voiced Nick, a cynical, portly rat in Chicken Run (2000). He played Peter Pettigrew in five Harry Potter films, from Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) to Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010).
Spall has collaborated with director Mike Leigh, making six films together: Home Sweet Home (1982), Life is Sweet (1990), Secrets & Lies (1996), Topsy-Turvy (1999), All or Nothing (2002), and Mr. Turner (2014). Spall won great acclaim for his performance in the last of these for his portrayal as J. M. W. Turner winning him the Best Actor Award at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.
He starred in the television documentary Timothy Spall: ...at Sea (2010–2012) and in 2019 he appeared as Lord Arthur Wallington in the 6-part BBC Cold War drama Summer of Rockets.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Phyllis Logan (born 11 January 1956) is a Scottish actress, known for playing Lady Jane Felsham in Lovejoy (1986–1993) and Mrs Hughes (later Carson) in Downton Abbey (2010–2015). She won the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for the 1983 film Another Time, Another Place. Her other film appearances include Secrets & Lies (1996), Shooting Fish (1997), Downton Abbey (2019) and Misbehaviour (2020).
Claire Rushbrook is a British stage, film and television actress. She studied Acting at Rose Bruford College of Theatre & Performance in the south London suburb of Sidcup.
Lee Ross (born 1971) is an English actor known for his roles as nice guy Kenny Phillips in the classic CITV dramedy Press Gang and as the violent and sadistic Owen Turner in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. He is also known for his work in the drama series Dodger, Bonzo and the Rest, Secrets & Lies and The Catherine Tate Show.
Lesley Manville was born on March 12, 1956 in Brighton, East Sussex, England. She is a multi award-winning actress of theatre, film, and television, and has worked extensively with director Mike Leigh. She is known for Another Year (2010), All or Nothing (2002), Topsy-Turvy (1999), and Secrets & Lies (1996), and her performance in Phantom Thread (2017), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She also had a supporting role in Maleficent (2014). Manville's extensive stage career includes roles in As You Like It, Les Liaisons Dangereuses and The Alchemist. Her film debut was in Dance with a Stranger (1985).
Born in Wallasey on the Wirral in 1970, Elizabeth Berrington is an actress of British film and television, with several credits in Mike Leigh productions.
Michele Austin is a British actress best known for her role as PC Yvonne Hemmingway on ITV's The Bill, for which she won the Screen Nation award for best television actress in 2005.
Ronald G. Cook (born 1 December 1948) is an English actor. He has been active in film, television and theatre since the 1970s.
Cook was born in 1948 in South Shields, County Durham, the son of a school cook and a car worker. When he was 6, his family moved to Coventry; he went to Wyken Croft Junior School and then Caludon Castle School and is a graduate of Rose Bruford College.
Terence John Humes (October 1944 – 7 September 2017), known professionally as Terence Harvey, was a British television actor. Among his many roles was the prosecution counsel in The Execution of Gary Glitter. He also appeared in From Hell, Johnny English, Hollyoaks, The White Countess, Mr. Selfridge, Hustle, Downton Abbey, and The Damned United.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Frances Ruffelle (born 29 August 1965) is an English musical theatre actress and singer. She won a Tony Award in 1987, and represented the United Kingdom in the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Lonely Symphony (We Will Be Free)", finishing 10th. The song became a UK Top 30 hit.
In 1984, Ruffelle starred as Dinah in the original West End production of Starlight Express. From 1985, she was the original Éponine in the first English-language productions of Les Misérables in the West End and on Broadway, winning the 1987 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Other stage roles include Yonah in Children of Eden (1991), Roxie Hart in Chicago (2003–04, 2007), the title role in Piaf (2013), Bella in The A–Z of Mrs P (2014), and Queenie in The Wild Party. Her albums include Fragile (1994), Frances Ruffelle (1998), Showgirl (2004), Imperfectly Me (2010), and I Say Yeh-Yeh (2015).
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Su Elliott (born 18 December 1950) is a British actress. She was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, England. Her film roles include Alice in The Zany Adventures of Robin Hood (1984), a nurse in The Girl in a Swing (1988), Marthe in Giorgino (1994), Mrs Brabin in Purely Belter (2000), a pub customer in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), a Ministry of Magic witch in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), and Hannah in Jane Eyre (2011). Elliott has appeared in numerous British television productions, including The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Travelling Man, Hi-de-Hi!, The Bill, This Life, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, Black Books, Coronation Street, King Leek and EastEnders. She also appeared in Central Independent Television's Halloween special The Worst Witch as Agatha's assistant, Delilah. It is said on the DVD commentary for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy that Garth Jennings, the director, only found out that Elliott had played Trillian in a stage adaptation of the same production after filming had finished.
David Neilson is an English actor best known for portraying cafe owner Roy Cropper in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street from 1995 onwards. In a break from the show in 2016, Neilson starred in a stage production of Samuel Beckett's Endgame at Home in Manchester. Prior to taking up the role of Roy Cropper, Neilson appeared in several TV shows including Boys from The Blackstuff, Resnick, Secret Army, Once Upon a Time in the North, Blue Heaven, Bergerac, Casualty and EastEnders, and in the Mike Leigh films Life is Sweet and Secrets and Lies.
Coyne's earliest performances were in school plays. He played leading roles in two outstanding productions: ‘The Judge’ in Oscar Wilde's 'Hang of the Gaol' and 'Phaeton' in Ovid's Chariot of the Sun. He won rave reviews for his performances in the national press and decided to pursue a career as an actor.He won a place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and upon his graduation, he received the Hannam Clarke Award.
His first role on TV was on an episode of London's Burning in 1990. His next big role was in a mini-series Gulliver's Travels starring Ted Danson. He appeared in many British TV series over the next few years including guest appearance on EastEnders, Pulling and The Bill. In 2003, he was cast in Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. In 2010, he was cast in The Nutcracker in 3D.
His biggest role was as Warden Edwin James on Alcatraz. He was later cast in Would You Rather and the British film, London Boulevard. In 2013, he was cast in two major films, in a supporting yet adequate role. He was cast as a henchman in Gangster Squad and as the right hand man of John Goodman's character in The Hangover Part III.
Peter Wight is a British character actor of stage, film and TV who is perhaps best known for his work with Mike Leigh on films such as Meantime, Naked, Vera Drake, Another Year and Mr Turner. Wight regularly plays a police officer - most notably in the BBC sitcom Early Doors and in the mid 90s BBC drama Out of the Blue, as well as films like Shiner, Atonement and The Look of Love - and has had numerous period roles in dramas such as Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, and Our Mutual Friend. His other films include Hot Fuzz, Babel, Cass, and The Sense of an Ending.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gary McDonald (born in London in 1961) is an English actor of Jamaican descent. A student at Elliott school in Putney, McDonald played football for Wimbledon FC under Dario Gradi.
He was a member of the Royal Court Theatre from 1979-80, appearing in various plays at the Court such as Hard time Pressure, Hero’s Welcome and Che Walker’s Been so Long. In the 1980’s he performed with the Talawa Theatre company in The Black Jacobins, The Importance of Being Earnest and A Raisin in the Sun with the Black Theatre. He appeared at the Royal National Theatre in Macbeth and Black Poppies, Rhapsody in Black & White and at The Cottlesloe in Blood Wedding. Other theatre credits include Scrape of the Black and Mike Leigh’s It’s a Great Big Shame at the Theatre Royal Stratford East.
His first notable television role came in 1987 when he was cast as Darren Roberts in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. He left the role in 1988. He has also appeared in Numb3ers, The Bill, Between the Lines, South of the Border, as Captain John Black in Dream Team (1999-2006) and in Brothers and Sisters, among others. He has also appeared in various films.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Gary McDonald (actor),licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Alison Steadman (born 26 August 1946) is an English actor. She won the 1991 National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress for the Mike Leigh (her husband 1973-2001) film Life is Sweet, and the 1993 Olivier Award for Best Actress for her role as Mari in the original production of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice. In a 2007 Channel 4 poll, the "50 Greatest Actors" voted for by other actors, she was ranked No. 42.
Steadman made her professional stage debut in 1968 and went on to establish her career in Mike Leigh's 1970s TV plays Nuts in May (1976) and Abigail's Party (1977). She received BAFTA TV Award nominations for the 1986 BBC serial The Singing Detective, and in 2001 for the ITV drama series Fat Friends (2000–05). Other television roles include Pride and Prejudice (1995), Gavin & Stacey (2007–10, 2019) and Orphan Black (2015–16). Her other film appearances include A Private Function (1984), Clockwise (1986), Shirley Valentine (1989), Topsy Turvy (1999), and The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004).
Betty Gleadle (December 11, 1921 – December 24, 2016), known by the stage name Liz Smith, was an English character actress, known for her roles in BBC sitcoms, including as Annie Brandon in I Didn't Know You Cared (1975–1979), the sisters Bette and Belle in 2point4 Children (1991–1999), Letitia Cropley in The Vicar of Dibley (1994–1996) and Norma Speakman ("Nana") in The Royle Family (1998–2000, 2006). She also played Zillah in Lark Rise to Candleford (2008) and won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the 1984 film A Private Function.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sheila Kelley is a British television actress. Her career began in 1974, in the series Village Hall. Further notable appearances were in the series Within These Walls (1978), Empire Road (1978), Play for Today (1975, 1976, 1982), A Touch of Frost (1994), Dangerfield (1998) and Dalziel and Pascoe (1997, 2000). She also acted in movies, including Wish You Were Here (1987) and Secrets & Lies (1996).
She is married to actor Stephen Bill (known from Prick Up Your Ears). Their son Leo Bill is also an actor (known from 28 Days Later).
Description above from the Wikipedia article Sheila Kelley (British actress), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Linda Beckett was born in 1948 in Salford, Lancashire, England as Linda M Beckett. She is an actress, known for her roles in the Mike Leigh films Secrets & Lies (1996), High Hopes (1988) and Bleak Moments (1971).
Anthony O'Donnell is a Welsh actor. In 1982, he was awarded the London Critic's Circle Theatre Award for Most Promising Newcomer in the Stratford Season. Description above from the Wikipedia article Anthony O'Donnell, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ruth Sheen (born 1952) is an English actress.
Born in London, Sheen began her career by training at the East 15 Acting School, and has appeared regularly on British television and in British films since 1988. On television, she had recurring roles as Nanny Simmons in Berkeley Square (1998), and as Nurse Ethel Carr in the series Bramwell (1995–1998). She has also appeared as four different characters in six episodes of The Bill between 1989 and 2004.
She has also appeared in five Mike Leigh films: in the female lead role of Shirley in High Hopes (1988); as Laughing Woman in Secrets & Lies (1996); as Maureen in All or Nothing (2002), as Lily in Vera Drake (2004) and as Gerri in Another Year (2010). Her role in High Hopes won her the Best Actress award at the 1989 European Film Awards.
In 2007, she played the role of Lyn, opposite Ben Whishaw's Steven, in the world premiere of Philip Ridley's stage play, Leaves of Glass at the Soho Theatre, London.
She also plays the mother of Jim Sturgess's character, Jamie, in Philip Ridley's feature film, Heartless.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Ruth Sheen, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Stephen George Churchett was an English actor and writer. One of his most notable roles was as solicitor Marcus Christie in EastEnders, on and off from 1990 to 2004. He reprised the role in 2014 and again in 2015.
