Mike Leigh explores naturalism and realism within his movies and plays similar to Stanislavski. Mike leigh uses improvisation instead of a script.

 "The world of the characters and their relationships is brought into existence by discussion and a great amount of improvisation – that is, improvising a character. And research into anything and everything that will fill the authenticity of the character."

Mike Leighs work is supposed to depict real life people in real life situations, going away from the hollywood aspect.