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'We spent weeks in that big house entirely in character – just being really horrible to each other'

Mike Leigh, director

Naked was my big international breakthrough. I'd never had a film in Cannes before – and in 1993, I won best director and David Thewlis took best actor for his extraordinary performance as Johnny. At first, though, the film was called Untitled '92. I was starting to anticipate the millennium: it was obvious it was going to be a big deal, but I didn't know how to treat the subject. I could have made a science-fiction film. But I realised the character of Johnny – a frustrated, idealist drifter who's hacked off with the world – would be a very interesting vehicle for millennial preoccupations.

We prepared for the film in an old office block in Marylebone, London. David was living in Soho, endlessly reading Nostradamus and all the other things Johnny was into.

They come sporadically, but are instantly identifiable: Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront, Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver, Samuel L. Jackson in Jungle Fever. Roles that launch actors into the upper echelons of master thespians, roles that reward the audience with the sense of seeing something terribly unique and profound, roles that could have only been played by one person to create such stunning results. And for David Thewlis — who'd been acting on screen since 1985 — it was Mike Leigh's 1993 Naked that gave him such a role, a role that made much of the world stand up and notice. Our review of Naked on Blu-ray follows after the jump. Leaving Manchester in a stolen car under the threat of violence, Johnny (Thewlis) goes to visit the home of ex-girlfriend Louise (Lesley Sharp). With Louise not home he makes the acquaintance of her flatmate Sophie (Katrin Cartlidge), and the two quickly seduce each other.