Ken Loach returns to I, Daniel Blake: ‘We used to wonder if food banks were acceptable. Now they’re an institution’ | I, Daniel Blake

Ken Loach, director

In 2016, we were – and still are – living in a time of meanness. If you were weak or needed support, you were punished, and there was constant denigration of people who needed help. I, Daniel Blake, was counting on it. It’s a movie about the cruelty of a system that says, “Poverty is the fault of poor people. You don’t struggle enough. You don’t get enough job interviews.” Dave Jones’ character, Daniel Blake, shows us this. He needs to work, he wants to work, but the system makes it difficult for people not to get stuck.

Screenwriter Paul Lafferty conducted detailed research for the script. We visited a boy in an apartment: there was nothing in the room except the refrigerator and the mattress. We talked for a bit, and then Paul said, “Would you mind sharing what’s in your fridge?” There was nothing there. Paul asked: When did you last eat? He said: Two or three days ago. It took our breath away.

Before shooting, I start every project thinking: “I don’t know how to do this.” Which I think is important, because you have to go back to the basic principles every time. We cast Hayley Squires in the role of Katie because of her authenticity, truth, faith and warmth. You can check all these boxes, but you also have to feel like the audience will nursing About this person. This is an intangible quality.

Food bank scene [when desperately hungry Katie pours baked beans into her hand from a tin and eats them cold] It came from a true story Paul heard at a food bank in Glasgow. I had a feeling that this had to be an emotional high point in the movie. But the moment you say to anyone: “It must be this, this and this,” you kill them. I had to cut back on that. So Hayley was the only one who knew what was going to happen. We shot the scene twice – the emotions are so intense, it’s very difficult to do it more than once. We used the first shot. At the time, we tried to make a film asking whether food banks were acceptable or not. Now they are an institution in the community. It is extraordinary to accept that people will starve unless they get food from a charity. This was simply unthinkable a year or two before the film was made.

When I, Daniel Blake, came out, Conservative minister Damian Green said: “It is a work of fiction.” The characters are obviously fictional, but all the stories are real, and the essence is real – and that’s what they didn’t want to face.

Hayley Squires played Katie

My agent said that Ken was meeting people for a new movie. I took a chance. First we sat and talked about me and my life. I was very nervous, I grew up watching his films. Tell me a little bit about this, how Katie became homeless in London because of the way her landlord was behaving and she was told that she could have a place in Newcastle – and that if she refused it, she would become “voluntarily homeless”, which was what was happening at the time.

Dave and I weren’t reading from the script during the auditions in Newcastle. Ken might say, “I told you about the character, and this is the topic of conversation and the destination.” And we were kind of getting there. On my way home, I called my girlfriend and said, “Okay, I’ve ruined it!”

During filming, we were given pages a day or two in advance, and worked chronologically. I knew that at some point Katie would fall into real suffering and hunger, and would have to make difficult decisions, but I didn’t know the ending. Shooting like that meant you had to surrender to it, if you resisted it, it would collapse. But I felt like I was part of a gang for six weeks, which was really nice.

I discovered the food bank scene four days ago. I actually cut back on food a little while we’re gone. No one asked me to do this, it was more about knowing what hunger does to your mind and body – it creates a certain level of exhaustion and panic that I knew would help. I went to the food bank two days before the shooting and spoke to a very intelligent, very vulnerable lady who used it. I came away with a sense of responsibility for what we were doing. We needed to get it – in the most honest way.

I was very calm that morning. Ken and I toured the place, whispering to each other. It felt like a shared secret. And it worked. It felt so real. Everyone had given up on what we were all trying to do. What’s beautiful about this scene is that people have empathy. The way Keane set up the film – and the way cinematographer Robbie Ryan shot it – allowed empathy to emerge.