'We're going to have an affair' Micheal Ward told Olivia Colman

Oscar-winner Sam Mendes celebrates cinema and the families we choose and that choose us with his new film "Empire of Light", a star-studded drama he wrote, directed and produced.

A love story set in an English seaside town in the early 1980s, "Empire of Light" stars Olivia Colman, Colin Firth and Toby Jones as workers of a local movie theatre, the "Empire".

With the country in recession, Colman's character Hilary recovering from an episode of mental illness and racial tensions building outside the doors of the Empire, the new decade has got off to an uncertain start for the staff.

The arrival of Stephen, an upbeat young Black ticket collector played by Micheal Ward, injects new life into the cinema. Stephen instantly bonds with Hilary, a lonely middle-aged woman, and their budding relationship helps both find solace and inspiration.

"American Beauty" director Mendes, who co-wrote the Oscar-nominated 2019 film "1917" makes his solo screenplay debut with "Empire of Light" and wrote the role of Hilary for Colman.

"We had a Zoom during lockdown. He said 'I'm writing a film and I'd like you to be in it' and I went 'okay, yes' before I knew what it was. I just said yes. So thank God it was, you know, a great part and it wasn't, yeah," Colman told Reuters, adding she also took on the role to challenge herself with material she had previously not tackled.

Mendes, 57, told Reuters at the film's London premiere in October the movie was "very personal" and a "love letter" to his mother.

"It's based on Sam's mummy. So growing up he was watching the disintegration of someone he adored and she had to battle with schizophrenia. The treatment for it in the day, lithium, which was sort of all or nothing. And so he was there all the time to help me so I could ask 'so what's it like when?...' and he'd say 'she'd become heroic, incredibly eloquent, powerful. And then it would just tip over and then life would fall apart' and he had to watch it," said Colman.

"Sam was very frank about and has told us we're welcome to be frank about it to the business, about his own mother and mental health. And these things are hard to talk about and hard to share and hard to ask about. And so I think there was something quite courageous very much at the heart of it," added Firth.

"Top Boy" star Ward said he found his character Stephen's positive, can-do attitude inspirational.

"Being able to see a character like this, you know, being represented to the world is amazing. You know, I don't think we get to see a lot of young Black people that just have positivity, like, flowing through them," the 25-year-old said, adding:

"For me, playing a character like that just taught me a lot, first of all, but also just, you know, it really teaches you, you know, how you have to be as a person."

Jones, who met Mendes when they were youngsters, said the filmmaker captured moments from their youth.

"I must have met him in the year that this film is set in about 1981, on the dance floors of Oxfordshire village halls where we used to meet and party, we weren't at the same school, but we'd meet these parties and dance the very music that was in this film. So it was kind of odd. I mean, it was it was brilliant being, you know, meeting each other again in this context and and also sharing anecdotes that are slightly in the film," Jones said.

"Empire of Light", which opened in U.S. cinemas in December, is released in the United Kingdom on January 9 and worldwide throughout the spring.