Sally Hawkins is wearing what appears to be a vest of a military styling – all navy blue and red and white piping – over a long-sleeved blouse. And it’s accessorized by a dark-navy sling holding her left arm pinned to her front.

She broke her collarbone recently in Dublin making a film – “doing my own stunts, never a good idea” – propelling herself through the air and “throwing myself too far with too much energy” after already doing several takes.

“As a feeling, I will never forget the moment,” she says. “A horrible noise internally – I knew there was something very wrong indeed.”

She’s smiling as she says it, the same dazzling smile she wears almost constantly in “Happy-Go-Lucky,” the new Mike Leigh film in which she stars. (It opens Friday in New York, after being featured in the Berlin, Telluride, Toronto and New York film festivals). And she remembers, “I knew I had to get to the other side of the camera before I collapsed because I wouldn’t be doing it again.”

She laughs ruefully – but the sunny optimism of Poppy, her character in “Happy-Go-Lucky,” radiates through. She isn’t Poppy, but Poppy is absolutely a part of who she is and a place she enjoyed being.

Actors often talk about the mental toll of immersing themselves in the psyche of a tortured character for the length of a film shoot or a play’s run. Hawkins, 32, is quick to admit that the reverse is true as well – that playing a character so committed to being joyful will absolutely rub off on your daily life.

“It can’t help but influence you,” Hawkins says, her words tumbling out in a rush. “It gives you another aspect of life. The way Poppy sees life is so unique – you really see a protagonist so happy in these cynical, dark, depressing times. Her energy is very invigorating.”

“Happy-Go-Lucky” has already divided critics, who either find it irresistibly funny or preternaturally annoying. Most of that animus is focused on Hawkins’ Poppy, whose relentless cheeriness is either infectious or maddening, depending on your point of view.

Created in Leigh’s feel-your-way blend of collaboration and improvisation with his actors, the film focuses on Poppy, a London schoolteacher and single woman who goes clubbing with her mates, has a great time with her students and generally seems to be able to find something good about every moment in her life.

But she meets her match in Scott (Eddie Marsan), from whom she takes driving lessons after her bike is stolen. Scott is a ball of rage who relishes the tiny bit of power he holds in the world – in the car where he teaches other people to drive. So he’s an autocrat, full of catchphrases and maxims – and is driven mad that Poppy not only doesn’t take him seriously, but seems to make a joke out of everything he says.

Even those who love the film (and there are many of us) will admit that Poppy’s affect – her in-your-face cheerfulness that makes joking an almost reflexive verbal tic – takes some getting-used-to. Poppy compulsively sprays jokes, almost under her breath. They’re mildly mocking, casually witty or just plain silly, and they’re comebacks to virtually everything anyone says to her. Yet the jibes are never intended to hurt; she is just joshing, though not everyone gets the joke. And she still doesn’t care.

Hawkins immersed herself in the Mike Leigh process to come up with that kind of gag-reflex for the character: “It’s a coping mechanism for her,” Hawkins says. “It was quite freeing for me as well. She doesn’t monitor herself so I could say anything. It was quite wonderful being cheeky and getting away with it.”

Most of the jokes came to her spontaneously, as she homed in on just the right note of eternal sunshine: “If you’re in character, it just comes to the character, just by being true to her. It shouldn’t be hard at all.”

The Leigh work process involves the actors meeting and working individually with Leigh, building the character, then building scenes around her.

“You know nothing when you start – there’s no script, no character,”

she says. “You’re on board for a ride, whatever it may be. It’s incredibly exciting, exhilarating and terrifying. Mike needs you to come with the goods for him to pull ideas from. He has all these plates spinning, all these actors. He’ll guide you; I was aware that he wanted me to go in a particular direction.

“He was quickly dismissive of the character when I gave it a slightly darker edge. From early on, he was interested in capturing the light.”

It’s a six-month process, sometimes working intensely with Leigh alone. The actors create an entire world that Leigh shapes into a film. But his films rarely go where you’d expect. The Poppy/Scott relationship, in particular, leaps wildly off the path that a Hollywood romantic-comedy would have taken with a similar set-up: free-spirited schoolteacher infuriates, then beguiles uptight driving teacher.

“Speaking as Poppy, I think she does feel an incredible warmth for Scott – a love in a way,” Hawkins says. “But he’s not who she wants to be with. He’s angry, misogynistic, sexist, racist – he’s in a dark place. She cares for him – and I think she’s surprised by how he caught her. But the thing about Poppy is she’s almost in love with everyone or she sees the beauty where others don’t want to look.”

The key to Poppy, Hawkins decided, was a lack of the need to impress or be impressed: “She doesn’t judge people. And, more important, she doesn’t judge herself. She’s just got this great ability to cope with life and people. She’s got a great energy and sense of humor, even when her jokes fall flat.

“For me, Poppy was a feeling. You do learn from your characters. She was very lovely to play. I’ll miss her – although the good ones are always around.”

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