Return to issue overviewBack Issues

JULIE DELPY CHATS TO YEN ABOUT HER NEW FILM 2 DAYS IN PARIS, HER FAVE THINGS TO DO IN FRANCE AND IMPARTS SOME STERN ADVICE FOR UP-AND-COMING ACTRESSES

If you’ve watched Before Sunrise and Before Sunset you could only imagine Julie Delpy to be raw, funny, intelligent and extremely pragmatic. And you’d be right. But she knows no other way of communicating or presenting herself. With a hippy upbringing and her French ways, Julie prides herself on integrity – a value that wouldn’t necessarily cross your mind in the cutthroat world of Hollywood.
Her first foray into acting and directing simultaneously, is via her film,
2 Days in Paris. A film that’s based on a couple, starring Julie as Marion, the French photographer, alongside Adam Goldberg, as Jack her neurotic American boyfriend. It starts off with the end of the pair’s less than romantic trip to Venice and focuses on a two day stopover in Paris, to pick up Marion’s cat from her parents, before they head back to New York. But Jack has a few issues with Marion’s past and finds it hard to deal with her many exes on a social level. Besides all the nuisances and neuroticness, it’s very easy to relate to. You’re constantly having thoughts like, “Yeah I’ve been through that or my mate’s going through that.” This film is full of frank but funny scenes; it’s one movie that you shouldn’t miss this summer.
YEN: How was it to work with friends and family in the film?
JD: It was nice to work with people you know as you can go straight to the point. My parents star as my parents and my friend Adam Goldberg stars as my boyfriend in the film. You can ask them what they feel comfortable with, what they don’t feel comfortable with; it makes it kind of easier in some ways. But sometimes it becomes complicated because you have relationships with those people, you know those people well and you know someone might get emotional on you. But outside of that, which is okay too, I can handle that emotion. Usually, even if there’s
a little trauma and a slight disagreement with something it’s solved
very quickly.
YEN: Is this film a reflection of your life or past experiences?
JD: It’s not an autobiographical movie. Adam Goldberg is not like Jack and my parents are not like my parents. But I would say I did use a bit of my life experience through things I’ve witnessed. I take from details of how people behave, about what people say to one another. Like if you have two French people they will ask you if you speak French and they keep on speaking French when you say no, that kind of behaviour. The little details make this film fun to watch.
YEN: What are the feelings you get from acting and directing?
JD: I like both; they’re such different jobs. When it comes to acting
you’re totally vulnerable, you have to expose yourself physically. Being
an actor is a very unsettling job because you’re always in front of the camera – there’s nothing scarier than to be facing the camera. Well maybe facing a serial killer, you know that’s also scary, or a lion. It actually happened to me once in LA, I faced a puma (a mountain lion),
I ran, I don’t know if you’re supposed to do that or not. But when
you’re behind the camera it’s a lot of responsibility but there’s
something very nice about it. Directing is much more relaxing, it’s less stressful than acting. But I love acting too because it makes you feel, it gives you a natural high. With directing you’re in control you know what you’re doing.
YEN: Would you call yourself a fan of romantic movies, are you attracted to this particular genre?
JD: Not really no. I mean I keep writing romantic comedies and directing them because sometimes that’s what happens. I like political thrillers; I like war movies and sci-fi, good comedies, smart and funny comedies. I like comedies that also have an edge like political satire comedies. My favourite films are Dr. Strangelove, Being There, Vertigo, 2001 and Minnie and Moskowitz.
YEN: What would you scream over a loudspeaker in a shopping centre to entice people to come see your film with only 30 seconds?
JD: I would say come see it it’s funny! It’s not really a romantic comedy, this is more of a straight comedy because there is an element of romance and obviously it’s about a couple but I think it’s more of a comedy than a romantic film. This is more a comedy than a romantic film even though they’re both about a relationship. You can make a horror film about a relationship, you can make a sci-fi movie about a relationship, you can make a thriller about a relationship, like Vertigo... you can make a porn movie about a relationship, etc, etc.
YEN: Favourite scene, moment or line from 2 Days in Paris?
JD: There’s two favourite moments for me but I’m so bias. It’s when my dad laughs and a piece of food sticks out of his mouth. Then he spits it out as he laughs. And then there’s a part where my mum is crying in the yard and I’m holding my cat. But I mean it’s my mum, she made me laugh so hard in that part.
YEN: Do you think it’s harder for women in film?
JD: You know it would be the biggest lie in the world to say that it’s not harder for women as directors. It is so much harder for women. I mean it would be an understatement to say it’s harder for women. It’s just a nightmare for women. And I guarantee you; I have a million ways to prove it by writing, by letters, by tonnes of things. I’ve written tonnes of screenplays.
YEN: Do you have any advice for young, Australian actresses?
JD: The only advice I can give is, if you decide to become an actress and become super successful. There’s different ways to succeed in life. The only way I’ve found that worked, because I’m so obsessed with integrity, is to only use my work and my hard work – I’ve worked like a dog for years. I never used to kiss arse and date whoever, which makes it much harder. That’s the truth. But the truth is also that hippies raised me and I’ve learnt all my values from them. If I had ever had sex with someone or dated someone for fame, I would have killed myself. I worked very hard and what I did very quickly is wrote my own stuff, which was the reason why Richard Linklater hired Ethan and I on Before Sunrise, because he wanted people who would re-write the entire dialogue. Just being an actress is to me not an ideal situation because there’s a lot of waiting, there’s a lot of stuff that I don’t like doing. I don’t like auditioning for example, and you have to. And the process of auditioning is leachy; putting yourself naked in front of someone and then they shit on you. Not all the time because sometimes it goes well but I would say half the time they shit on you. I’m sorry it’s very crude the way I express myself but I don’t know any other way to do it. 
2 Days in Paris is out Boxing Day – www.2daysinparisthefilm

Words Kristy Bradley

Return to issue overview