He says he was happy until he turned three. Then he became aware of death. That also happened to me when I was four. I think about death every day.
Did the fact that your grandfather is the Chairman of Pathé, an empire of European cinema, help when you started out?
I don’t think it had that big of an influence nor did it open a lot of doors for me. I decided to do this because my parents hung out with artists so it always seemed like a possibility to me.
Does your strict protestant upbringing make you feel guilty about fame and luxury?
In some ways it does. My mother used to dress me with second hand clothes so privileges have always seemed a little obscene to me. However, I love fashion. I enjoy it very much, maybe because when growing up, it was the opposite.
Just like kids who grow up without television become addicted to talk shows?
Exactly. Like Michael Jackson for instance, he was forbidden to play with other kids when he was little so he built his own theme park in his home. Clothes are important to our social image. If you look marginal, you can end up feeling like you don’t belong.
Maybe in the end it’s not that bad to feel different. It can lead you to do peculiar things.
I am extremely shy. I blush all the time. Sometimes I even get paralyzed and can’t speak. But words aren’t that important, are they?
You don’t seem too prudish in front of a camera as you have appeared nude even at the start of your career.
It makes me really uncomfortable. When I was younger I didn’t really care that much. My favourite part of my body are the rings under my eyes. They define me. They expose my melancholy.
You have said that some directors believe to be “a master, a lover, a husband and sometimes even God”. Care sharing their names?
Please don’t do this to me [laughs]. Let’s say that relationships with directors are not always easy. I have worked with female directors and I see them more like allies. Male directors tend to idealize you, they project on you.
Even Woody Allen chose me to play a rather stereotypical french woman. However, I don’t see the problem. It’s not something that makes me uncomfortable. It was a role like any other. All characters require work, a psychology to be explored. I don’t mind embodying the definition of the french woman.
What did you learn from Allen?