Julie Delpy is one of the most versatile actresses of her generation as she acts, directs and writes for the screen.
Her new movie 2 Days In New York is about to be released onto DVD and I caught up with her to chat about her new movie - that she stars in and directs.
- 2 Days In New York is about to be released on DVD here in the UK so can you tell me a little bit about the movie?
Well it is a follow up to 2 Days In Paris and it is a comedy about relationships and family. So yes it is a comedy about relationships I guess.
- The movie comes five years after the release of 2 Days in Paris so when did you know or start thinking about making a second movie?
It took me about a year and half after it came out and I thought that it was such a small period in the life of these two characters and I wanted to explore a little more and something different.
I liked the idea of a couple have had previous relationships and kids and these complicated lives that people live nowadays.
I just wanted to explore how family is a weight in a relationship and how it can put a relationship in jeopardy in just a few hours.
- Well you have slightly touched on my next question really as I was wondering what were the themes or ideas that you were keen to return to or explore for the first time with this movie?
Relationships are about many things including trust, understanding and love and I really did want to return to that.
Also this one is more about growing up - you lose your parents and you have kids yourself so how do you manage… I am living it so I am able to mange being in a relationship for a long time but it’s like how do you mange being in a relationship for a long time and keep some kind of love without killing each other? How do you do that?
I am doing it but it is always a little miracle every day.
- You direct and star in the movie so how much is that a juggling act for you? But how much is it a challenge that you enjoy?
It is a real challenge but, as I always say, most directors have to deal with high maintenance actresses and pain in the ass writers and complicated composers but since I am all of those things I only have to deal with myself (laughs).
I am a high maintenance actress, the pain in the ass writer and the crazy composer and the complicated director - I get to be all of it and I only have to deal with myself. I do have to deal with a few actors but it does limit the trouble (laughs).
There is a side of it that is really challenging but most of the challenge of directing is actually people managing and making decisions - once you have to manage less people it is less work in a weird way.
- And how much as being an actress influenced your filmmaking and vice versa?
I am definitely very much about the acting - that is why I work with this very good director of photography Lubomir Bakchev as he is especially good in making sure that he doesn’t miss the performance.
So his agenda is very much… the look of the film is one thing but making sure that you get the best out of the actors is the first thing that comes to him.
Of course it is important that the visually are correct and it is in focus (laughs) but above all it is about the performances.
Because I come from acting it is true that my main work is working with actors and getting the best performance out of people.
- Chris Rock joins you on the cast list as Marion's new boyfriend Mingus so what did you see in Chris that you thought would be perfect for the role as this is a slightly different role to what we are use to seeing him in? And did you pen the screenplay with him in mind?
I did. I did write it with him in mind, originally without being sure that I had him on board. But eventually I did call his agent and was like ‘hey do you think Chris would be interested in working with me?’ And he called me back and we like ‘yeah keep on writing’.
So it was great writing someone with the prospect that they will do the film if they like the script - at least there is a possibility that they will do it.
- He has some great scenes where he is chatting to a cardboard out of Obama so what inspired that and was it always in the script?
When I thought of Chris Rock, he came to my mind when I thought about doing a sequel, right away… Obama had just been elected and I just thought that it would be something fun.
The idea that everyone around him is crazy and he is the sane one when really he is crazy as well and his imaginary friend is Obama - so he has his own craziness but he hides it.
Obama is such a figure for African Americans and I thought that it would just be funny without it ever being heavy and I thought that it was funny that he talks about the most mundane things with Obama.
It was just funny to me that he doesn’t have any political conversations with him instead he talks about relationships - to me it is very absurd and funny.
- You father plays your father in the movie so how do you find working alongside him again?
I really enjoyed working with him on the first film as he is a very funny actor - I had seen him on stage all of my life as he is a theatre actor mostly; he is a film actor but he has done theatre all of his life.
I love working with him. I have seen his work all of my life and I know what he is capable of and I know how goofy he can be so it was great to be able to write something very funny for him.
- This movie has elements of miscommunication so how was that helped by the fact that Chris doesn't speak French and your father doesn’t speak much English?
It definitely helped. Everyone knew what people were saying to each other because we did have translated screenplays but at the moment that it happened you can see, even though it has been translated, that perhaps Chris didn’t know what was happening some of the time.
I think that that was frustrating for him and for my dad at times but it was pretty funny on set and it did help the film - I kept a lot of moments when there is that pause between them.
I just had a lot of fun with that. Being French living in the U.S. and having lived in English speaking countries all of my life I have always had this. People often don’t believe how little English my dad speaks and Chris was like ‘it is written that way but you dad will speak a little more English’ and I was like ‘ok’.
And then he met my and he was like ‘oh really? Oh that is really what it is’ and I was like ‘yeah, not a word’.
The old generation of French people don’t speak a lot of English - it is really not a myth. And they really do bring food to the U.S. and my dad gets in trouble all of the time - if it is not food then it is Cuban cigars.
He always brings something that gets him in trouble with U.S. customs and I have no idea why he does it. He was like ‘but they are cigars’ and I was like ‘yes but Cuban cigars’.
- There is also a great cameo performance from Vincent Gallo so how did he get involved in the project?
I wrote the part for him as I thought ‘right I am selling my soul and who would buy my soul?’ And I just thought that there was only one person in Manhattan who would buy a soul as a conceptual piece of art and that is Vincent Gallo.
He doesn’t really like doing cameos and at first he was like ‘I can’t do cameos as I don’t like that - especially playing myself that is a bit weird’.
But then he read it and he really laughed a lot and he said ‘well if there is one person in Manhattan who would by your soul then it would be me’.
So he actually really got the humour of it and had fun playing his own part of this crazy megalomaniac because deep in side he is more complex than that and much nicer than that.
- The film has been released in cinemas and it is about to be released onto DVD here so how have you found the response to the movie?
It is interesting because at Sundance the film was very successful and in America some people really liked it.
The film was screened in Berkeley the other day and it is filled with people who are have tenures after studying philosophy and they are the people that laughed the most. It is weird that intellects think the film is very funny.
I think that you need a certain comfort with your own intelligence to like the film because some jokes are really dumb and some are really complex.
The humour of selling the soul and having the soul in the underwear offends some people because it says something about life and death and religion or whatever.
Certain jokes are a little edgy for some people while some of the jokes are very rude and other politically incorrect. I know one or two people who got offended by the jokes and it is actually people who are more religious.
It is more in the U.S. that people have get offended where as Catholics in France they don’t get offended by jokes on the soul or they don’t take it personally.
- Now that you have really established yourself as a writer and a director is this an area that you are perhaps more keen to explore or is acting still the main focus?
I have done some acting this summer and I will continue to do it for friends and people I really like to work with but I really am writing and directing.
The next few projects that I have are all directing projects but surprisingly I am being offered more films as an actress than ever before (laughs).
I am really into my work as a writer and a director and it is going pretty well but I am getting more offers as an actress than ever - it is a bit confusing actually.
- We are also going to be seeing you in Before Midnight so can you tell me a bit about that and how you found returning to that character?
That was actually it was great fun and it gave me the chance to work once again with my dear friends Richard Linklater and Ethan Hawke.
We had a really wonderful and fun time shooting the film - we wrote and then we shot the film right after we finished writing the film.
It was actually like a holiday to be just acting. It was really hard work as the movie follows the same format of having major dialogue scenes and scenes with no cuts - it is basically like learning a play - so it is hard but it’s almost relaxing because I don’t have to do my shot list or prepare the film.
- You write the film with Richard and Ethan so how much did you enjoy that collaborative process?
Writing is interesting as it is a complex process as it is very pleasurable and painful all at the same time; when you have a great scene it is wonderful but when you don’t have a great scene it’s very frustrating. So some days are great and some days are bad.
Richard and Ethan are very optimistic and upbeat people whereas I am the one that is the most… not difficult, well maybe a little bit (laughs). I am the one that complains but they love it when I complain - they love it when I am a pain in the ass. I am very difficult to please.
But we have a great time when we right because we laugh and when I complain they make fun of me so it is a very good dynamic.
- Finally what is next for you?
I writing something for a French studio but is an American film so I am writing this Fall basically. It is fun subject matter that has surprisingly never been done before in American cinema.
It is a very small part of American history and it will be set in 1907 - it is a tiny frame in the history of the U.S. But I have decided to write something about that and I am very excited to write it.
So we will see what happens with that as they have hired me to write it and if they like it they will do it.
2 Days In New York is released on DVD 1st October
Click here to pre-order 2 Days In New York on DVD
Click here to pre-order 2 Days In New York on Blu-Ray
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
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