Julie Delpy
Julie Delpy
Julie Delpyis a French-American actress, film director, screenwriter, and singer-songwriter. She studied filmmaking at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and has directed, written, or acted in more than 30 films, including Europa Europa, Voyager, Three Colors: White, Before Sunrise, An American Werewolf in Paris, Before Sunset, 2 Days in Paris, and Before Midnight. She has been nominated for three César Awards, two Online Film Critics Society Awards, and two Academy Awards. After moving to the United States...
ProfessionMovie Actress
Date of Birth21 December 1969
CityParis, France
The way I work is that I never let people do an assembly. I don't like it because it shapes the film in a way that I can't really control. To me, editing is making the film and it's a huge process and editors are under-rated.
Basically, editing is done in rehearsal and in the writing process and in the acting, so it's very, very tricky, very, very tricky.
In real life, when you speak with each other you overlap each other, so you can't fake that. Like especially when you have no cut. In a regular film when you want people to overlap you cut it that way. It's mixing and editing.
I learned directing by editing because I saw all the mistakes I had made.
I did a film that I shot in 24 hours that was self-financed for $5,000. It was a feature called Looking For Jimmy that I shot with a bunch of friends. I spent eight months editing because we had 24 hours of footage that made no sense and I learned a lot about directing while editing that film.
I've never made the first move in my whole life - I'm too scared. I couldn't kiss someone first. I'm extremely shy. I'm, like, so shy that actually... it's very painful what I'm going to say, but I don't think I've ever been with someone I really loved, because the people I really cared for, I didn't have, you know, the nerve to go after.
I've been shooting these video movies, which I'm pretty excited about, but this is my first 35 millimeter feature. I think, because I started in this business so young, at 14, and I worked very early with so many great directors, that I was artistically ready to direct at 18. But because I worked with so many great directors, I wasn't secure enough to do that. Now I just say, "Why not? What's to fear?
I may move from everywhere and spend two or three years in total isolation. I like being alone a lot. I enjoy that more than anything.
My dad has always been such a great dad, and he's brought so much culture to my life. He dragged me to see every single movie at the cinématheque as a kid. I saw everything from Star Wars to Bergman.
I'm not going to pursue it the way that actors pursue it which means going to all of the auditions and getting a job and all that stuff, because I don't really need to get a job because I have a job as a writer/director. That's how I make my living mostly now. So I don't need to make a living as an actress.
It's definitely easier for a woman to do a romantic comedy than a war movie. It's assumed a woman doesn't have a sense of what action is.
For Europeans a president having an affair, especially in France, is a joke. No one cares, it would never bring this kind of trouble to a country.
I talk a lot. I express a lot of my feelings verbally.
I avoid confrontation. When I'm on set I never snap at anyone. I don't have a temper.