Interview with Julie Delpy - June 7th, 2007

Promoting: Two Days In Paris
Venue: Chesterfield Hotel
Interview type: One-on-one


ViewLondon (VL): How difficult was it to put the film together, because obviously you’re doing pretty much everything yourself: writing, directing, editing, composing and acting?

Julie Delpy (JD): Well, it was quite hard to get money from anyone. Luckily the producer believed in the film like crazy and that really made the film happen. Basically every day we had the news that we were getting no money and we ended up with very little to make the film, but even though we didn’t even have enough to finish the film, we shot it and then the producer was able to find a company that lent us money to finish it. But what was great was that no-one was in the film for the money and they all worked their asses off.

VL: You cast a lot of friends and family in the film. Were they encouraged to improvise at all? What kind of direction did you give them?

JD: You know, originally I wanted to improvise quite a lot of the film and then as I met Adam a few times, I realised it wasn’t going the direction I really wanted for the film. And then when I told my parents about the film they said “We don’t want to improvise a word. We’re actors, we need scenes.” So I started writing the film and ended up with 110 pages of screenplay, basically the whole film. There’s a few little chunks that are improvised, but it’s funny because people don’t know, because it seems almost more staged than the other stuff. Just little chunks like the gallery, but not the whole gallery, just little chunks.

VL: Adam Goldberg is fantastic in the film and I gather you wrote the part especially for him. What was it about him that made you want to use him in the film?

JL: Well, he’s the sad clown, kind of thing. It’s like the sadder and more upset he looks, the more people are hitting him on the head, the funnier he looks. And he has great comic timing and I wanted someone who looked funny when they were upset. But he resisted a lot of the comedy stuff – he didn’t want to be jealous, he was like “How could I be jealous of these guys? I mean, look at me…”

VL: The script is excellent. The arguments are very believable, much more so than in any relationship comedy I can really think of.

JD: Well, I’ve argued a lot in my relationships (laughs). And I’ve witnessed a lot of arguments too.

VL: How much of it was drawn from actual arguments you’d had?

JD: Well, you know what it’s like when you’re a writer, you’re in the middle of breaking up with someone and you’re like, “Ooh, good line”. It’s like the pathetic side of being a writer, you never really stop observing, even yourself. Some of it is taken from other people but you know, in the story, it can be totally fantasy and made-up things, but I like to take the dialogue from real things.

VL: What have you got coming up next?

JD: I have The Countess, that I wrote. It’s a drama – it has nothing to do with comedy, hopefully. It’s about murder, cruelty and power and destruction. It’s very, very dark. So that’s my next film that I’m directing and starring in.

Note: Interview notes have been posted in the comments section below.