The body, in 'La Belle Noiseuse,' was the source of the artist's creativity.
Emmanuelle Beart
My looks haven't prevented me from playing prostitutes or people broken by life. But when they need a token blonde with big breasts, that's OK, too. It's part of the game.
Beauty is not something you can count on. Usually, when people say you are beautiful, it is when there is a harmony between the inside and the outside.
We were raised without movies, theater or music. We had only nature, the hills, the trees. When I got on the set of 'Manon,' I wasn't star-struck because I didn't know what a star was.
The body is an actor's tool, like the face, malleable. I never thought that being naked was immoral or outrageous.
The press follow me. I sue them. That's the deal.
I think my best work has been in France with great men. It's been my great fortune to work with really great men - with Olivier Assayas, Raoul Ruiz, Jacques Rivette. I am tutored by them.
When I'm playing a part, I can feel all my body playing it; it's like really making love.
I wouldn't say I was a rebel as such, but I certainly wasn't right at school.
I don't always see my movies right away. And there are some I haven't seen at all. Sometimes that bothers the directors, so I'm obliged to see them.
I keep reading that I'm cold. But I'm not, I'm shy. And I play a lot of women of fire and sexuality like an animal - so I'm cold on one side and fiery on the other.
I feel better in my body now than when I was 20. Why not?
Of course I am political. You 'ave to be don't you? Every day it is about your future, your right to that future. 'Ow can people ignore this? We 'ave to leave a good world for our children, n'est-ce pas?
My body is an instrument for me to use.
I've just done a film in the United States. It's a thriller called 'A Crime', with Harvey Keitel, we play against each other, and it's so great to play in another language. But I'm definitely not American.
After 10 years of French torture - psychological torture - it's great to do an American movie.
There is a phrase in French, which means 'to miss.' To pass by. To not be able to stop. You love someone and someone loves you, but it just can't work for different reasons.
Today I would say, 'I am against plastic surgery.' It's a grave act. An act that touches our soul. It was frightening.
If a man or woman has something redone it is because he or she can no longer live with that part of their body, it is no longer bearable. Either they get help and find the strength to fight or they proceed with the act.
I just decided that I would not put my professional life on hold to raise children. I know that sounds selfish to a lot of people and I don't know if what I'm doing is the right thing. But that's the way I'm doing it.
We've all had that fear, that despair of losing someone, or this fierce desire because it's not reciprocated. The less reciprocation there is, the more desire we have.
I have no TV, thank God. I haven't heard anything about Tom Cruise, except that he had a baby, I think.
I started acting without any vocation. I continued out of love.
You may think of me as an object of desire and I'm going to tell you that I can be in front of you naked and not be erotic.
I give everything I have to give on the screen. I feel I don't owe the public anything else.
Once I opened my eyes to the realities of life, I couldn't close them.
When you are happy and in love and when you have children, then maybe you are beautiful.
I have never had so much fun as in Montreal. I taught the kids French, I baby-sat, I went to school, I was a receptionist at a hairdresser's, I danced and drank all night. I found that the more you do, the more you have time to do... it's weird, non?
I stay in France. Better to be the queen of a village than a servant in a kingdom.
I had my mouth done when I was 27. It was a botched job. Obviously, if I had liked my mouth I wouldn't have had it re-done.
My parents sent me to Montreal because I kept getting kicked out of school in France.
If I have one thing perfect, it's my eyebrows. And my feet. I love my feet. They're like Japanese feet. The rest I would like to hide. Especially my freckles. I feel ridiculous.
In Hollywood there's no real material. They would send me stuff, but I hadn't even seen the director. If I don't see the director's eyes, I'm not going. I'm not even going to pack my bags.
I can't just react on the strength of an email and three pages of synopsis, and say I'm going to take off for three months of my life.
I don't give a damn about Hollywood.
It is not easy to grow old in this business, when you are a woman above all, in the cinema.
It is not easy to age in harmony with one's roles.
I am an actress, I earn money, I am well-known. I don't think it is altruism to become engaged in humanitarian work. It's the least one can do.
Often, when you see yourself on the screen, you feel like a sweater that's been put through the washing machine. You have the impression of having done something full and luminous, and suddenly, when you see it on the screen, it's turned back into a tiny little thing.
There are moments when you feel that the desire to work is fading, and the only way to bring it back is to get away from it, to put yourself in a state of frustration so you feel the need again.
Very often with an American movie, the end is very happy and you just feel good when you go out. When you go to a French movie, it's kind of like, oh!, and you can't go out; you're stuck in your chair. It goes so deeply inside of the heart.
I was a very bad student. I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I knew I didn't want to go farther in school. I hated school and was always the bad one; I was always insulting the teachers.
There are a lot of films where I play characters that are about the windows to the interior person rather than the exterior.
For me, I don't feel it is a success in the career to be the pretty woman; career success comes from being characters who tell us something about the truth.
I dream about singing. I would love to sing and write.
I played football when I was little. I didn't want to be an actress at all, I wanted to be a majorette in an Australian circus. That was my ambition.
I'm less desperate now to express what's inside me, that's true - I act these days because it keeps me awake and interested, an eternal student.
I don't see my old films, but I think of the characters I played as friends, like the women I meet in my life who made strong impressions on me. I remember them and they are part of me.
I am a voyager - and the voyage cannot mean that I stay at home.
My looks mean nothing to me. If anything, they are a hindrance.
