by Deonna Boman | Photos by Laura Ann
You’ve seen her act, paint, release a record, design clothes, and co-write an Oscar-nominated screenplay. Now, get a load of this.
2 Days In Paris is a funny, lively, smart little number with the city of Paris itself co-starring alongside Julie Delpy and Adam Goldberg, who revamp Diane Keaton and Woody Allen to a T, but with a twist. We’ve got the lady at the helm this time, calling every possible shot. She wrote it herself, with an emerging style that’s a rat-a-tat, dialogue-driven romp. After directing, editing, composing, and starring in this film you’d think she’d be dog-tired and ready for a mojito. To this she says, “Doing a film is like laying an egg. It’s coming from you but it’s out of you. I feel like a chicken that’s ready to lay a lot of eggs.”
Julie Delpy wrote her first script at 16 and knew she wanted to direct movies. Hailing from a family of film and theater actors, she was handed a pen, paper or paintbrush as a child instead of the latest Fisher Price. Tapped by Jean-Luc Godard at 14 to star in Detective (1985), she went on to soak up a bit of directorly know-how on the sets of Kieslowski, Linklater and others, disguised as an actor. Cut to a stint at NYU and a pit stop at Columbia to sharpen the tools. Throw in an unsupportive agent who suggested she chuck her pen before dumping her, a clutch of potential financiers checking out her ass instead of her work, and a 750 Sony HD camera and you’ve got a had-it-up-to-here, fire-spitting dragoness of a filmmaker who tried to wing it bare-bones on her own for twenty thousand bucks.
Delpy breezes into the room wearing a cute sundress, carrying several bags very likely stuffed with new cute sundresses. The waiter brings her water. It’s Paris, we can smoke, and we’re off.
After an Oscar nomination for co-writing Before Sunset, Delpy was hoping for the leverage to fund a script she wrote herself that she could direct and have creative control over. She was getting the calls, just not the right ones. “Right after my film people contacted me, they were looking for a female director. What do you mean you’re looking for a female director, are you doing a film on breastfeeding? What does that mean, a ‘woman director’? It’s ridiculous. Bring me a war movie, don’t bring me some cheese-ball whatever. That makes no sense. You’re telling me that I can’t identify with a soldier more than a guy whose never been to war? Anyway, I told them thank you. If you’re looking for a female director I’m not a female.”
It’s this kind of pluck that gets your movie made in a business that still favors men. “It’s not easy for women. I wrote my first screenplay when I was 16, I directed my first film when I was 36. For 20 years I tried to make movies. I went to film school where I got A’s. I thought people would at least trust a grade. It took me a long time and in a way I had to write a screenplay for another director to get some kind of leverage, and it was nominated for an Oscar. Even then I still couldn’t get anything off the ground. I came to Paris to do a tiny movie with my own money for $20,000. I called Adam Goldberg and he’s like, ‘okay I’ll do it.’ Then I met this producer who said let’s try and get real money and make a real film. I was so fed up with people not trusting me.”
After clawing oneself into position you kind of hope some part of the process is going to be easy.
“It was very stressful. We had only 20 days to shoot, very littlemoney and a very tight schedule. I like to keep on schedule, I want to make my film like I want, but at the same time I respect budget. It was hard to find that money and I don’t want to ruin the producer, who is not rich. The road wasn’t smooth for this film, I can tell you that. Adam was stuck on another film and that almost made the film collapse. We pushed one week. He showed up 12 hours before the shoot. Someone who worked on the film was so worried about him not showing up that he had a heart attack 24 hours before the shoot so we went into a major crisis. I mean I can handle anything but someone almost dying is a little much. Then Adam showed up 12 hours before, however we weren’t sure he was at the airport when my projection guy went to pick him up. In a way I was fine during the shoot but it drained me. I was exhausted at the beginning, running to the hospital every day to check on that person. So that was very, very hard. I was running to the phone to find out if this person was going to live or die. But outside of that, it was great.”
Everyone in Paris is making out on the streets, it’s unnerving. Sex is alive and well in the film, as well. Oh, wait! Am I being an uptight American?! “No matter how liberal Americans are they’re still uptight. I’m so sorry to say that. It’s interesting because I have American girlfriends who are not uptight at all, but they’ll have something that they’re hung up on. Even the most liberated women who have had tons of lovers, way more than me, they still have something that’s taboo. I’m not saying it’s bad, in fact it has a good side. A little bit of Puritanism is not so bad, but France is the extreme opposite. I think what happened with Clinton and the Monica Lewinsky affair – that would have never happened in France. Every French president has had lovers. The new one just had a baby with a journalist. Half the people knew about it, but no one’s talking about it. What’s the big deal? To us it’s a joke.”
France is much more sexy than the United States. “Something I hate in France is that it’s okay for a 70-year-old man to date a 14-year-old girl. Even though it’s illegal, it’s still accepted in the movie business and it’s really creepy. I’ve always been kind of against that, that’s kind of the reason that I left this city. When I started off I was like “I’m 16, what do you want from me?” I’ve only been attracted to men my age or younger. I’ve never been into that Pygmalion older-director fantasy.”
Uh-oh, now the tables have turned! “I’m not angry at men at all. I love men, but I love men sometimes the way men love women – the way they like to look at them. I think they’re beautiful creatures – I objectify them a little bit, like to make them pretty.”
It must be an amazing feeling, having a battalion of people whose sole purpose at that moment is to bring your vision to life. “The crew was amazing. Even French crew went overtime. You don’t know what that means for French crew – it’s like science fiction! They would work like three extra hours a day which is unheard of. They would shorten their meals, unheard of. People worked really hard, it was amazing. I had my crew 100% behind me at all times, which was great. They were not in it for money, there was no money. It’s a great feeling, and you’re the captain, I love it. It’s the best feeling, I love being the captain!”
There are projects in the pipeline. What’s next? “It’s about the Countess of Hungary. In Europe it’s quite a famous story about this woman bathing in blood. She inspired Bram Stoker’s ‘Count Dracula.’ She was all about eternal youth and beauty and eternal love, all these themes are in the folklore, the bad witch from Snow White. She inspired all these characters and I wanted to tell the real story. There’s a myth that says she killed young girls and bathed in their blood, but the more historical story was that she was so powerful that men had to get rid of her somehow. The men in power at the time find a way to accuse her of murders and witchcraft. I tell the myth and the conspiracy, in parallel, mixed in a fantasy. I’m shooting in the fall.”
The Countess was not a nice lady. “The film is very dark. She’s crazy, very violent. A psychopath. She has no empathy for anyone. I can’t explain how I understand her, but I understand her. It’s weird, my approach to her, well we’ll see what I do with it. I have felt that feeling of being detached from every emotion whatsoever. I think we all have everything in us.”
More to come. “After that there’s a comedy on war I co-wrote with a friend of mine. I really want to do it in 2008. It’s funny, political with a slapstick element. A little closer to ‘Monty Python.’ I can’t imagine doing it. [Laughs] I can’t talk about it. I don’t have a perfect body. I’m not, you know, a super hot body kind of girl, but I have no shame. And I think for comedy you have to have no shame. You can’t be ashamed of showing your tummy, you have to play with it.”
You sound very busy. It’s making me want to curl up and take a nap. “I’d rather have too much to do than be the actress waiting by the phone for a call from her agent.”
How do you figure out how you’re going to write something? “I like to write in character. I kind of put my shoes in the character and write as that person. Method writing. It makes it easier in a way to write.”
How do you feel about your movie? “I’m happy with the film. It’s a small movie, it’s not a masterpiece, it’s not trying to be one. It’s a little comedy, funny and entertaining. I wanted to achieve a small little fun film to watch and I’ve reached my goal. And maybe a little above, a little more than I expected, in a way.”
Doing the projects you want to may come easier now. “I can’t imagine what it’s like. For 20 years all I’ve been doing is struggling so hard. To me I can’t imagine that anything’s going to be easy.”
Your favorite word for penis? “Bite. It’s dirty.” (pronounced m-beet)
