Juliette Binoche: “7 keys to my serenity”

Express your talent

For her, the need to do art has always been obvious. Her talents seem inexhaustible: a world famous actress, an artist (she is preparing her exhibition), next autumn Juliette is preparing to dance in London, in a play by choreographer Akram Khan…

“As a child, I felt lost in the harsh world of school grades, endless do’s and don’ts. In addition, due to constant traveling and parting in my family, I could not learn to read at the same time as my peers. My salvation was the school yard – there I was happy, I felt alive, I could give free rein to my imagination and invent all sorts of other lives for myself. (Laughs) And friends. The game has been my lifeline. At the age of 17, I staged Eugene Ionesco’s play The King Dies at the school theater – and when the performance ended, I felt with absolute clarity: this is mine. Although I did not yet know whether I would act, stage performances or paint scenery, the theater for me meant living in a family, all together. I realized my deep desire: to share with others what I have inside, through art.

I grew up in an acting family that was constantly at war with material problems, but always lived with this thirst for art. Today, having worked as an actress for so many years, I want to discover and give myself to something new. This desire to dance surprises even me. Everything turned out very simply: about two years ago, during a regular massage session, my masseuse asked: “Do you want to dance?” I answered: “Yes.” She answered so, without a second thought, she simply said how she felt. But it turned out that the masseuse is married to the famous English choreographer Akram Khan! Now, if then I began to argue: “Well, I don’t know how to dance” or “I have never done this in my life,” I would never have dared to take such a step.

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“Things speak to us if we can hear… Our hearing, our sensitivity open us to creativity. For me, the ability to listen is the ability to exist in silence. To realize yourself, your potential, you need not analyze and reason, but plunge into your desire, say “yes” to yourself, that unconditional “yes”, which shakes every cell of our being! Word and thought are able to create.

Be responsible for your choice

The film by Leo Carax “Lovers of the New Bridge” was filmed for two and a half years. Entirely immersed in filming, Juliette abandoned many other film projects at that time. Today, she still considers it especially important to listen to herself …

“Choosing a film is not that difficult, despite all the questions and dilemmas. The most difficult thing is to relate the different aspects of my life to each other, to find harmony between the roles of the actress, mother and lover. Here you become the director of your life, and each of your decisions entails important consequences. This is sometimes a dizzying number, a test of intuition, which you have to rush into with the hope that everything will be fine when you refuse a film or decide to star in it. The life of an actor passes in instability, in passion, in search. No year is like another. Sometimes you have to think hard about how to find at least some balance in all this in order to give children a sense of confidence, the strength of life – from an emotional and social point of view. Sometimes I feel like I’m moving through life on pointe shoes, looking for support in a dizzying chaos. To hold on, you need strength and you need to understand where the sky is, where the earth is, otherwise you will not stand!

I had periods of terrible allergies, and with it severe doubts, mental fatigue, loss of strength, when I generally wanted to quit everything and stop playing altogether. But then you make a choice – and in a moment everything becomes clear. Regret is just a form of sadness, but it has a very different effect. It is worth remembering that a choice is a choice and, once made, there is no going back. The same is true in love. If you said “yes” to another person, or to another yourself, or to your own “I”, there can be no more regrets.”

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“I can’t help but recall the words of the hero of the play Alfred de Musset “No joking with love”, who said to his beloved: “All men are deceivers, fickle, deceitful, talkative, hypocritical, arrogant or cowardly, sensual and deserving of contempt; all women are insidious, crafty, vain, curious and depraved; the world is a bottomless cesspool where the ugliest reptiles crawl and writhe in mountains of mud; but there is something sacred and lofty in the world – it is the union of two such beings, so imperfect and terrible! In love you are often deceived, you are often unhappy, but you love, and standing on the edge of the grave, you can turn around to look back and say: I have often suffered, I have been deceived more than once, but I loved. And I lived – I, and not an artificial creature created by my imagination and my boredom. De Musset took the last phrase from a letter written to him by George Sand.

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“We are reflected in our children, as in a mirror, but at the same time, none of us wants to repeat the mistakes of our own parents. Thanks to children, I understand our difference: they are not like me!”

Juliette is the mother of two children, Raphael, 14 (his father is professional diver André Alle), and Hannah, 8. With her father, actor Benoit Magimel, Juliette Binoche broke up. “When I was 11 years old, I was already imagining how someday I would have a son, before going to bed I talked to him, imagined what an ideal upbringing I would give him: no weapons, no shooting games, I will drive museums… Twenty years later it all looked a little different! (She laughs.)

I had a very early maternal instinct. There were a lot of dolls, but not Barbie. From my sister and cousins, I got broken dolls, I laid them out on the bed, played in the hospital, repaired them. And sometimes they became vagrants who had to be sheltered, fed and treated.

I confess that I admire how my children help me to truly become a mother. I grow up with them. Children are the best school of life. I think they taught me how to speak. In my youth, I was quite squeezed, I didn’t know how to express my feelings in words, especially if it happened to part.

listen to your body

For many years, Juliette has been using organic products and practicing Pilates. She is treated with homeopathic remedies, uses alternative medicine and left her native Paris for the opportunity to live in nature.

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“You need to pay special attention to listen to your body, because the mind is restless and the mind likes to wander.”

To tell the truth

She always strives to be accurate – both in life and in roles. Everyone who worked with her testifies: she gives everything to others without a trace, with great professional honesty.

“In order to build your personality, you need truthfulness. This is the main condition for coexistence with oneself. The truth is not an easy road that leads us forward on its own, but it cannot be bypassed. Lately, if I had to lie, it was only in response to the question of whether I had seen this or that film. I am both embarrassed and irritated by this, and I don’t want to demonstrate my ignorance at all … and I say that, of course, I watched. (Laughs) Actually, I don’t watch many films.

I try to encourage in my children the desire to tell the truth. A lot of things are allowed in our house: breaking glasses and plates, dirtying or losing things, but I am very vigilant in everything that concerns words. Lies are an internal brake, our fears and fears block us. But if we openly confront them, these fears make us grow, courage gives strength.

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“Giving truly means being able to completely forget yourself. Talent is contained in us, but it does not belong to us, it is not ourselves, this should not be confused. It’s like success. If you say to yourself: “This golden god is me,” you have not understood anything. It seems to me that talent “plays” an actor much more than he plays himself.

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“The alchemy of human relationships only kicks in when there are others around. But if you don’t put your heart into them, a relationship is impossible.”

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“The angel is none other than the benevolent “you yourself”, which helps to cope with reality, with its trials. Never forget to thank your angel.”