Juliette Binoche: “I always give my all”

When a meeting with a star is scheduled, you involuntarily expect that … the star will appear. Especially since I’m waiting for her in the bar of a luxury hotel, which, according to rumors, she always prefers for meetings. And here comes Juliette Binoche. Ahead of time. Calmly and imperceptibly. So much so that later it will even be difficult for me to say what she was wearing that day. Direct, open handshake. Friendly smile, face without makeup. I was waiting for a world-class celebrity – Oscars, Cannes and so on – but in fact …

So who is really in front of me? The interview with Juliette Binoche is a conversation of a strange genre. Who is the interlocutor – an actress or a Tao master? She listens to my question with the absolute attention and equanimity of a Buddha. Then he looks up somewhere. He takes a deep breath. Waiting. And the answer, it seems, descends on her from heaven – mysterious, not to say – incomprehensible. Very poetic – but it’s not on purpose. Juliette Binoche does not seek to build a phrase, she is looking not for prettiness, but for the truth of her feelings. But is it easy to put into words what you feel? Especially if at the same time you try to pronounce the word “I” as rarely as possible, talk about yourself, but not in the first person – as celebrities can do. She’s trained in this game. And she can afford it, because everything is true in her – every now and then breaking through laughter, her obsession with art, her spiritual quest … She does not speak and does not play – she embodies. Without hesitation and without looking back. I was preparing to meet a star, and I discovered a woman marked by a slight spark of visionary and full of powerful radiance.

Psychologies: “Being an actress means showing what is usually not shown.” These are your words, and we can say that you illustrated them in Malgorzata Szumowska’s film Revelations. I’m talking about that episode in which you masturbate and the camera lingers on your face for a long time. I won’t ask you if you really did it…

Juliette Binoche (laughs): Whether it’s true or not, that’s the whole point!

How far are you willing to go on screen? Do you have limits?

J.B.: Yes, of course there is. But this is the courage of the actor – to convey to the viewer the most intimate. The actor must be ready to show the unbearable, to go beyond the generally accepted, beyond the reasonable. Making a movie is not stringing episodes one after another like stamped beads, but each time finding a pearl – a new form. I remain an actress in order to dive into the depths of a human being, into his soul, body, dark or insane feelings … Whoever is not ready to experience the extreme is not ready to touch the human in himself. To answer your question: as an actress, I never had sex “for real”, but I always gave my all, completely. This is how I perceive my art – I want to elevate it as much as possible when possible. For me, creativity has to do with birth and death. In order for something new to emerge, one must be prepared to lose.

Is it that easy for you?

J.B.: I don’t even ask that question. It is neither easy nor difficult. It’s just that when a certain scene, a certain state, approaches, the necessary means also arise – at the moment when you enter into action. But before that, a state of emptiness and readiness to hear is necessary – in this state, the stage finally finds you. In the same way that you do it. You do not need to know in advance – this allows you to play a scene when there is a dialogue inside. At the beginning I had only the image of a child that is born and death that comes through desire. In the end, this is not about me – the scene will take on flesh thanks to the humility of the actor and his willingness to give himself: I become the soil so that the seed can germinate!

But how do you maintain such humility when others praise you like a star?

J.B.: This is the whole contradiction of our craft. We must be able to maintain clarity of spirit, defining our priorities. Being an actor is a privilege that has its own requirements. There is more work here than you might think. You can look at the star as a guide, in this sense it can help. People do not worship us, but what we pass through ourselves, sometimes against our will. And it would be a mistake to take this worship personally. In art, it is not we who are important, but something greater than ourselves.

Understand. But still, it is impossible to get out of such “self-forgetfulness” in front of the camera exactly the same as before, without loss …

J.B.: I never aspired to remain the same as I was! Losing is also gaining. If the connection with what we have inside remains, the outside world is no longer scary. What seems to us to be lost outside, we make up for in a different way – but this acquisition is invisible to the eye. By the way, if we talk about this scene in Revelations, then in fact Malgo (Malgorzata Szumowska, film director. – Approx. ed.) has collected for me a whole selection of videos with the faces of masturbating girls.

A lovely gift for long winter evenings…

J. B. (laughs): It’s like a painting come to life – literally mesmerizing! Some touch themselves as if they were in front of a mirror until the moment of liberation comes and pleasure takes over them; others pretend from beginning to end; there are those for whom it is completely natural, there is no constraint – they completely accept their desire. Malgo and I discussed it as if it were a piece of fine art. And then, during the filming, I asked her to give me direction, to tell me what kind of facial expression she wants to see at each stage. I needed this kind of technical approach.

The family life of your heroine is all “formatted”, crushed by habits – work, husband, two children …

J.B.: This couple is in a coma. The passion that burned at first is no more. I must say, this heat can die out pretty soon … It’s amazing: at first a person is madly in love, obsessed with another person, and two years later, you can leave and not feel that something is missing …

Is your mother a Christian?

J.B.: No, I was raised by parents who were communists and anticlericals, but at the same time had a sense of the spiritual, which they experienced through art.

Are you a person who is very committed to the family?

J.B.: Yes very. My husband recently remarked to me: “I didn’t know that you were so close to your family!” (Laughs) I often see them, especially my sister. We are very different in character, but we feel the same, we have the same voice, handwriting, the same laughter …

And where does the courage in you come from, which encourages you to join all kinds of art?

J.B.: I like to take risks. I’m actually quite down to earth, I like everything to be organized. I am not one of those who will go to the mountains without being properly prepared. But I am in love with life, I obey the impulse, not thinking about what will happen after. One must belong to the impossible. We need to give the initial impetus to the movement. We just talked about desire – maybe that’s what it is? Enthusiasm, passion – it all gives energy to start the movement. And only then can you let life do what it should.

Yes, in order to be able to let go of something, you must first take something into your own hands …

J.B.: That’s right: the first step is taken by man. And this first step requires recklessness. It needs to be scary.

How do you feel about our era? You seem to me rather an observer, somewhere away from the epicenter of events …

J.B.: I try to stay a little aloof. We are overloaded with information, we live as if under a cap, from under which the sky is no longer visible. But in essence, we are creators – and in order to give birth to a new image, I consider it important not to let ourselves be overwhelmed by the flow of current events. These are just impressions and mental constructions, but because of them we lose our true connection with life.

Do you still live outside the city?

J.B.: No, I returned to Paris because my children have grown up and they need to live here. I have always moved depending on their needs, this does not bother me.

But now you see the sky less…

J.B.: Yes, it’s true… But you can only see it if you look up!

¹ Directed by L. Karaks, 1991.

² Directed by M. Haneke, 2005.