Interview: Juliette Binoche

We spoke to Juliette Binoche about her role in spy thriller 'A Few Days in September', her new found love for improvised acting and why she can't stand guns

How you first come in contact with the director of ‘A Few Days…’, Santiago Amegorena?
I got a ring from my agent saying there’s this interesting writer who wants to direct his first film. He said he’d like to meet before he gives me the script…so we met and he gave me the script and I liked him because he had a way of listening that I found interesting. There is a sound of silence inside him that is very special. I went to the theatre that night, then the next day I read it and that night I phoned him and said I wanted to make the movie, so it was very fast process.

The narrative of the film revolves around the 9/11 attacks. As an actor, what questions do you ask before you accept a role about an issue like that?
I didn’t ask any questions. When I read the script I could see and feel the writer. It’s a role I’ve never played before; the secret agent. I refused the type of secret agent films that you find in Hollywood because I found the female characters were objectified. In ‘A Few Days…’, the character I play is more interested in cleaning her revolver than cooking. You know, it’s a funny, funny, funny film and at the same time the subject is a real and weighty So no, I had no questions to start with. It was just a big 'Yes'. Although, I read some books about secret agents and did some work on the script because I wanted to know what was underneath it all. I was planning to go over to Iran and I was able to meet with an Iranian ambassador in Paris and I asked him some questions about Iran during the war and the involvement of France and America. He was pretty open about it all.

In the film, as you said before, your character has the kind of dual personality. On the one side there’s the hardened secret agent, on other side there’s the mother and you often play maternal, motherly roles.
I did think of the mother. I thought that this woman, and secret agents in general, become secret agents because there’s something burnt inside, because there’s something that has been shadowed by the past. The job, I think, for my character in the story is to regain her humanity by returning a daughter to her father. It’s like bringing a little bit of love into her life. So more than the motherhood, it was more about regaining dignity.

Considering your past roles, it's almost a bit weird to see you with a gun.
There are so many guns in films, I often try to comprehend why that is. I think it tells us about the extreme changes we’re going through. They’re ultimately a symbolic object for questions about life. What does it mean to kill? How does it feel? I never get really involved with guns and the last time I did was in ‘Les Amants du Pont-Neuf’ and I remember I really hurt my inner ear. We were in a closed room and they asked me to put earplugs and I didn’t want to because I had a scene to play and I didn’t think I could do it while not being able to hear anything I’m saying.

That’s kind of ironic seeing that your character was going blind.
Yes, but then I had a real problem because I had this big sound in my ear that I couldn’t stop so I had to go to all these ear trauma specialists. It’s amazing when you see it in films you don’t know how much noise it makes.

You’ve recently worked with Hou Hsiao-Hsien (in ‘The Flight of the Red Balloon’) and you’re scheduled to make a film with Abbas Kiarostami as well. I wondered what provoked this move into working with Asian and Middle Eastern directors?
With ‘Flight of the Red Balloon’, I felt very lucky that Hou Hsieo-Hsien came to France. It was a project that was offered to him by the Museum of Orsay and it was lucky that he was willing to do something outside his country. I was especially honoured as he doesn’t usually chose actors to work with as he prefers improvisation. It was kind of wild to work with him. Each take is completely free, lines are free, you have no script given and you. It’s the same for the DoP, so you plunge into the scene not knowing exactly what is going to happen, you just know that you have to give some facts to enable to audience to follow the story. So the experience was just great because there was so much trust from him and I discovered the real creator inside me; you become your own writer and director and editor.

Do you know how Kiarostami works?
I don’t know how he works really, not yet. Recently, though, he told me that sometimes he sets everything up and then he leaves the room when we shoot so the actors don’t feel the pressure of the director. I think it’s smart, he’s very intelligent. It’s very different from someone like Haneke who is so picky with every little thing. It’ll be a good change.

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