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Edmund Lee

48 HOURS: You occasionally give the impression of being a difficult interviewee. Is that fair?
ISABELLE HUPPERT: I don't think people think I'm difficult to interview. I don't know where you have read that.
I guess that may be partly due to the difficult characters you play
Yeah, it could be. They can give the wrong impression. That goes away after 10 seconds.
Do you have a particular interest in playing these chilling, intimidating characters?
Well, I guess so, otherwise I wouldn't take them. You know, I'm more interested in working with certain people, and these directors seem to be happy to deal with these characters and subjects. But I'm very versatile. I'm happy to do lighter movies; it just needs to make sense for me. I don't want to be in stupid movies; I just want to be in good movies. It's sometimes difficult to find comedies with substance and that lead you somewhere.
I was surprised to learn you turned down the chance to star in Michael Haneke's psychological thriller Funny Games (1997)
Yeah, I keep saying that we started by not doing a movie together.
This would seem odd to most people, considering that you've always been so brave with your choices of characters
Yes, but for once in my life I was probably not brave enough. I thought the movie was so harsh when I read the story — and even when I watched it. There was no space for fiction; it was so real. The German actress who did it, Susanne Lothar, was extraordinary. The fiction I thought was missing in the film — I mean, nothing was missing for the film, only for me, because that's what the movie is about — it's representing this horrible, horrendous reality. And when I read [Haneke's]  The Piano Teacher, I found all the possible imaginary space I required.
Are there occasions where you've approached directors with stories you wanted to turn into movies and actually convinced them?
Hmm, no. Actually, I don't think it's ever happened among the many, many people I've worked with.
Perhaps it's because most of the directors you collaborate with are auteurs who like to develop their own material
Yeah, exactly. But sometimes, you know, you have great auteurs. For instance, Stanley Kubrick, who was probably one of the greatest directors ever: I don't think he ever worked on original screenplays, which is something I heard about. He always wanted to adapt books or previously written stories. Stephen Frears is like that, too. He would never work on original material.
What do you usually look for in a script?
A script for me is just a tool. For more commercial movies, yes it is important, but if you work with great auteurs [they are less important]. For example, I worked with Hong Sang-soo, the Korean director, and he doesn't have scripts. I guess people like Wong Kar-wai don't have scripts either.
Your collaboration with Hong on In Another Country (2012) is interesting. You had such a playful role in that film
I loved doing that film. It was very, very funny. He really wrote it for me — I mean, as much as he 'wrote' it. He really imagined the story for me, and it was great.
Do you think you would challenge yourself on some commercial Hollywood film, to go against the expectations of others?
It doesn't work that way. You don't decide, '  OK, I'm going to do a commercial movie in Hollywood'. Life is a bit more subtle than that, hopefully.
So, you've done around 100 films to date ?
Don't believe the internet, there are so many films on there that I have never done. Not 100, I promise you. Maybe 60.
 


The Inquisition: Isabelle Huppert, actress

Magazines

48 Hours

The art house favourite talks about acting without scripts and why we shouldn’t believe everything we read online


The art house favourite talks about acting without scripts and why we shouldn’t believe everything we read online.


The Inquisition: Isabelle Huppert, actress

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The art house favourite talks about acting without scripts and why we shouldn’t believe everything we read online

The art house favourite talks about acting without scripts and why we shouldn’t believe everything we read online