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Julie Delpy's 2 Days in Paris
Richard Linklater's muse offers her own quirky take on cross-cultural romance with her directorial debut, 2 Days in Paris
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MM: But is it a breakup scene? It’s ambiguous.
JD: I want to leave it open. When people love each other, there are a lot of conflicts and a lot of anger and a lot of things that are unexpressed. Sometimes it comes to a point where you feel that you can’t be with this person anymore. But then if you think about it carefully, after a moment of silence you realize that you still love that person.
MM: In your work—both as an actor and writer-director—you gravitate toward projects that express an ambivalence about relationships.
JD: I’ve written many things that have nothing to do with that subject matter, but it’s true that the idea of whether it’s possible to be in a relationship is a question I ask myself all the time. I share my life with someone right now, [but] one of my favorite things is to be by myself, because I get to do my work and the things I like the best—writing and music and painting and doing all my little shit. But then it’s important to love someone and to be loved. Even though it’s not a major issue like life or death, it’s an issue that everyone is dealing with. I know people who are writing theses on the future of the world, but they still have to deal with their love lives.
MM: 2 Days in Paris is a romantic comedy, but the characters are constantly referring to war, cultural differences and other hot-button issues. Were you consciously trying to put them in a larger context?
JD: When you see romantic comedies, people don’t often talk about matters of what’s going on in the world, and I don’t think that’s realistic. Actually, how I got the movie financed was with that line: “After all, a blow job is a big deal. It is a blow job that brought down America’s last chance at a healthy democracy.” It’s a mix between a dirty joke and a true political fact.
MM: One of the most memorable scenes is your character’s argument with the racist cab driver.
JD: I had to fight for those scenes, because when people think ‘romantic comedy,’ they think ‘all romantic comedy.’ You don’t touch on subject matters like racism. To me that’s important because it’s funny, but it’s a little edgier than the usual romantic comedy. When I was editing the film or I showed people a cut, they were like, “Oh my God, it’s a very scary scene.” Especially the French—they were very nervous about that scene.
MM: It also highlights the differences between the two main characters.
JD: What I really love in the film is that he’s not perfect—he’s always complaining—but she’s far from perfect. I mean, she has a fucking temper. To me, it makes her likable when she stands up to that taxi driver. I’ve had experiences with taxi drivers like that when they say horrible, racist things and the reality of me, Julie Delpy, is that I don’t say anything. I’ve always dreamt of doing what my character does. There’s a true issue with racism in France and very few people talk about it—especially in a romantic comedy!
MM: Did your experience working with Richard Linklater affect your approach as a director?
JD: Originally, I wanted to make the film a bit more improvised, but then I realized as I was writing and preparing the film that I didn’t want that. I did it before on a little experimental film I made called Looking for Jimmy. It’s good and I like it and it’s interesting and it’s fun, but I just realized I wanted something written. I think that’s what I took from Richard—that it’s good to write it like it’s improvised… It has to feel effortless.
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This story was published in the Summer 2007 MovieMaker Magazine. The headline was:
Julie Delpy Goes a Little Bit Crazy in Paris
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