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July 9, 2008

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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

(Page 3)

MM: You wore so many hats on this film. Were you happy to have a hand in every aspect?

JD: For me, it wasn’t hard to edit, compose the music, direct, act or deal with some producing part of the film. What was really hard was to be the assistant editor, dealing with the nightmare of redoing the voiceover and going to get a dub tape just because I couldn’t find an assistant who would work for me. That kind of thing sucks on a small-budget movie.

MM: You’ve said that this movie taught you more about yourself than anything you’ve ever done before. How so?

JD: It’s kind of a joke. I did it so fast—writing it then going straight into pre-production then shooting, editing straight away and then finishing the film.

Looking at the film, there is a side of me that wishes I was this lighthearted person who is flirtatious with everyone. I have this fantasy of being this woman that I am not. (laughs) I constantly talk about men and castration and the men that you see naked in the film have helium balloons tied to their penises. I’m trying to analyze what it means to my idea of men. Maybe I feel sorry for men because some of them feel a little bit castrated; there must be some kind of hidden meaning about men with helium balloons around their penises. Maybe they need that to keep it up or something, I don’t know. (laughs)

MM: You and Adam have a very believable chemistry in the film. Was that difficult to create, considering he didn’t show up on set until the day before?

JD: I’ve known Adam for 15 years, so I knew he was going to be on this other film that he was shooting. But then he got stuck and we almost had to recast.

Julie Delpy with Adam Goldberg
I was really worried that he was trying to find a way to get out of this, but he did a great job. He has such a great comic ability. The more depressed he looked, the funnier he looked. He’s the kind of actor who’s good on the first take, which is so nice when you don’t have money—and I knew that. For everyone around him, I cast people who didn’t necessarily have this natural comedic timing, because if everyone has comedic timing, it can be like a sitcom.

MM: A lot of reviews have compared the film to some of Woody Allen’s movies.

JD: That’s very nice, because I love Woody Allen. I never thought about that when I was making the film. I didn’t think about anything when I was making the film—I was just making it. (laughs) For preparation I just didn’t want to watch comedy. I watched Jaws like six times. Then, the more I watched it, the more I was like, ‘In a way Jaws is like my film.’ I mean, Jaws is much better than my film. What I’m saying is that it’s the same kind of thinking behind it, but French men happen to be the shark. If you look at the way I build the film, it’s a little bit the same kind of construction. I know it sounds crazy…. I’m pretty crazy.

2 Days in Paris was released theatrically by Samuel Goldwyn Films in August 2007. It will be released on DVD by 20th Century Fox on February 5, 2008. 


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MovieMaker Magazine

Magazine cover: Summer 2007This 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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It’s Official—Pre-production Begins

“I never ask people for permission to make a film. Instead, I present them with the fact that I’m making a film. If they’re wise, they’ll get in on it early.”
—Francis Ford Coppola


Last week our unit production manager for Rufus Rex officially started work and I paid UPS an astounding amount of money to deliver a letter to the Republic of Georgia officially inviting our lead actress to the United States. We’re also officially in pre-production on the grassroots (my preferred term, since I dislike “microbudget”—no art should be defined by its budget) movie Rufus Rex, which my 15-year-old son, Nick, and I wrote together last winter.

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