It’s also not a pleasant question to ask.
I can imagine.
You live in both Paris and Los Angeles. Is it one of these two cities where you feel most at home?
I think these are two very complementary cities and I am happy to live between the two. In Los Angeles, my life has very little to do with Hollywood. I live east of the city, obviously have a few friends in the film and TV world, but most have nothing to do with this universe and our reunions don’t feel like professional butt pinchers. Living in Los Angeles, I was finally able to avoid the ubiquity of Hollywood that had once defined the city for me. When I lived elsewhere, I lived in Beverly Hills as soon as I came to LA, and I went to professional meetings and evenings with people involved in the business. Now I’m more aware of everything the city has to offer, whether it’s the landscape, art, food or music. For Paris, apparently, it’s a dream. I’m incredibly lucky to live there, with a super exciting city life and great friends.
The film industry has seen a lot of changes since you started. What changes do you think are most significant?
What strikes me is the decline of cinema as a form of entertainment. It is now a special art. If you ask people my kids’ age who their favorite movie stars are, they only know a handful, while YouTubers or influencers, they can tell you hundreds.
How do you feel about it?
It’s something quite liberating, I think. When your art stops being folk art, you can really explore what interests you and that passion that drives the commercial side. And at the same time, we must ensure that it does not become an elitist art. This has happened with many other artistic disciplines. When we stop being collective art, we have to ask ourselves who we are doing it for. We are witnessing the democratization of creativity, the temple guards have been debunked, everyone can step out and do great things. When I was a kid, arthouse cinema wasn’t very accessible when you came from a small town. From now on, all you need is an internet connection to find all the latest movies in the world. They are two sides of the same coin.
At one point in the film, Elizabeth opens her inbox and finds an alert New York Times On AI and cooking recipes (surprisingly, she also has a journalist’s email Vanity Fair who address their questions to him, especially the random mise en abyme). As a director and actress, do you think AI is a threat?
absolutely. Finally, I don’t know if I would use the word threat, I just have the impression that it’s a new form that’s emerging, and it’s always interesting from an artistic point of view. Who knows where this could take us? But yes, there is a good chance that I will find myself unemployed soon.
I think about it every day.
I guess we’ll see what we do after it’s too late.
