Celebrity Catherine Deneuve

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Catherine Deneuve

Birthday:

22 October 1943

Birth Name:

Catherine Fabienne Dorléac

Height:

168 cm

Biography

Follow your instinct. That's my message.

I don't have a greatest achievement. It's something said by other people or journalists when they give you an award, or after some time you've been in the industry. [Jakarta Globe interview, April 2017]

[to Russian news agency TASS, November 2016] I would like to live here for several months and act in a film, as being a tourist one can discover practically nothing about the country, but when one works here, he or she learns a lot. In fact, everything depends not so much on the producer as on the story itself. I am French, I don't speak Russian, that is why a story must be found where I could play a role being a foreigner. This should be the script that would intrinsically fit within my character. As for producers, I like very much films of Andrey Zvyagintsev, but it he doesn't have a suitable scenario, nothing is going to work out.

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Men don't understand that there are things that can only be shared with a woman. Disappointment shuts off my life flow. It is a physical thing. I feel it in my body. I can hurt people badly when I'm down, like a wounded animal. So I must be alone. Oh, not completely alone, that would be too frightening, but with a woman friend who will sit there in the silen...

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My relationships have never really lasted very long. I suppose there is something within me that is not right for that way of life.

I've had one motto which I've always lived by: dignity, always dignity.

[The Sunday Times, February 2006] You know, a doctor said something nice to me the other day, that the reason French people are the biggest consumers of sleeping pills and antidepressants is not because they give out more, but because the sensibility is different here. Maybe we don't try to fool ourselves. The problem with Prozac is that it has become a cari...

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We are not prepared for death. I was raised a Catholic but they cheat you. They tell you morbid preachments about death but nothing that you can deal with when it happens. Other religions do it better; the Chinese, the Indians. All that dear departed stuff, the heavy scene in church on the day of interment. My sister was a beautiful woman, my closest friend, my true love. Instead of sex education in the schools, they should give a course in death education. In living you find out about sex - but dying, how do you find out about that?

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I am an actress, so I must live in a mirror... a goldfish bowl. Sometimes I run away to be completely by myself like a hermit. Other times, I read about my every move and date in the papers. It is one extreme or the other; this is not an ordinary life. Then there is my beauty, which is often a nuisance. So many men cannot treat me like an ordinary person. So often they act drunk; they hold too many doors and won't let me do anything for myself or they help me with packages when I don't want help. I also have to become suspicious whenever a man expresses any kind of interest in me. Usually he wants me for something... if not sex or a date, then an interview or a favor or a job or to introduce him to someone. Or to be seen with me. I receive letters from famous or rich men who say they will make a deal with me if I go out with them, to help them get publicity for their own purposes. I never agree to this. My professional life is commercial, and the commercial intrudes into my private life, but I will not willingly make my personal life commercial, too. I believe in the sincerity of the emotions. After all, what else if left if we take them away or put a price on them?

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For a woman, I'm quite masculine, you know, in the relations I have toward people, men. All of them, I don't make much difference. And I think it's the way I'm quite straightforward, you know, and he can love me as a man. I understood what he meant, you know, because he has a very feminine quality and I have a masculine quality. I don't try to charm, I have ...

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Now that people know nothing about my private life, they start guessing: is there still a man in her life and who is he then? When they see me two or three times with a female friend they say: we've always known that. Well, they can enjoy it to their heart's content, when they see me in 8 femmes (2002) with Fanny Ardant!

The relationship I had with Susan Sarandon was very good, and I think something came out of it onto the screen. You can tell. There was something very natural between us. She is a very warm lady. It was a very long shoot, and neither of us was in our own countries, so we spent a lot of time together. Afterward, we saw each other and wrote to each other. We have a bond. I have a picture of her children in my home. She is always in my mind and heart. Also I think the scene we did was very sophisticated and good-looking. I think it was a very idealistic image of women together, a very good thing to have on film for homosexuality.

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There are many female columnists and women in general who hate me through jealousy. It is strange, because if they knew my looks make me no happier than anyone else, perhaps we could be friends.

Le dernier métro (1980) is the top of everything in my career. Not only is it a performance I am proud of but it is the best film I have been in. I am very proud to be in that film. [interview with The Christian Science Monitor, 3/26/81]

[The Advocate, July 1995] I cannot imagine having a physical relationship with a woman. I have not done that. But I really love women. I have a very strong relationship with a woman that I have known for a long time. I knew her for some time before I knew that she was a lesbian, but that never changed anything about my relationship with her.

[Life Magazine, January 1969] I don't feel young anymore. So much happened to me between the ages of 17 and 22. I'm 25. It bears something definite about it. A quarter of a century. What frightens me is to find myself, all of a sudden, with life leaking through my fingers. I used to go out a lot. I used to love the night, to dance and see lots of people. Now I can no longer do it. I'm afraid of the night. I have such anguishes, such moments of distress when the day turns into night, and deep at night, also. What I love best is my house; it's where I feel most protected. I love having a few friends for dinner and cooking a special dinner for them. I can no longer be with strangers. If I stay in a hotel, I always prefer a room to a suite to avoid having strangers around.

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In The Hunger (1983) it was apparently so astonishing that I played a vampire that only that aspect was commented, not that I seduced Susan Sarandon. Although, in America I heard that "The Hunger" is a cult movie now. I thought that was because of David Bowie, the incarnation of cult, but it was because of Susan and me. Well, I have to disappoint you all: our scene is shot with body doubles. On the premiere we saw shots we knew nothing of. Susan and I were used to doing nude shots, there was no reason to assume that we would refuse that scene if we were convinced of the need for it. It would have looked less rancid. Our face was not shown, there were no gentle gestures, it was just a clumsy fiddling of bodies with no sensuality.

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[on Brigitte Bardot] I saw extracts of her book: they were the most horrible things you can possibly read. Imagine writing that you wanted to get rid of your baby son, as she did. Not being a good mother is her problem, but making it public like that... It could have been a very human piece of writing, but in her case it was just harsh and inhuman. I know her a little and she's a strange human being. She's very childish. She loves animals, because loving animals is very easy, but emotionally, I think she has a big problem. She's like someone who never grew up. I don't consider myself to be a grown-up person but I'm more interested in people than in animals. And I think that if you are involved as much as she is with animals, then there is something strange about your dealings with the human race. She's like a sauce which has curdled. There is nothing you can do. There is no hope.

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Sometimes actresses have to worry about falling in love with bisexuals. It can be a problem, because some develop and attachment to a man who is more interested in men but wants to use her as... une barbe, how do you say, a beard... especially if the actress is popular. I am not at all prejudiced about anyone who is different, since I feel I myself am different, but one thing I do not want is to fall in love with a homosexual - or even a bisexual. This man, for me, must like women only. Otherwise, I am not comfortable in bed with him.

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I'm extremely shy. I could never empty my handbag in front of anyone. I find it so excruciating to play nude scenes. For Belle de jour (1967), in the most difficult scenes, to overcome my modesty I had to take a few strong drinks. One must always help oneself to reach where one must go. I got there I hope, but it was hell. I don't even run around naked in my own house very much. I don't think there are many actresses to whom nude, very explicit physical love scenes come easy. There's a simple reason for female reluctance. Clothes are like a new virginity, but, above all, not that many women are proud of their nude bodies.

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When it comes to falling in love, experience doesn't help you in any way.

I couldn't do justice to the image media gave to me, by the way. Sometimes it's frustrating that people face me prejudiced. Especially in the beginning I feel a distance. But once people become acquainted closer with me, they are relieved in general.

[on female directors] I hope there is a difference between men and women. You don't think of it when you work. A man is supposed to be stronger, to be more tough, than a woman, but in the case of Emmanuelle Bercot, it's not that at all.

I'm not interested in giving more of myself than I've done. I've no desire to be more public. I'm not interested in talking about the past, because if you are still working, doing things, you have to look forward. You have to look for things, read things. Of course in my private life, I do look at the past.

I am a contradiction. I am impetuous. I go for what I want. I cannot wait to test the waters, I throw myself in. That's how I became a mother. I wanted those two children from those two men. Marriage, fatherhood, all that was a secondary consideration. I was only seventeen when I was with Roger Vadim. I was so in love with him. He was the first man I had loved. I wanted a child from that love. I needed to have that child. Roger didn't want to marry me, not when I was pregnant. But it never even crossed my mind not to have that child. It was natural and beautiful and important to me to have that baby. Then, after he was born, Roger wanted to marry but I rejected him. It was too late. Something important had gone out of it.

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[differentiating her children's fathers] I raised my son, but we raised our daughter.

[on director Luis Buñuel]: Bunuel didn't like to talk too much. It would physically tire him. But we had a mute understanding.

I could never have been a model in the way actresses today are expected to be; I was never thin enough. I love a wonderful meal at the end the day and a good burgundy. I try to be careful but I am not American - I am not always worrying about calories and working out.

I like men who have a light spirit. It's okay to be serious about your work but in everyday life it's difficult to find men who are very alive and positive. In life I like people who are cheerful.

[on smoking] It's great. I'm not proud of it, but I'm not ashamed of it either. It's getting harder and harder in Europe. I light up from time to time, and that's when everyone flashes a camera at me. Those are the only shots anyone ever wants to use. So i'm described as an inveterate smoker.

I think the best decade of my life was between 40 and 50. Forty was the turning point for me as an actress.

I am a feminist through experience not choice. I was a feminist from a very early age because I am from a family of women, so it comes naturally to me. Over the years I have been involved with various causes for women.

[May 2012] My mother turned 100 this year. She lives alone in Paris; very independent but near to me, and she is quite incredible. She has a very good head; she still plays bridge, she still wins. Longevity may be in my genes but I don't know if I will live to be 100 because I have not had the same lifestyle as my mother - she never smoked. It may be differe...

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Why should I go to the States to do a film I wouldn't consider in Europe, just because it's English-speaking?

Hollywood was already changing when I went there in 1968. I love American directors. I would love to work for Francis Ford Coppola or Martin Scorsese. But they don't need European actresses.

I am shocked when people talk about me and sum me up as: blonde, cold, and solemn. People will cling on to whatever reinforces their own assumptions about a person.

I do prefer to start without any intention at all, rather than arrive with my own idea. I am incapable of deciding what a character is. At the same time, from the moment I have accepted the part and read the script, I know that things will circle in my mind. It won't happen all the time but nor will it ever stop entirely. But I am not obsessed, I don't have any trouble getting out of character, at night. I am always happy when filming and I am always happy to leave at night - it's true that there is always a kind of a nervous fatigue. Which I know is hidden away somewhere during the shoot. There are some things that fall into place without me doing anything. I know that now.

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I was supposed to make a film with [Alfred Hitchcock]. It was set up north too, just like the Torn Curtain (1966). It was going to be a spy story. At the time it was still only a synopsis. I had lunch with him in Paris and he died some months later. I would have loved to work with him.

[about Michael Mann] I watched Miami Vice (2006) again. I hadn't really liked it the first time round. But even so, it's a whole other way of filming, it's fascinating. There is a force, an incredible energy to it. His films are very long, but there are no gratuitous shots. When he decides to film the nape of an actor's neck, there is a real tension. It's th...

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I am incapable of working by myself without a director, without someone to coach me. But that doesn't tally at all with my idea of what a film character should be. I have to soak in what will happen on set, that day, the location, the light... I need to know what happens before in the story. To me, that is the most important thing: to relate to a character in relation to where we are in the film. Maybe it also has to do with the fact that I have never done any real character parts. Even with Tristana, which required a bit of character acting. But Luis Buñuel and I would talk off set, we had dinner together. The same is true of André Téchiné. We meet up but we always wind up talking about something else. And even though we have ended up talking about something unrelated, something useful has still come out of it. We have a conversation about something else but, at the same time, we are aware of what surrounds us, why we are here-the questions are very present in our head. But it is never straightforward. No, it is never straightforward.

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When we are filming, I can concentrate very quickly, but it does tire me out. It throws me into such a state! A trance-like state. So, what I need is either a trick for a calm type of trance or a sleepwalking trick.

My relationship to character is made up of mental things that you should not put words to. To do so would be immodest. The most decisive moment of my work around a character happens as we are shooting. That moment is so tense, so exhausting that once it is over, I need fire doors between the set and me. Back in my dressing room or in the hotel, I shut myself...

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[in 2008] I find cinema still very interesting. For me, to see a film, and to see a film and to be shown a story with actors that I like or actors that I don't know, it's always a discovery. I'm a great fan of films and I still go to see films in theaters. Even when I'm working, I try to see films. It's a desire, and it's something very important in my life....

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[on Jean-Louis Trintignant] I adore working with him. He's so generous, he doesn't play only for himself, but for his partner. He's also concerned with everyone on a set. That's why the technicians have great respect and tenderness for him.

[on Gene Kelly] It was mostly an aura about him. For me he was Hollywood. The way I'd imagined it as a child.

What I don't like is close-ups, unless the actor is in the camera with me. I have to feel his presence. If I have to feel the presence of the camera before my partner's, it's very difficult. I love to do very long and complicated scenes. I like to have this impression that we are all working together, where you can see all the technicians and everybody is really doing the same thing at the same time. With close-ups, of course you have the crew there, but most of them are just around and it doesn't involve that many people.

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Interviews are written by someone else - the journalist makes the decision to add or take things away and I couldn't recognize my voice, or anything of myself in that.

Interestingly, people who have come to visit me on set - which I don't like - they're very surprised and say that I'm not the person they know. I'm not available to them, I cannot go off with them, I cannot get involved in their conversations, so they get the impression that they're seeing someone else. I tell them, yes, I do love to see them after a shoot, but during the shoot, I am with the people I work with. They ask, how can I stand being on a set waiting for so long, and that it must be so boring. And I have to explain that to wait, for an actor, is not at all like someone who's waiting to see the doctor. It's not the kind of wait where you get bored. Even if I try to think about something else while I'm waiting, I am living with the film, with the scene. But I do often feel tired during the day, and I'm lucky because I can go to sleep very easily, for even 10 to 15 minutes, even if I'm in costume or under a wig, so I do.

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I'm not always the nicest person to meet, because I forget very easily that I'm an actress when I'm not working. I live very normally, I go out with my friends, we go to the movies, I queue, we go to restaurants. Then if something happens to remind me that I'm an actress then I become a little different and things become a little heavy. I like the advantages...

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I like to be directed, it's true. If I didn't like that, I'd do something else. Being an actor means being an instrument for someone else.

[on her looks] I know that if I didn't look the way I looked, I would never have started in films. That, I remember, and I know I have to accept it.

I find sometimes that it's more difficult to do very simple, low-key films, like I've done with André Téchiné. Sometimes, at the end of a shoot with him, I feel very down, like I'm leaving something because these are low-key but novel characters. But when you do films like Repulsion (1965) or musicals, where you have to play someone so far away from yourself, what I do is I come in the morning and get involved in the character, but I'm always very pleased to leave it at night and have my life. No, I don't live that much with the character. I find it hard enough having to spend so many hours with the character during the day. Because you don't act all the time and you spend a long time waiting, but you still have to support this character all day long.

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Directors have to push me because I never start [high] and then need to be pushed down; I have to be pushed up. Not all the time, but often.

But that's what I like about film - it can be bizarre, classic, normal, romantic. Cinema is to me the most versatile thing.

But being a film actor is very different from, say, a theater actor. You get involved with a character after spending a long time waiting, and this demands a lot of energy and concentration. So I am very involved with the character, but I have to leave it as soon as it's finished. And also, you always have to be at the right level when it's time to shoot, which is not always the best time for the actor. Sometimes, if you're shooting a complicated scene, you have to stay in a position and wait for the technician to do his job, and then you have to be where you're supposed to be, right on the spot. You don't rehearse all that much on films. If I think of the amount of time I spend on set compared with the time spent shooting, it's ridiculously short.

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A star remains pinned on a wall in the public imagination.

To work is a noble art.

I don't see any reason for marriage when there is divorce.

I'm lucky. I'm getting older with some directors who are getting older.

People who know me know I'm strong, but I'm vulnerable.