France 2

February 5, 2002

8 femmes (8 Women) Interview with Fanny Ardant and Catherine Deneuve

David Pujades (interviewer) : 8 stars. It is difficult to imagine the atmosphere during the filming and behind the scenes. Was there any competition between you?

CATHERINE: No, I mean, we didn’t consult each other before, but frankly, no. But it’s true that…that…we were asked about it many times at the beginning and I think everyone realized very quickly that it was not really the reality of the film because we were a group and I think that's true. There was an atmosphere of …

DP: Complicity ?

CATHERINE: Yes, frankly, yes. 

DP: Because of what the people say? The egos of the stars…

CATHERINE: First, we are not stars, we are actresses and then we are eight, you know, eight becomes a sum...it’s more, I mean, I don’t know, it was a little bit… it was completely different.

DP:  And you, Fanny Ardant, you were rather hesitant you say “I don’t like groups of women too much”. You said that in front of France Presse.

FANNY: Yes, and then I was mistaken, because it’s true. (Fanny and Catherine laugh)

CATHERINE: That’s what Fanny's like!

FANNY: Yes, because they presented it to me without men, so I said “The women between them” and then...

CATHERINE: It’s truth that it wasn’t very natural.

FANNY: But the cinema is very concrete, you have a scene plus another scene plus another, and the eight are transformed into one and a whole. It was a very good experience for me. It was like champagne.

DP: Is it, however, flattering to be in a film like this, where there is a feeling of belonging to…

CATHERINE: To what?

DP: I would say almost an elite, one were the chosen stars, the top billings, the actresses.

CATHERINE: We weren’t chosen because we were the stars, because of a word like that.

DP: Nevertheless!

CATHERINE: No, but also because François Ozon wanted to make a film with the characters and he knew his characters and he wanted to find the actresses who correspond to the characters. The distribution could be done one more time, maybe not right now, but next week we can imagine other actresses playing our parts, and there could be at least two or three possible distributions, I think for this film, it’s not at all…simply…it was someone very intelligent and very clever, I think he knew how to use what we had already done in the cinema before in other films...not to fight against it, because it’s true that with the famous actresses, one always says, there is a kind of hesitation… the connection to the other films which we had played before, so he made use of the references, and where there were no references, he would use, I want to say, our notoriety as actresses.

DP: However, he said there was some tension. He said “I forced myself to be neutral in order not to create an atmosphere of giving more privilege to one actress than another”.

CATHERINE: Maybe it was his feeling (Fanny laughs), but frankly we were like one. Maybe he had this feeling and it’s normal because he had to carry the film, moreover, he was the cameraman. The project belongs to him completely, so I think it was difficult for him, for us, but that’s the pleasure of being actresses (to Fanny), isn’t it? 

FANNY: Yes.

CATHERINE: One does what one has to do to make responsible decisions, to hold things together.

FANNY: And I think that the perversity of François had, he was very well aware of this aspect, the cliché of electricity among a group of women in isolation.

CATHERINE: He had to be a little disappointed I think.

FANNY: Yes, it is like a boxing match, you always imagine that two men hate each other and that it’s part of the pleasure, but in fact…it wasn’t like that at all.

DP: Did you like to sing?

FANNY/CATHERINE: Yes.

CATHERINE: I think all the actresses liked to sing, all actors want to sing and it’s something so pleasant and so physical, so direct that everyone was very… I think all the actresses were very very happy that they could perform a song.

DP: There is a scene... one of the best scenes of the film…

CATHERINE: Ah, it is necessary to see the film.

DP: Where you had a dispute, then you hit each other, and then you finish by embracing on the carpet with a very torrid kiss.

FANNY: Really?

CATHERINE: It wasn’t me there.

DP: Oh yes.

FANNY: Me neither. (they laugh)

DP: Do you prepare specially for a scene like this one, it wasn’t so obvious.

CATHERINE: But...

DP: It’s true that 20 years ago there would have been a lot of talk. Today it’s more natural.

CATHERINE: In my opinion, there will be talk nevertheless, at least I hope so.

DP: I also think so.

CATHERINE:  Still, it's not exactly like this. It starts as a dramatic thing, then becomes violent and then the scene finishes with... It’s rather sensual.

DP: Much more than sensual.

CATHERINE: Really? How would you call it then?

DP: I don't know.

CATHERINE: Sexual? I don’t think so! (Fanny laughs)

DP: Almost?

CATHERINE: And then it finishes in comedy, because the daughters return and discover us, so it’s completely…

DP: Weren’t you a little bit apprehensive with a scene like that?

CATHERINE: Oh, I was very apprehensive.

FANNY: But as much to fight one another, because you have to know how to hit, and I was afraid I would hurt Catherine.

CATHERINE: Yes, because we are not professional stuntwomen, it’s a fear that you always have, to slap someone, for example, it’s horrible. In the movies, they often explain to you how to hold the gesture. It's always a terrible fear, the fear of hurting someone, while in real life, if it happens, it happens.

DP: Is it more complicated to do than a kiss?

CATHERINE: To slap? Oh yes, I prefer a kiss than a slap, anyway...in real life I prefer a kiss than a slap (Fanny laughs), really, it’s very difficult to be aggressive on command.

DP: Did you know each other? Have you ever filmed together?

FANNY: Never.

CATHERINE: We knew each other a little, but we had never filmed together, no.

FANNY:  But I didn’t know the other actresses, I had never played with any of them, and it was also part of the pleasure, because we see each other from a distance and all of a sudden we met in these circumstances, and I said to myself, I would like to get to know each of them more.

CATHERINE: I think the thing I would like to do is to make the film on location, I mean not in Paris. Then, we would meet together in the evening, sleep in the same hotel, it’s the pleasure of making a film outside Paris. In Paris, everyone has their own lives. I would like to learn a little bit more about each of them.

DP: If it’s as idyllic as what you describe, then you all want to become girlfriends?

CATHERINE: Ah, no, not to become girlfriends, but to get to know each other.

DP: To share a moment.

CATHERINE: To share a moment, but especially to get know each other better, that doesn’t mean to say to become girlfriends.

FANNY: But the making of a film is not like being in a television production. It lasts only two months and it’s very intense. There’s a beginning, a middle and an end, so there is a phenomenon like a big vacation, you have to make the most of it, because you know that you will not meet these people again. It’s not like in an office where you go every day and see the same faces. So there was a joy that was sort of fleeting, which one has to take good advantage.

DP: And in a word, when you saw the film on the screen during the first screening, did you rediscover the things that you lived through? 

CATHERINE: No, it was something else, I was a little surprised, and there was more comedy that I had not lived. It was also more extraordinary, you know, when you make the film during two months every day in the same setting, there are, inevitably, I would say, rather difficult moments. I knew the screenplay… I didn’t live through exactly the same thing as I experienced on the screen, and, fortunately, because there was wonderful editing, only the things that should be in the film have remained. But it’s a quintessence of what we have done. That’s what I like about the movies.

FANNY: The thing that always strikes me is the gap between a screenplay and each role played, precisely, by Catherine, Emmanuelle, Isabelle… I find that there is a story that is performed on the screen, that exactly belongs to those who embody it.

CATHERINE: It doesn’t change between the moment we read the screenplay and the making of it. And fortunately when the film arrives, it changes enormously.

DP: Thank you very much for accepting our invitation.

FANNY/CATHERINE: Thank you.

© FANNY ARDANT Online

Translated by Aleksandra Darsant

Edited by George Sand

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