EMMANUELLE BEART

I have no TV, thank God. I haven't heard anything about Tom Cruise, except that he had a baby, I think.

We were raised without movies, theater or music. We had only nature, the hills, the trees. When I got on the set of 'Manon,' I wasn't star-struck because I didn't know what a star was.

I can't just react on the strength of an email and three pages of synopsis, and say I'm going to take off for three months of my life.

I don't give a damn about Hollywood.

For me, I don't feel it is a success in the career to be the pretty woman; career success comes from being characters who tell us something about the truth.

I feel better in my body now than when I was 20. Why not?

The body is an actor's tool, like the face, malleable. I never thought that being naked was immoral or outrageous.

I've just done a film in the United States. It's a thriller called 'A Crime', with Harvey Keitel, we play against each other, and it's so great to play in another language. But I'm definitely not American.

I am a voyager - and the voyage cannot mean that I stay at home.

I'm trying my best to keep my private life guarded. It's not easy at all. Non, non, non.

Of course I am political. You 'ave to be don't you? Every day it is about your future, your right to that future. 'Ow can people ignore this? We 'ave to leave a good world for our children, n'est-ce pas?

My looks haven't prevented me from playing prostitutes or people broken by life. But when they need a token blonde with big breasts, that's OK, too. It's part of the game.

I had my mouth done when I was 27. It was a botched job. Obviously, if I had liked my mouth I wouldn't have had it re-done.

I started acting without any vocation. I continued out of love.

There are a lot of films where I play characters that are about the windows to the interior person rather than the exterior.

My looks mean nothing to me. If anything, they are a hindrance.

Once I opened my eyes to the realities of life, I couldn't close them.

In Hollywood there's no real material. They would send me stuff, but I hadn't even seen the director. If I don't see the director's eyes, I'm not going. I'm not even going to pack my bags.

It is not easy to age in harmony with one's roles.

The body, in 'La Belle Noiseuse,' was the source of the artist's creativity.

If a man or woman has something redone it is because he or she can no longer live with that part of their body, it is no longer bearable. Either they get help and find the strength to fight or they proceed with the act.

Very often with an American movie, the end is very happy and you just feel good when you go out. When you go to a French movie, it's kind of like, oh!, and you can't go out; you're stuck in your chair. It goes so deeply inside of the heart.

I don't always see my movies right away. And there are some I haven't seen at all. Sometimes that bothers the directors, so I'm obliged to see them.

I just decided that I would not put my professional life on hold to raise children. I know that sounds selfish to a lot of people and I don't know if what I'm doing is the right thing. But that's the way I'm doing it.

When I'm playing a part, I can feel all my body playing it; it's like really making love.