Eva Green – back in France

The film focuses on successful novelist Delphine (Emmanuelle Seigner who soon starts receiving anonymous letters accusing her of exposing her family to the public. Suffering from depression and writer's block, Delphine meets and begins a romance with a mysterious younger woman (Eva Green) who understands Delphine better than anyone else.
Eva Green talks about her role in the film, sexual harassment and the director Polanski.

“Based on a true story” , by Roman Polanski, is your first French film since 2004. You are perceived as a French actress who works in Hollywood 
That’s an illusion. By the way, most of the American films I have played in were shot in London, where I live. There has never been anything deliberate.

So you are not disenchanted with French cinema? 
No, even if French cinema may have thought I snubbed it. I say to myself, in retrospect, that if I did make known my desire to shoot in France earlier, it was to mark a distance with my mother (actress Marlene Jobert).

What made you decide to do this movie? 
Polanski sends you a screenplay, which is written by Olivier Assayas … how not to read it? But it was also the rare opportunity of a film built on a relationship between two women, with a fuzzy character, ghostly ... You never know if this girl exists, even I don’t know – she may not be a projection. I had to be all that Delphine (Seigner) is missing. I worked a very particular diction, I speak a little like a book, like an inner voice.

You joined a filmmaker and his wife on the set. How did you find a place in this equation? 
At first I worried there would be creates favouritism or tension but it was the opposite. Polanski treats everyone the same way, from the technicians to the star.

The film is based on Emmanuelle Seigner and you. Did you know each other?
Absolutely not. First day, first scene, Roman asks me to push her to the end, to dominate her. And then, we make the film in two, mirroring, wedging one on the other, in a fusional way.

Your mother spoke about the Weinstein affair, revealing that he had harassed you ... 
I did not know that my mother intended to speak. (Silence.) It's very difficult to talk about that. It is positive that women have finally managed to make themselves heard on this subject. On Harvey Weinstein, it’s a little late. But the subject is larger, and if women are heard in all the professional circles, maybe we can put an end to harassment. As far as I’m concerned, I’m not going into details, not here, not now.

Did you expect this total fall from grace? 
Everyone knew it in the trade. And I’m glad it happens. It is an abuse of power. He is a sick person.

Roman Polanski himself is accused of rape, dating back to the 1970s. Does that complicate your position? 
No. Because he has always been very correct with me. That’s why I can face the promotion for this film. I did not forbid any questions . I do not try to defend him, I just know he has always behaved with me with great kindness.