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So do you guys think that nine years from now, there will be another Celine and Jesse movie?
a recuperating Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, and director Richard Linklater are asked.
Credit: Emilie De La Hosseraye
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Ill start with the biggest question or the second biggest question.
Its always the best people who are the most courteous and shy anddontmake the move.
Because those are the kinds of guys that women should spend more time with.
It was a call-back in New York, and I just saw the way they looked at each other.
And theyre both very verbal.
And they had a natural chemistry; they looked great together.
It was so hard to pull off.
But he was intrigued with that challenge, I guess.
Can a film with two people just talking be a movie?
We were a film that was barely financed.
Fortunately, Castle Rock got behind it, and we did it for 2-point-something million.
I was like, Yeah Ithinkwere going to make it.
I was thinking that could work.
Its one of the better cities in Texas just to walk around in.
So I think that was a down-and-dirty version, and that wouldve been a European view of that city.
So it kind of switched and became an American view of the European travel experience.
It couldve gone either way.
But it was based on an experience of mine in 89.
But in early 90, I kind of left the country for the first time with my first film.
And the local government was really cool; they kind of wanted us there.
It all kind of worked out the way it should.
Just the stories we were biting off.
I mean, the first ones more traditional, in that its one night basically in their lives.
Its structured a little more typically.
Making the second film a real-time movie kind of meant you couldnt cut anything out.
So the whole film had to work like a play.
I couldnt just drop a scene.
So that was difficult, and our shooting schedules got shorter.
The first one we shot in about 25 days.
The second one was like in 15 days.
People dont really make movies about that.
[Laughs] It was just a thematic challenge that was really, really draining.
The film doesnt look like it but I think its the toughest film I ever did.
That was just the only way it was going to work.
We had to be together.
No, that was in our outline.
Im a big believer in structure, and we had that endpoint.
We were working towards that the whole time.
But in a rehearsal, Julie was talking about seeing Nina Simone in concert.
And she sort of described what you see in that scene.
That would seal the deal, seeing her saunter.
And I said, Thatsthe end of the movie.
And Julie didnt want to do it!
She was so self-conscious.
She was like, Oh no, I cant do it.
[Laughs] But I had to twist her arm.
My music supervisor Randy Poster finally pulled a rabbit out of a hat.
Because we really wanted that song.
That one got down to the wire.
Them being Jesse and Celine.Its like meeting old friends.
To have the front-row seat to Jesse and Celine, kicking it back, it was very fun.
The three of you have grown up together through these films.
In a way, youre more relaxed with your talent.
Youre more in charge with your talent.
Some go the other way: some quit trying and the proverbial phoning-it-in kind of thing.
But if youre working with artists, people who give a s, its a wonderful thing.
you’re able to push yourself to some new level.
Thats what anyones trying to do.
So I feel like we were all 20 years better.
We were there to use whatever mileage and scar tissue weve all acquired.
We were going to play with all that: how youre different, how youre the same.
That was kind of the quest.
But then the person whose idea it was was like, You know what?
Thats actually too close to the bone for me.
Its a little too personal.
Have you ever had to draw something back?Never.
Thats kind of the beauty of our collaboration.
We always find a way.
Itll become something else a little bit.
[Laughs] Well just say it came from someone else.
No ones ever [nixed an idea this way].
We really push each other.
No ideas that way.
Its a pretty bold, risky thing.
Because it really does reflect back.
Youve got to work harder.
Its not like some victory-lap sequel.
Jack Black and Mike White and I, there was talk of aSchool of Rocksequel.
And we are just like, Well, you cant just do it to do it.
Youve got to have a great idea.
And nothing ever really jelled.
Youve got to have something really gnawing at you, a reason to do it.
I kind of reinvented myself in some strange way.
It pointed in some new direction, I guess.
The experimental nature of the film, thats its own thing.
But I was also just having to think, What kind of films do I want to make?
What am I doing as a filmmaker?
And that film itself, I always thought of it as my own little cinematic fever dream.
It really did kick off some other things.
I have to admit I have mixed feelings about this Criterion set.
On one hand, its amazing and beautiful and Im so glad to have it in my collection.
And that would make me sad.We dont think of it that way at all.
No ones ruling out a quadrilogy or sextology, or whatever.
We just dont know.
Theres just no way of predicting.
You know, watching them backwards.
Thats one way to do it.
Or just watch them one after another; have your own mini-marathon.
So its kind of good to just make that easy for people.
It just didnt end up that way.
For about the first year of us talking about it, it was set in the U.S.
It was about domesticity, but then we made the leap to a different setting.
But I dont know.
Really, were a complete blank slate as far as what can be next.
The joke is that it takes all these years to recover.
We dont want to think about it.
It takes us five years to forget.
Ultimately, each one of these films is optimistic when it comes to matters of the heart.
Some people say, Oh they fight and the last one is not so romantic.
Thats a good sign.
Obviously, theyre both heavyweights when it comes to verbal dexterity and trying to win their own point.
Theyre both pretty good manipulators, Jesse and Celine.
So they end up in these tug-o-wars, and there are some faults in their relationship.
Its almost unavoidable, but if theyre willing to kind of work around that…
I see it as optimistic.
