Audrey Tautou
I never want to do the same things twice. I like surprises.
After each experience, you grow up, you get enriched with something, and you don't know how you're going to be in six months, you don't know what you're going to want, what you're going to need.
In France we have a law which doesn't allow the press to publish a photo that you didn't approve. It lets the paparazzi take the picture, but if they publish this picture, you have the choice to sue the newspaper. So me, I always sued them.
I don't know where I'm going to be in three years. Because I have the feeling that the future is so full of possibilities, to stop being an actress, to do something else... for me, the future is just a huge bunch of discoveries.
I'm not sure I'm quite ready to have someone be a prospector of jobs for me, because I believe there's some kind of destiny involved with meeting people... some things are just meant to happen.
People in France are very intrusive when they recognize you. In New York, they are very polite, with quick words, so it's great.
I wouldn't mind being in an American film for a laugh, but I certainly don't want to be in Thingy Blah Blah 3, if you know what I mean.
I've never really had a relationship with Hollywood. I've never had a desire to work there.
It might seem paradoxical given my profession, but I'm not someone who likes to be in the limelight.
I understand that we cannot make other people happy when they are unhappy.
I can be maternal with my friends.
When I was a teenager, I thought nothing would ever happen to me because my childhood was so normal. I had this complex of normality.
I've received some English-speaking scripts, but I was not interested in them.
I would love to occasionally do English-speaking films, but the script is as important for me as the director.
I'm not ready to do any compromises for my work.
I like the light that comes off metal shutters at siesta time in the summer, having a break from driving in the shops at motorway services, the odour of petrol at petrol stations, rolling down little slopes. I hate it when you tread in a puddle and the water soaks your socks.
When I was a little girl, I loved monkeys. I wanted to be a primatologist. I went to the careers office to ask how. Because nobody could give me a good answer, I opted for acting.
It's difficult to feel that people are looking at you in the street. I don't like the fuss.
Because I don't do five films a year, people maybe think that acting is not essential to my life. But if I worked any more than I do, I'd have no personal life.
I keep my wishes and dreams secret, like a child.
The Da Vinci Code' was a great experience and I was lucky to be chosen, but I don't like the pressure that goes with all these big things. I don't want to be any more famous at all.
I feel very French and I need my life here; I need all my friends and family.
I started off in this dreadful, vulgar film called 'The Libertine.' I was just learning. I needed the money.
I would like to work with people whose films I really like: Walter Salles, Woody Allen, Julio Medem.
I know what I'm worth as an actress: not the best in the world, but not bad either.
It was very difficult to go from relative anonymity to such huge success in such a short space of time.
Amelie' was a very precise, a very composed performance - ultra-defined, down to the tips of her fingernails, the ends of her hair.
I am not super-attached to my career.
I am always surprised to be chosen by a director for a role because I never understand why they like me.
When you look at the comedies that are out there, 99 per cent of the time, men are the heroes. It's often thought that a woman can't be funny, that women are supposed to be sexy, not funny.
I have several plan Bs: I want to become a sailor; I like to draw; I would love to learn many things, but I don't have time.
I like when an image could be just one of several others which would create a story. That you can imagine who are those people or what would happen before, what's going to be next; I like when there's a past and a future that we can imagine when we see photos.
I think for everybody celebrity, fame, is a dream. People see it as a blessing.
I think if I was less exigent with myself, maybe I would be more productive, because I would put less pressure on my shoulders.
Fame is more powerful than talent.
I think that when you have that really strong desire to work with someone it's because, instinctively, you feel you have a certain kinship.
In certain environments young adults can't choose their lives because of family pressure. In the bourgeoisie there is still a sense you will marry within that milieu.
I don't want to live in Los Angeles. The city depresses me! It is too flat. There are too many cars.
You are supposed to have a dream of walking the red carpet. But I'm really not like that. Because fame is... I don't think it is something interesting or precious.
What was weird for me after 'Amelie' was how people look at you. It moves all your relationships and sometimes even your intimate ones, and you don't understand why suddenly everything around you changes, because you are exactly the same person.
To have a personal life is the minimum freedom you have to give to a human being.
Some films are pure entertainment of course, but what interests me and what I want to do are projects that really make you think, that move you, that will bring you something that will stay with you for a while. I think films are essential to the intellectual awakening of people.
Art - be it painting, sculpture, music - they are all creations, they are creative acts. I consider a film, with everything that is involved in it, an art.
Charm is more valuable than beauty. You can resist beauty, but you can't resist charm.Collection: Beauty
I understand that nobody understands me, but I can't be someone I'm not.Collection: Understand Me
I think when you're an adult you start to like the very things that make you different. If you obsess about some defect, you make it obvious to everyone, and suddenly everyone is staring at just that defect. It's always like that. The more you hide something, the more it shows. But when you accept your defect, suddenly no one on earth sees it anymore.Collection: Thinking
It's so easy and comfortable to lie to yourself. Success is to become who you are. I think Hollywood thinks in a totally different way. But I think that as a human being, and not only an actress, that's really how you lead a successful life.Collection: Lying
What we wear is the shell of who we are.Collection: Shells
I really like to discover a new culture, a new country, a new rhythm of living. I really, really like that. I think that's the most enriching thing, for my nature, because I like the psychology of people.Collection: Country
I don't want to think my life as a career. I'm interested in my work only because of the meaning I can make.Collection: Thinking