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How has your relationship with each other evolved over the years?
Julie Delpy: We have such a good work relationship, right from the first film when Richard (Linklater) asked us to do more than just being actors, and to write the screenplay together. That's when we realised that we really liked this process.
It's not just with Ethan (Hawke), either - really, we're more of a threesome *laughs* Erm, not like that! We really work as a three creative partner team. It's only got stronger and stronger over the years.
The first time we worked together, we were still getting to know each other, and you don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Now, we're such close comrades, it's created a really interesting relationship to the movie. Jesse and Celine have their own long-term relationship, but then so do Ethan, Julie and myself. We've got our own long-term relationship - it's, erm, creative - not the sexual stuff. *laughs*
But we can really goof around - we know each other so well. It just makes great collaboration. It's a fun process, but we're also really demanding of each other.
We push each other because we're like family, and when you have that kind of common acceptance for each other, then we can push each other.
Has the writing process evolved since Before Sunrise?
Delpy: It's a little bit different because of our lives - the first film, when we were in Vienna, it was new to us. The second film, we wrote a lot over the internet - I'd send them a first draft, then they added more stuff, then Ethan sent me four pages of monologue that I'd turn into a dialogue.
We just collaborated in a different way. With this film, it was a little different as our lives are different - I have a kid, I direct movies and I'm quite busy. I was totally not focused until I got to Greece and we were locked in that room for two months. It was a bit of a different process - we wrote a lot not with each other in the past, but in this one, we had to be together to write it, and that's good as it's reflective of a couple who's been together for some of their life.
Do you ever have disagreements on where the characters are at after such a long break?
Delpy: That's the first thing we did - back in 2010, we sat together and decided 'they are together'. At first we thought it'd be following their everyday life, but then we thought no, they are going to be on a holiday.
Do you try to fill in the gaps in your head for where the characters are at, before you all meet up?
Delpy: The back story is a big chunk of the work. Every actor, every writer has to do it, but here we have to do it so precisely, because in the film we need to know every detail - that a holiday didn't go well, that there was a summer where the kids were sick etc. A lot of the writing is figuring out what's happened, such as the resentments that have accumulated.
The whole fight scene in Before Midnight is about what's happened before the movie even started - you need to know the different levels of resentment - she doesn't let go of the fight, because she starts remembering mid-fight other resentments. If you watch the movie, the fight starts in the scene in the car. Then it's on pause, and it comes back - which is often the case in real life, sadly. He sets the ticking bomb in the car, and it explodes later. That's why she's not letting go.
How hard is it to make each scene feel so natural and realist?
Delpy: It takes weeks and weeks of writing the conversation to make it seem real - it's more work than any other film in the writing. Also, the acting is harder than any acting I've done before - because getting that super naturalism is the hardest thing to achieve for an actor.
That's why when we started Before Midnight , I was like 'oh no, not again' *laughs* I almost didn't show up in Greece because I thought 'I don't want to do this.' As an actor, it's really torture.
The shoot is very short so we have no margin for error. Going back to that acting style is painful. You need to find the right tone of not being melodramatic, because actors love to overact. When you're not allowed to do that, it's actually very difficult. Especially when every word is written, and you're not even allowed to change a comma.
Total Film: So there's no improv? You never go off-piste?
Delpy: Not a word, not a comma. That's why we spend two weeks after the writing process just rehearsing, both with and without each other. Usually we get someone to run lines with us. Almost like in a play - just run run run run run the lines, to make it feel natural.
What would you say is your favourite scene from Before Midnight?
Delpy: I like the argument scene - it's entertaining and funny. It's a hard scene to pull off, what with just thirty minutes of people talking. In a way it's the ideal argument - we wrote, rehearsed and acted it out. I wish sometimes in the middle of an argument that I have that level of capacity - not to snap and throw a plate on the floor because I don't know what to say anymore. *laughs* At least here we can rehearse - there's nothing better than a pre-written argument.
What's your favourite scene from the trilogy to date?
Delpy: I don't want to say the end of Before Sunset , because I wrote most of that scene, but... *laughs* I don't know. I do like the fight scene in Before Midnight . Because it's complex, and also because it's not a pleaser for people. In a way I like that scene more because it takes more risks, and it explores Celine.
To me, when someone tells me 'what a bitch' in that scene, well - if it's a man, I'm like 'you've never been with a woman. Obviously you've been dating girls 20 years younger than you and she's never said 'no' to you'. *laughs* And if it's a woman saying that, I think 'you've given up'.
That means a lot to me, that scene, because my character is not always friendly. She can be a bitch. But she has to be - otherwise she'll give up her career and her dreams. I love that scene because it's not a cute scene. It's funny and it's dark and it's not cute - and I like that.
Do you see Before Midnight's ending as positive or negative?
Delpy: I know it's hope, but it's just the beginning of another stage. It's like 'ok, we stay together but…'. Relationships and making it work, it's a tough balance - that someone doesn't give up everything. Sadly, often, one person gives up a lot, and - not to be feminist, but it's often the woman.
Do you have any plans for the next 'Before' movie?
Delpy: I have no idea. We don't even start discussing it until five or six years after the last one finishes! We only finished filming the last one a few months ago! *laughs* For me, it's like, if it's done, I'm happy. But while the films are always an intense period of work, it obviously works.
You've been working together for over 20 years now - can you remember your initial impressions of each other?
Delpy: Richard, I remember someone very laid back - and he still is! Ethan, I remember being very different. They both have very different energies! I'd say, Ethan was a little cockier than he is now. *laughs*
He wasn't as nice when he was in his early 20s, but then neither was I! *laughs* Richard has been very much the same over the years. He's been steadily the same - and Ethan's evolved for the best.
