I tried to find a character and how I would be an American actress in the 30s. But if this was a talking movie [The Artist], I'm sure she would be exactly the same for me.

I connected very much with all the work of Joan Crawford because she started as a flapper. She used to dance and sing and she was very cute. She had something that was so different from what she is at the end of her life and she started in the silent movies and then went into the talkies.

In France, it's always about life, normal life. We always stick with these realistic things. So when French people are dreaming about American movies, they go and see the thrillers, and Westerns, and science fiction, huge entertaining movies.

As an actor, you think you have to go really far and deep and cry and yell to be good in a scene. Sometimes that's not the point.

For us, as actors, and even for the director, it gave us a sense of authenticity to what we were doing because we were talking about Hollywood and we were in Hollywood.

Here, you go to the supermarket and you have wipes to clean your hands before shopping. No, we don't have that in France, but we recycle.

Sometimes we had to improvise. I hate to improvise because I felt like I couldn't find words.