The character is important, of course, but I like when there's intelligence in a movie. I like when it's, how do you say, sensible. So for me a film is very subjective, and it's a point of view. I like to be brought into a world of a director.

Making movies in France is different, but it's still acting, you know. You still have doubts and you're scared, always, but I really love doing films in America, because I love to speak English. But I think there's something very entertaining about American films. But I also like the intimacy of French films.

I went to Berlin for a year and a half, and that's where I learned about culture and art and everything. Before that, I lived in total absence of culture. I come from a house where there was nothing like reading or art.

In America, you don't have to be weak, you have to be strong.

Actually, I started to become an actress because I met someone who was just a friend and I found his life wonderful, I thought, Oh my god, you can travel, you're free, you can do what you want, you're the boss. And then I met an actor and I was in love with him.

I think that nudity is beautiful. Sometimes it can be awful, but when it's beautiful? Cinema is the art about reality; it's art from reality. In French we say l'art de la realite. You show reality, so you have to show bodies.

I am about life. I surround myself with beautiful things. I work hard to have a better life. This job helps me achieve that through the people I meet. I'm lucky - not to have been a cover girl - but to have been able to meet all these people, to live these adventures and travel so comfortably. But despite that, it's still difficult. Nothing comes easily. Everything I've earned is down to me, and no one else.