You can keep yourself alive. That's the magic of being an actor.

We did receive some questions about the film's [Aquarius] sexuality in Cannes, but they came from the press rather than audiences.

Sônia Braga reacted in a beautiful way to the draft I sent her, so we just made the film ["Aquarius"] as I had written it. Emilie [Lesclaux], my wife and producer, told me, "This is not a two-hour film. This is going to be longer." And I said, "Well, let's try and make it work, whatever length it is."

It's so sad to me [see the director's versions of films] because it shows how the filmmaker never got to make the film he had originally envisioned. You watch it and go, "Oh my god, he had to cut that scene! I can't believe it."

Everybody else is going to react differently to the film [Aquarius], but what I love about it is that both men and women are going to react to it because they will find themselves represented.

Nobody who comes out of the movie [Aquarius] focuses on those [sexual] scenes, because they are not the heart of the film. They are a consequence of the story, but I don't remember hearing audiences talking about them afterward. They came out discussing themes of resistance, history and memory. They're talking about the beauty of the self and how it can become demolished.

I'm scared of rehearsals, I'm scared of doing all this because I don't feel like I'm an actress.