A reporter told me it is very rare to see a woman of my age in the movies. Right! In the movies! But they have been for so long in very serious and important positions in life: scientists, prime ministers, candidates to be the president.

I grew up in a very open-minded family. My father died when I was very little, so my mother was really, really incredibly busy trying to provide for us.

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 always surprises me when I see the director's versions of films released separately, long after the film's theatrical run.

The way I see it, I belong to the film as any other department.

Today we find many actors, they are Latin, they are Hispanic, they are living in the Unites States, they are American, but very rarely you find them in a lead role.

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."