For me, it was a wonderful surprise because I saw wonderful actors being very professional working in front of me [on Chicken with Plums]. I finally understood what an actor is and what an actor does. On a daily basis, it's a bit repetitive.

I love Apocalypse Now because it's a war movie, but yet it's not really a movie about war.

Once we were on the set, we each did different kinds of work. I was doing more the technical stuff, the framing and the camera work, and she was working more with the actors. Marjane [Satrapi] and I don't stop speaking once we're on the set. We continue to talk. We define what our roles are going to be on set, because to have a snake with two heads is silly.

We needed to have a great set decorator, a great D.P., a great costume designer, everybody. Without all these people, we would have made a shitty movie.

There are different kinds of passages in the movie [Chicken with plums]. One of the passages is like a sitcom and another is a bit more delicate and another is more bizarre, so you have to have people who know how to navigate that.

For me, it was a wonderful surprise because I saw wonderful actors being very professional working in front of me [on Chicken with Plums]. I finally understood what an actor is and what an actor does. On a daily basis, it's a bit repetitive.

We [with Marjane Satrapi] both have very strong personalities, but that's completely normal, because even if you're very well prepared, you never know when you shoot live action.