How would you define the universe of Agnès Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri?
Agnès and Jean-Pierre truly make films about characters, on the question of how best to deal with situations life throws up, how to find oneself and how to find others. I like the humanity of their filmmaking; the place they give to how your heart beats faster, how you breathe, the feelings of those around you. Each of the characters is taken on an eventful journey that is thrown off course by meeting the others. Time is very marked in their writing. It’s fascinating to see how a phrase said by one character will change the life of the person it is directed at. It’s in these moments, inscribed in the script, that the character hears the words of the other person and is then transformed.

How would you describe Stéphane, your character?
Stéphane has hit 40, but he’s still a young man with precise ideas on what a successful life should be. He wants to give a framework to his life; he’s reined in his desires a great deal. That’s what makes him touching, mainly in his relationship with his wife. Agnès and I decided that they’d been together since the end of adolescence and theirs is still a childish relationship. Stéphane wants to be mothered and reassured by Florence and at the same time, he’s the one reassuring and supporting her. Florence is like a moth that is constantly smashing against the light. She burns her wings and goes back again. Stéphane is like an anchor in her life; her port in a storm. I am lucky enough to have already worked with Pascale Arbillot in the theater in “Hedda Gabbler”, directed by Polanski. The intimacy created during that play helped us a lot to be this couple whose relationship is definitely indestructible.

...and at the same time, a little regressive. Florence ends up enfolded in Mimouna’s arms at the end of the film.
More than regression, it’s a reassuring relationship that Florence needs. Granted, Stéphane’s character is very ungrateful; he’s a bastard – he’s like a lot of men out there. But he’s not seeking to hold Florence back. Perhaps he’s realized she had a lover? He says nothing and its more interesting that way. When you play a character like Stéphane, you have to be his advocate and not judge him. You have to forget yourself and get into his head with a lot of sincerity to try and really exist, and make him as human as possible. I wanted to reveal the hidden faults behind his apparent rigidity, behind the codes he’s created and which he no doubt partially inherited.

How did the shoot go?
Jean-Pierre and Agnès have backgrounds in theater and I felt we were part of the same family; that there was a legitimacy in working together. There was a kind of team spirit reigning among the actors and with the crew. We were all making the same movie, telling the same story and acting the same script. There was a deep concentration, everybody was very open and at the same time, it was very relaxed.

What did you think when you saw the movie?
I felt pretty strange, very emotional. With your consent, Agnès steals part of you. When you see the movie, you don’t really know if it’s you on the screen or your character. Agnès steals your soul in the most gentlemanly manner!