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I like acting with other people. I like the circulation of other actors, the knowledge that the better they are, the better we all are together, the better the film will be. I'm much, much more interested in a small part in a good project than a big part in a bad one.

I try to do things which I would like to go and see at the cinema. My starting point isn't my character but the project as a whole. A film is an adventure, a script, a director, casting, a variety of things. A really good part in a script I don't like or a director with whom I have no rapport - I'm not going to go there. A film takes time; there's the shoot which you're totally immersed in, then the film comes out and you have to talk about it and support it. It's much easier with a film you like. Of course, you can be disappointed with the end product and you can disappoint the director. But that's all part of the job.

I've been lucky to make a lot of films, to work with very talented directors. But it was the first movie I made, Die amerikanische Nacht (1973) by François Truffaut, that allowed me to discover cinema and made me love cinema. I was working toward a career in theatre rather than in film. But with Truffaut, working on a story about a film shoot, it was magical. It was a very important moment in my career. That said, a career is something that is built little by little. It's like a puzzle, with new pieces added to older ones. There is not one role that will forever be the most important role of my life. It's an ensemble of work.

[on Das grüne Zimmer (1978)] It was an important film for me professionally but not in terms of popularity because it wasn't a commercial success. But a lot of directors saw the film and it was both my first dramatic role and my first lead role.