It takes a lot to silence Julie Delpy. But while long known for her candor, she’s steering clear of hot topics while promoting “Lolo,” out March 11, a comedy she stars in, wrote and directed.
Back in January, the French-born spitfire was pilloried for saying at Sundance that “women can’t talk. I sometimes wish I were African-American, because people don’t bash them afterward.” Sample reaction, from Spike Lee: “Black people don’t get bashed in the media? Where’s she from? France?”
Delpy now lets her actions speak for themselves by claiming full control of her career.
When it comes to the issues facing women in Hollywood, the 46-year-old tells The Post: “There comes a time when other people need to take care of it.”
Who, exactly? “The studios, people who have power and money need to rally,” she says.
Delpy started acting in France at 14, when she was discovered by director Jean-Luc Godard. She was nominated for a couple of Césars — the French film industry’s most important awards — before the Martin Scorsese fan left, at 19, for NYU to study filmmaking. In 1995 she appeared in Richard Linklater’s “Before Sunrise,” opposite Ethan Hawke. She landed Oscar noms for co-writing the trilogy’s second and third entries.
Ever candid, she’s been open about being sexually harassed by movie pros when she was a teen.
“I was propositioned, but nothing ever came out of it,” she says. “People knew where I stood. It doesn’t happen anymore, I guarantee you,” she adds, laughing. “And I’m the one doing the casting now — but don’t worry, [‘Lolo’ co-star] Karin Viard didn’t sleep with me!”
For the male leads in her films, Delpy has cast stand-ups like Chris Rock, who played her boyfriend in “2 Days in New York” — and she supplied his material.
“Some people would tell me, ‘That was such a Chris Rock joke,’ and I said that I wrote it,” she says. “It’s funny, people seem to think that a woman can’t understand a man’s humor.”
With six movies under her directorial belt and “Lolo” a hit in France, Delpy, who lives in Los Angeles with her 6-year-old son, is on surer footing than ever. She’s in talks with HBO for a graphic-novel adaptation, and continues to act for others — she just finished Todd Solondz’s “Wiener-Dog.”
Through it all, she keeps to heart advice she received from the late Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski, with whom she made three films in the ’90s. “He said I had to make movies that feel like me,” Delpy says. “There’s no point in copying someone else: You just have to follow your own path.”
Delpy introduces screenings at Lincoln Center’s Rendez-Vous With French Cinema on March 8 and 9; filmlinc.org