TMS Muse of the Week: Julie Delpy
(Columbia Pictures)
When respected independent filmmaker Richard Linklater started production on his classic romantic comedy, Before Sunrise (1995), he was fresh off his sleeper hits Slacker (1991) and Dazed and Confused (1993). Ethan Hawke seemed like a natural fit for Richard’s style, but who would be the female lead? Columbia Pictures naturally considered some of the usual starlets at the time. Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Aniston. Maybe Julia Roberts? But the actress who ultimately won the role of Céline was Julie Delpy. Even in 1995, I’m sure American film viewers were thinking, “Who?” The blonde came from a French showbiz family; and was already collaborating with legendary French New Wave writer-director Jean-Luc Godard on the artsy Détective (1985) and King Lear (1987) by the time she was a teenager. She appeared with French film stars Juliette Binoche and Denis Lavant in Leos Carax’s Mauvais Sang (1986), co-starred in Roger Avary’s Killing Zoe (1993) and Stephen Herek’s The Three Musketeers (1993) in Hollywood, and portrayed the protagonist in White (1994) of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colours trilogy. But again, most viewers outside of Europe probably had at most a vague awareness of who Julie Delpy was.
While obviously not a huge box-office hit, both Richard and Ethan were critical darlings and on the radars of film aficionados enough for Before Sunrise to do well. Columbia must not have been worried about the film’s success either, since neither star was a household name at the time. As a millennial, my first thought when I watched Before Sunrise was Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation (2003); but with two strangers roaming Vienna instead of Tokyo, and who are roughly the same age rather than having a noticeable age difference.
(Fabrice Lévêque)
Like with Translation, Sunrise depends on how much chemistry the leads have, and fortunately, Ethan and Julie have a ton. So much that fans were pleasantly surprised when the pair and Richard reunited for Before Sunset (2004) a decade later. This time Julie and Ethan contributed to the script. The trio gave it a third go with Before Midnight (2013), and all three received Best Adapted Screenplay nominations at the Oscars for Sunset and Midnight. Ethan and Julie also made cameos as their Before characters in Richard’s animated Waking Life (2001), and three songs on the Before Sunset soundtrack were written and performed by Julie. In between the trilogy, the actress co-starred in Anthony Waller’s An American Werewolf in Paris (1997), Jamie Babbit’s But I’m a Cheerleader (1999), Jim Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers (2005), had a recurring role on season 8 of NBC’s “ER” (2001), and made a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance in Joss Whedon’s Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). Her own stint as a director includes the indie films 2 Days in Paris (2007) and 2 Days in New York (2012); and she became a mother to son, Leo, in 2009 with former boyfriend, film composer Marc Streitenfeld.
To me, Julie fits into film history like a blend of classic star Ingrid Bergman and modern day Scarlett Johansson. Her forte is arthouse material, but she’s not afraid to work within the major studios either. Most recently she starred in, directed, produced and wrote the Netflix mini-series “On the Verge” (2021) and was the female lead in Alice Troughton’s mid-budget drama The Lesson last month. Julie is the perfect mix of lowkey and legendary. Even if Céline’s time as a character has passed, I’m glad her actress still gets to shine on.